As you chat to a lead you’ll begin to build a picture of who they are, what kind of company they work for, what problems they may be facing and how your business can help. Here’s how your team can qualify your leads and stay focused on the biggest opportunities.

When an unknown visitor gets in touch with your team, they’ll automatically become a lead. And we’ll create a live profile for them, which will appear alongside their conversation when using the Inbox. You’ll see basic information about them, like their browser language and when they last visited your site.

Within each lead’s profile, you’ll see a customizable qualification section too. This allows your sales team to define and collect important information about your leads.

By default, you’ll see the following user and company qualification data:

It’s easy to change the qualification data that appears in your lead’s profile to suit your business needs. First, sit down with your sales team and define the key details that will help you convert your leads into users.

For example, maybe it’s vital for your sales team to know your lead’s job title, whether they work for of a B2B or B2C company, the make of their car, etc. You can literally add any data you need to qualify them. 😄

It’s easy to create new custom qualification data to capture the important details your sales team needs to progress your leads.

Click on Add data. Then, select Create new data.

Next, choose if your new data applies to people or companies, name your data and select its format. It’s also good practice to give your data a description, so your team can easily see its definition and purpose:

You can format your data as text, a number, decimal number, true or false statement, date or list:

A list allows you to input from a list of options. If your leads usually fit into two business models, like ‘B2B’ or 'B2C’, you could have those options to quickly qualify the leads.

Once you’ve set up the right data, you can manually add information to your lead’s profile as you chat to them.

To change or add data, simply click on the qualification attribute like below.

It can sometimes be tricky to stay personal and friendly, while promptly getting the information you need. Here’s how to strike that balance:

It’s a good rule of thumb to only ask a lead question after you’ve given them a new piece of information. Always answer one question, before asking another. When your lead receives genuine help, they’ll be more receptive to answering your questions.

Your leads are tight on time, so make every question count. Only ask questions that help you understand what your lead needs and whether they’re a good fit for your business. Each answer you receive should help you add new qualification data to your lead’s profile.

It’s also important to only ask your leads for details they’ll be comfortable giving you over chat. If you’d like to know your lead’s revenue, for example, give them a multiple choice of ranges, instead of asking for one figure.

While efficiency is key, don’t lose sight of your lead’s needs. Whenever you ask a lead a question, let them know how answering it will help them. They’ll be more likely to provide an informative answer when they know it will help them get what they need.

Remember, your leads are human too. Be friendly and conversational and avoid business-like robotic language. Use emojis, stickers and gifs often - people will appreciate your warm tone and will be more likely to continue the conversation.

If someone’s not a good fit for your product, be upfront about it. Don’t try to sell them a solution that’s not for them; they’ll quickly churn. Instead, be transparent about the limitations of your product. This will save your sales team time, allowing you to focus on more promising opportunities. People will also trust your business more, and appreciate your honesty.

Once you successfully get a lead to sign up for your product they’ll become a user and they’ll get a user profile. All of the information you’ve gathered about them is carried over, and you can continue to qualify them.