WhatsApp CRM · Freelancers & Agencies
Every open quotation, on one board, with its value on it
Written for how freelancers & agencies actually work
For the solo freelancer doing web, design, ads or SEO from one laptop, and for the two-to-eight person studio where the founder is still the only person answering sales chats.
Web and design projects typically run one to six weeks; marketing and SEO retainers run in months and are more common with international clients than local ones. After a quotation, a nudge around day three with something to look at works better than a chase, then a lighter one around day ten, then a clean "keep this open or close it?" message. Local and international clients need different pacing: time zones stretch every exchange by a day.
There is a real run-up from around October to December as businesses want a new site or rebrand before the December season and before year-end budgets close, and a mini surge in January and February when the year is being planned. Things slow around Avurudu in April.
A normal day in your inbox
- hi, can you build a website for a shop?
- can you send a quotation, simple business site
- how much for a logo
- my budget is only Rs. 15,000, can you do it within that
- my friend said his friend does this, so is your price different
- do you have a portfolio I can see
- is domain and hosting included in that price
- do I need to pay an advance? how much
- I said I'd send the content, so what now, when is the site going live
Where the deals leak
- Enquiry
- Scope agreed
- Quotation sent
- Advance paid
- In production
- Revision rounds
- Delivered
- Final payment
Silence after the quotation. Not because the price was wrong, but because nothing in the quotation told the buyer what happens if they pay and don't like the result.
A couple choosing a photographer can look at an album. A solar buyer can at least line up panel brands and warranties. Your buyer cannot inspect the deliverable before it exists, and mostly cannot judge it afterwards either. What they can judge is whether there is a middle step or whether it is pay-everything-then-hope. The second leak is quieter: the day the final invoice clears, the relationship ends, and the trust you spent weeks building gets spent on nothing.
A board that matches your job
Sort the Quotation sent column by deal value and work the top of it first. A lumpy month is usually two stalled quotations you stopped looking at, not a lack of enquiries.
Stage 1
Enquiry
Price or portfolio ask, nothing scoped yet.
Stage 2
Scope agreed
Pages, deliverables, who supplies content and how many revision rounds are settled.
Stage 3
Quotation sent
Number is out with the scope attached. Put the deal value on the card here.
Stage 4
Advance paid
Work has started and the first checkpoint is dated.
Stage 5
In production
Design comps, build, revisions. Flag anything waiting on the client's content.
Stage 6
Delivered
Handover done. The maintenance and referral conversation belongs here, not nowhere.
Tags worth having
- Website
- Logo / brand
- Ads
- SEO
- Waiting on content
- Revision round 2
- International client
- Retainer candidate
Set it up once
Everything below happens inside WhatsApp Web, on the number you already use. No API, no new inbox.
Add InboxCRM to Chrome- 1
Ask three questions before any number
Save a quick reply that asks how many pages, whether logo and photos exist, and who is writing the content. Sending a price range first makes the number the whole conversation, and asking the buyer to self-scope does not work: they genuinely do not know what a website needs.
- 2
Send the scope as a message, not just a figure
Keep a template that lists what is included, how many design comps come first, and when the build starts. Use the text formatter for bold headings and a clean list so it reads as a document rather than a paragraph. This is the de-risking the quotation itself never does.
- 3
Explain the advance as protection for both sides
Have a saved reply that says the advance buys them a design draft to approve before the build begins, so they are not paying the full amount for something they have not seen. Almost nobody says this out loud, and the fear of being ghosted after paying is the biggest silent objection in this trade.
- 4
Put deal values on cards and read the funnel
Add the quoted amount to each card, then use the sales funnel report to see where projects actually stop: at enquiry, after the quotation, or after the advance. Guessing which stage is leaking is how people spend a month fixing a problem they do not have.
- 5
Tag the projects waiting on the client
A "Waiting on content" tag with the date you asked turns a future argument into a fact. When the timeline slips and the frustration comes back at you, you are restating a dependency calmly rather than defending yourself from memory.
- 6
Work the Delivered column once a month
Set a follow-up rule on Delivered so a finished project resurfaces after a few weeks. That is when a maintenance conversation or a referral ask makes sense. Skip auto-reply here: your whole value is personal judgement, and an automated off-hours message signals exactly the thing this buyer is already nervous about.
The messages that stall a sale
“My friend does this cheaper.”
Usually means
They are testing whether price is negotiable, and half hoping to be talked out of the risky favour without losing face.What works
Never attack the friend. Ask one plain question that surfaces the real cost quietly: will the domain and hosting account be registered in their name, or in your friend's? If your friend is busy next year, whose problem is it? Ownership, not quality, is where the cheap option usually fails.“Someone does Facebook ads for Rs. 15,000, why are you more?”
Usually means
They see all internet presence as one commodity.What works
Separate the deliverables instead of defending the price. Running ads on a page is a fine, fast way to get customers. A site they own, that can be found in search, under their own domain, is a different thing. Admitting the cheap option suits some buyers builds more trust than pretending it never does.“Do I have to pay an advance?”
Usually means
They, or someone they know, have heard about paying up front and never hearing back.What works
Answer with structure rather than a policy. The advance releases a design draft they approve before the build begins, so there is a checkpoint between their money and the finished thing. A bare "50% advance please" answers nothing.“Just one more small change.”
Usually means
They often do not know what "done" looks like, because it was never defined.What works
Set the number of revision rounds in the scope conversation before work starts, plainly and kindly, and say what happens beyond it. Accepting endless changes to avoid friction teaches every future client to expect the same.“The site is late, this isn't what you said.”
Usually means
They underestimated their own side of the work and are embarrassed about it.What works
Restate the timeline with the dependency named and a date, not defensively. Silently absorbing the blame both damages your reputation for speed and normalises the same lateness next time.
Quick replies to save first
Copy these, swap the details in [brackets], and save them as quick replies so you stop retyping them.
Quotation request
Sure. To quote this properly I need three things: 1) how many pages 2) do you already have a logo and photos 3) are you writing the text or should I. With those I can give you an accurate price and timeline.
What the advance protects
Yes, there's an advance, and it isn't only cover for me. Once it's paid I send the design draft first. You approve that before any build starts, so you're never paying the full amount for something you haven't seen.
Revision rounds, set upfront
Two revision rounds are included on the design [colour, layout changes]. Anything beyond that carries a small extra charge. Saying it now so neither of us is surprised later.
Content dependency
To start the build I need your content: text, photos and the logo file. The timeline starts from the day those arrive, so any date I give before that isn't accurate.
Stalled quotation, closing gracefully
Following up on the quotation I sent. No rush at all, I just want to know whether to keep this open or close it for now. Either is fine.
Free tools that help here: WhatsApp Text Formatter, WhatsApp Business Message Templates.
The parts of InboxCRM you'll use most
Pipeline with deal values
See every open quotation and what it is worth, so you chase the one that matters first.
Sales funnel reports
Find out whether projects die at enquiry, after the quotation or after the advance, instead of guessing.
Quick replies
Send the same scope questions, advance explanation and revision-round wording every time, with files attached.
Follow-up rules
Surface quotations that have gone quiet, and finished projects that are due a maintenance or referral conversation.
Contact notes and tags
Record what was scoped, which round you are on, and what you are still waiting on from the client.
Questions from freelancers & agencies
I already have a laptop open all day. What does this add?
The chat list itself. WhatsApp shows you conversations in the order people last messaged, which is exactly the wrong order for sales. A board shows them by stage and value, so the quotation you sent nine days ago does not sink under a client sending you Drive links. You already have WhatsApp Web open; this puts a pipeline on top of it.
Should I use auto-reply for messages that come in at night?
We would not, in this trade. An automated off-hours reply reads as impersonal to a buyer who is already worried about whether a stranger will actually deliver. Auto-reply rules exist in InboxCRM and suit shops and bookings; here a real reply in the morning, with a saved template so it is quick, does more for trust.
Can I use it for international clients too?
Yes, it works on any chat in your WhatsApp Web. Quick replies can hold an English version of your scoping questions alongside the local one, and separate boards or tags keep international projects apart, which is useful because their decision timelines and seasons are not the same as your local clients'.
Does it replace a contract or an invoice?
No. It organises the conversation and the pipeline, not the paperwork. It does not write your scope document, does not chase the client's own late content for you, and is not a substitute for a written agreement or an invoice on larger projects. Keep payment discussion to the amount and method; never ask for card numbers or account credentials over chat.
Where is the pipeline data stored?
Locally, in your own browser's chrome.storage.local, not on our servers by default. You can export a local backup and restore it on another machine, and there is optional encrypted cloud backup for chats. One-click privacy blur hides names and message content when you are screen-sharing a mockup with a client.