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Workflow Guide: Lead Qualification and Routing

This guide walks you through building a HubSpot workflow that qualifies inbound leads through a WhatsApp Flow form and routes them to the right team member or nurture sequence based on their responses.

 

What This Workflow Does

When a new lead arrives, whether from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, a QR code on marketing material, a website form, or a manual enquiry, the workflow sends a short qualification form via WhatsApp. The lead answers a few targeted questions (budget, timeline, company size, needs) and their responses are written back to HubSpot as structured contact properties. The workflow then scores and routes the lead automatically: high-value leads go straight to a sales rep, mid-value leads enter a nurture sequence, and leads needing immediate help are handed to a Breeze Customer Agent for an AI-assisted conversation.

What You Will Need

  • A Flowella account connected to your HubSpot portal
  • A WhatsApp Flow template for lead qualification (budget, timeline, company size, primary need)
  • Lead scoring set up in HubSpot (optional but recommended)
  • Sales team members configured as HubSpot users with owner assignments
  • A Breeze Customer Agent configured in HubSpot (optional, for AI handoff)

Step 1: Create Your Qualification Form

Create a HubSpot form with fields that map to your qualification criteria. Adapt these to your business:

  • What are you looking for? — dropdown: your product or service categories
  • What is your approximate budget? — dropdown: ranges appropriate to your business (e.g. Under £5k, £5k–£15k, £15k–£50k, Over £50k)
  • What is your timeline? — dropdown: Immediately, Within 1 month, Within 3 months, Just exploring
  • How many people are in your team/company? — dropdown: 1–10, 11–50, 51–200, 200+
  • What is the best way to reach you? — dropdown: WhatsApp, Phone call, Email

In the Flowella app, connect this form and generate a WhatsApp Flow template. Keep the tone conversational: "To help us point you in the right direction, could you answer a few quick questions?"

Step 2: Create the Workflow

In HubSpot, go to Automations > Workflows and create a new Contact-based workflow.

Set the Trigger

The trigger depends on how leads arrive:

Option A: Flowella Form Completed (from Click-to-WhatsApp ad or QR code) If leads initiate contact via a WhatsApp entry point (Click-to-WhatsApp ad, QR code, or wa.me link), you may already have a welcome Flow that captures initial details. Use Flowella: WhatsApp Forms Integration: Form Completed as the trigger, filtering by the specific welcome form name.

Option B: Contact property change Trigger when a contact's lifecycle stage changes to "Lead" or "Marketing Qualified Lead", or when a lead source property is set.

Option C: Flowella Text Reply If leads arrive by messaging your WhatsApp number directly, trigger on Flowella: WhatsApp Forms Integration: Text Reply and use this workflow to send the qualification form.

Option D: Enrolment from another workflow If leads are captured via web forms or other channels, enrol them from the relevant workflow once their WhatsApp number is known.

Step 3: Send the Qualification Form

Add a Send WhatsApp Template action (Flowella).

Configure:

Field Value
Contact Phone Number WhatsApp phone number property
Template Name Your qualification Flow template
Template Variable 1 First Name

If you have additional context (e.g. which product they enquired about), include it as a template variable to personalise the form introduction.

Step 4: Wait for the Response

Add a Delay until event occurs action:

  • Event: Flowella: WhatsApp Forms Integration: Form Completed
  • Maximum wait time: 24 hours

For lead qualification, 24 hours is usually sufficient. Leads that do not respond within this window are likely lower intent.

Step 5: Branch on the Response

Add a Branch action: Whether or not the event criteria were met.

Path A: Form Completed

The lead completed the qualification form. Now route them based on their answers.

Add an If/then branch based on the qualification properties. Here is a three-tier example:

Tier 1: High-Value Lead (Sales-Ready) Criteria: Budget is Over £15k AND Timeline is "Immediately" or "Within 1 month"

  1. Set contact property — Lifecycle Stage to "Sales Qualified Lead"
  2. Set contact property — Lead Status to "New"
  3. Create deal — in the appropriate pipeline with the lead's details
  4. Set deal property — Amount based on budget range, pipeline stage to "Qualification"
  5. Assign contact owner — use round-robin assignment or territory-based routing
  6. Send internal notification — alert the assigned sales rep via email and/or Slack
  7. Send WhatsApp Message — "Thanks, . One of our team will be in touch shortly to discuss how we can help."
  8. Create task — for the sales rep to contact the lead within 1 hour

Tier 2: Mid-Value Lead (Nurture) Criteria: Budget is £5k–£15k OR Timeline is "Within 3 months"

  1. Set contact property — Lifecycle Stage to "Marketing Qualified Lead"
  2. Send WhatsApp Message — "Thanks for sharing that, . We'll send you some relevant information over the coming days. In the meantime, feel free to reply here if you have any questions."
  3. Enrol in workflow — move the contact into a nurture workflow that sends relevant content via WhatsApp and email over the following weeks
  4. Optional: assign a contact owner for future follow-up

Tier 3: Early-Stage or Unclear (AI Handoff) Criteria: Budget is Under £5k OR Timeline is "Just exploring" OR the responses do not clearly fit Tier 1 or 2

  1. Set contact property — Lifecycle Stage to "Lead"
  2. Send WhatsApp Message — "Thanks, . Let me connect you with our assistant who can answer any questions you might have right now."
  3. Assign to Customer Agent — hand the conversation to a Breeze Customer Agent. The AI agent will respond to the lead directly in WhatsApp, answering questions from your knowledge base and helping them understand your offering.
  4. Set contact property — Lead Status to "AI Engaged"

The AI handoff is particularly powerful here because early-stage leads often have questions that do not warrant a sales rep's time but still benefit from an immediate, helpful response. The Customer Agent can qualify them further through conversation and, if the lead's intent increases, a subsequent workflow can escalate them to a human.

Path B: Form Not Completed

The lead did not respond within 24 hours.

  1. Send WhatsApp Message — "Hi , we sent over a few quick questions to help us understand what you're looking for. If you'd prefer to chat instead, just reply here and we'll get back to you."

  2. Delay until event occurs — Flowella: Text Reply (max 48 hours)

  3. Branch on reply:

    • If reply received: Assign to Customer Agent to handle the conversation. The AI agent can attempt to gather qualification information conversationally.
    • If no reply: set Lead Status to "Unresponsive" and end. Optionally, enrol in a long-term email nurture as a fallback.

Step 6: Review and Activate

Before activating:

  • Test each qualification tier with sample data to verify routing
  • Confirm deal creation populates the correct pipeline and stage
  • Verify contact owner assignment rules (round-robin, territory, etc.)
  • Test the Customer Agent handoff to ensure the AI responds appropriately in WhatsApp
  • Check that internal notifications reach the right team members

Workflow Diagram

Trigger: New lead arrives
    │
    ▼
Send WhatsApp Template (Qualification Flow)
    │
    ▼
Delay until: Form Completed (max 24 hours)
    │
    ├── Form completed ────────────────────────┐
    │                                           │
    │   Branch on qualification criteria        │
    │   ├── High-value: SQL + deal + assign     │
    │   │   rep + notify + task                 │
    │   ├── Mid-value: MQL + nurture workflow   │
    │   └── Early-stage: assign to AI agent     │
    │                                           │
    └── Form not completed ───────────────────┐
                                               │
        Send follow-up message                 │
        Delay until: Text Reply (max 48 hours) │
        ├── Reply → assign to AI agent         │
        └── No reply → "Unresponsive" + end    │

Tips for This Workflow

Keep the qualification form short. Four to five questions is the maximum for a WhatsApp Flow. If you need more detail, let the sales rep or AI agent gather it in conversation.

Align your tiers with your sales process. The example above uses three tiers, but you may need more or fewer depending on your business. The key is that each tier has a clear, automated next step.

Use the Customer Agent strategically. The AI handoff is not a dumping ground for unwanted leads. It is a way to provide immediate, helpful engagement to leads who are not yet ready for a sales conversation. Monitor the AI's conversations and refine your knowledge base to improve its effectiveness.

Track conversion by source. If leads arrive from multiple channels (ads, QR codes, website), use the Source property from the Flowella form trigger to track which channels produce the highest-quality leads.

Re-qualify over time. Leads who were early-stage today may become sales-ready in a few months. Build a re-qualification workflow that periodically sends an updated qualification form to leads in your nurture sequences.