# Know who’s about to buy: WhatsApp CRM and sales pipeline in South Africa

**Every person who messages you becomes a lead on a board, so you can see who is close to buying and who needs a follow-up.**

Most chat-based businesses track leads in their heads, or not at all. EliteTeQ Inbox puts each customer on a pipeline from first message to paying client, flags the ones worth answering first, and shows where leads stall. Contacts keep their +27 codes, and hot leads are judged on Johannesburg time (SAST).

- Pipeline board with stages you name
- Hot leads flagged automatically
- Import contacts from your phone or a spreadsheet
- Reports on leads, sources and the team

Start my pipeline free: https://crm.eliteteqpos.com/signup (7 days free · no card needed · your chats become leads automatically)

## Where WhatsApp sales slip away

> My leads live in my head and a notebook by the till.

Every person who messages you becomes a card on a board, from new lead to paying client, without anyone copying it in.

> I keep forgetting to follow up on the quotes we sent.

Leads waiting for your reply, fresh from an ad or active at a deciding stage are flagged hot and sorted first.

> Our sales don’t go “demo, trial”. We quote, deliver, then get paid.

Then name the stages that way. Add, rename and reorder them, give each an icon, and mark which ones mean won or lost.

> I can’t see which of my staff actually sells.

Reports show reply speed, the busiest hours of the week, the funnel by stage and who closes the most.

### Which of today’s WhatsApp chats will buy this week?

Tell us how you sell, from first message to payment. We’ll suggest the pipeline stages for your business and set them up with you. [Build my pipeline with you](https://wa.me/12144235355?text=Hi%20EliteTeQ!%20I%20want%20to%20track%20our%20WhatsApp%20leads%20in%20a%20pipeline.%20Can%20you%20help%20me%20set%20up%20stages%20for%20how%20we%20sell%3F%20I%E2%80%99m%20in%20South%20Africa.) on WhatsApp +1 214 423 5355.

## How a WhatsApp lead moves to a sale

The pipeline fills itself from your chats; your team moves the cards.

1. **A new chat becomes a lead** — When Thandiwe first messages you, a card appears in the first stage with their name, number and where they came from.
2. **It gets flagged if it’s hot** — Leads waiting for a reply, fresh from an ad, or active at a deciding stage are marked 🔥 and sorted first.
3. **Your team moves it along** — Drag the card from stage to stage as the conversation progresses. Every move is logged on the lead.
4. **You see what closes** — Pipeline insights and reports show how many leads reach each stage and who on the team closes them.

## What is a WhatsApp CRM?

A WhatsApp CRM keeps a record of every customer who messages your business on WhatsApp and tracks them from first enquiry to sale. In EliteTeQ Inbox, each chat is a lead on a pipeline board, with its full message history, notes, category, owner and source, so your team in South Africa knows exactly who to follow up and why.

- Every chat linked to one lead
- Stages you can rename, add and reorder
- Hot leads flagged by rules and by the team
- History of every stage change and transfer

## EliteTeQ Inbox at a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Product | EliteTeQ Inbox, by EliteTeQ Softwares Limited (Nairobi, Kenya) |
| What it is | A WhatsApp team inbox and CRM |
| Channels | WhatsApp Business (official Cloud API, works alongside the WhatsApp Business app), Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Facebook and Instagram comments |
| Works on | Any browser; installs on Android and iPhone |
| Price | From $29 a month; $59 Growth; $99 Business with unlimited people; a year costs 10 months |
| Free trial | 7 days, every feature open |
| WhatsApp numbers | 1 to 3 included by plan; up to 20 per business (Meta’s limit once the business is verified with Meta) |
| In South Africa | +27 WhatsApp Business numbers, office hours on Johannesburg time (SAST) |
| Languages | Customers write in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu |
| Setup | About 40 minutes, or done with you on WhatsApp |
| Last reviewed | 2026-11-01 |

## What the CRM side gives you

A pipeline that stays up to date because it lives where the conversations happen.

### A pipeline in your own words

Start with stages like New lead, Contacted, Demo booked, Trial, Client and Lost, then rename them to match how you sell. Empty stages hide until you drag a card.

- Custom stages per workspace
- Won and lost stages count separately
- Group and filter the board
- A list view on phones with stage chips

### Stages that follow how you sell

Your pipeline is set up in Settings → Pipeline stages. Name each column after a real step in your business, pick an icon, put them in order, and say which ones mean a sale was won or lost.

- Add, rename, reorder and remove stages
- Each stage is in progress, won or lost
- Won stages count as sales in Reports and win rates
- New chats start in the first stage; your first reply moves them to the second

### Hot leads, first

A lead is hot when the customer is waiting for your reply, arrived from an ad in the last 72 hours, or is active at a deciding stage. Your team can mark any lead hot too.

- 🔥 badge in Chats and Pipeline
- Hot filter and hot-first sorting
- Closed leads never show as hot

### Your contacts, already in

Import the contacts on your phone (.vcf) or a spreadsheet (.csv from Google Contacts or Excel). Each person becomes a lead; when they next write, the chat joins their card.

- Any country’s numbers
- No duplicates when you import again
- Categories you define, assigned in bulk

### Reports on what sells

Leads per day, how fast you reply, a funnel by stage, a team leaderboard, the busiest hours of the week, and which ads bring leads.

- Compared with the previous period
- Waiting list of unanswered leads
- Print or save as PDF

## A notebook or spreadsheet vs a WhatsApp CRM

A list kept by hand is out of date the moment the next message arrives, whether it comes from Johannesburg or Cape Town or from overseas.

| Notebook or spreadsheet | EliteTeQ Inbox CRM |
|---|---|
| Copied in by hand, when someone remembers | Every new chat becomes a lead by itself |
| No idea who is close to buying | Hot leads flagged and sorted first |
| Follow-ups depend on memory | Waiting list shows who hasn’t had a reply |
| Can’t tell which ad brought a customer | Ad source saved on the lead |
| Lost when a staff member leaves | Full history stays with the business |

## Your process, your stages

No two businesses in South Africa sell the same way. Pick yours to see a pipeline you could set up in a few minutes.

- **Hardware & building materials:** Enquiry (in progress) → Quote sent (in progress) → Delivery booked (in progress) → Paid (won) → Lost (lost). Big orders are quoted first, delivered later and paid on delivery, so each step gets its own column.
- **Salons & beauty:** Enquiry (in progress) → Booked (in progress) → Came in (won) → Regular (won) → No-show (lost). A booking isn’t a sale until the client walks in, and the best clients come back.
- **Wholesale & distribution:** New buyer (in progress) → Price list sent (in progress) → Order placed (in progress) → Paid (won) → Went elsewhere (lost). Shops ask for the price list, place an order, then pay against delivery or on credit.
- **Restaurants & catering:** Enquiry (in progress) → Menu sent (in progress) → Date confirmed (in progress) → Event done (won) → Cancelled (lost). Event and catering orders need a menu, a confirmed date and a deposit before the day.
- **Phones & electronics:** Enquiry (in progress) → Photos sent (in progress) → Out for delivery (in progress) → Delivered & paid (won) → Returned (lost). Buyers want photos and a price, then delivery, and pay when the item arrives.

Examples you can set up yourself in Settings → Pipeline stages, not fixed templates.

## For businesses that close sales on WhatsApp

Where a sale takes a few messages: a quote, a booking, a delivery, a second visit.

- [Beauty salons](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/beauty-salons/)
- [Restaurants & cafés](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/restaurants-and-cafes/)
- [Clothing stores](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/clothing-stores/)
- [Electronics stores](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/electronics-stores/)
- [Mobile phone shops](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/mobile-phone-shops/)
- [Pharmacies](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/pharmacies/)
- [Hardware stores](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/hardware-stores/)
- [Wholesale & distribution](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/industries/wholesale-distribution/)

## EliteTeQ Inbox in South Africa

Contacts import with their country codes intact, so +27 numbers and overseas customers sit in the same pipeline.

South African customers expect a business to answer on WhatsApp the way they message friends. When enquiries come into a branch phone and a manager’s phone, nobody knows who already replied. One shared inbox gives every chat a clear owner.

Customers write in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu and other languages. Your team replies in the customer’s language inside the 24-hour window; template messages are created in English.

Office hours are set day by day for each number. A common setup in Johannesburg or Cape Town: weekdays open, Saturday mornings open, Sunday closed. Anyone who writes while you are closed gets your away message, at most once every 12 hours, and the chat waits at the top of the list for the morning.

- **Numbers:** +27 (e.g. +27 82 000 0000)
- **Office hours:** Run on Johannesburg time (SAST)
- **Weekend:** Saturday and Sunday
- **Templates:** English
- **Price:** From $29 a month, in US dollars
- **Paying:** Card, charged in Kenyan shillings at the day’s rate

## Selling on WhatsApp in South Africa

Retail is dominated by formal chains and shopping centres, with township and informal trade running alongside on a different payment mix. Card is the default and cash is the exception. Scheduled grid interruption is published in advance, which makes it a planning problem rather than a surprise.

### [Mbombela (Nelspruit)](https://eliteteqpos.com/nelspruit/)

Mpumalanga Province · a regional centre and gateway to the Kruger National Park

Kruger-bound tourism and Mozambican border traffic layer foreign-currency and card spending on top of a steady regional retail base. Mbombela's trade combines a regional retail and agricultural service role with tourism traffic heading to the Kruger National Park and across the Mozambican border, which raises the share of foreign-currency and card transactions in hospitality. Seasonal visitor peaks sit on top of a steady local base, rewarding systems that scale between quiet and busy periods. Buyers in Mbombela (Nelspruit) who ask for a price and go quiet stay on the pipeline until someone follows up.

### [Pietermaritzburg](https://eliteteqpos.com/pietermaritzburg/)

KwaZulu-Natal Province · the provincial capital of KwaZulu-Natal

Administration, education and light manufacturing give steadier year-round trade than the coast, with a student population driving term-time swings. Many operators also trade in Durban. Pietermaritzburg is an administrative, education and light-manufacturing centre inland from Durban, with steadier year-round demand than the coast and a substantial student population producing term-time swings. Buyers in Pietermaritzburg who ask for a price and go quiet stay on the pipeline until someone follows up.

### [Johannesburg](https://eliteteqpos.com/johannesburg/)

Gauteng Province · South Africa's largest city and economic centre

Sandton, the CBD, Rosebank and the southern suburbs behave like separate retail markets spread across a metro too large to service centrally. Buyers in Johannesburg who ask for a price and go quiet stay on the pipeline until someone follows up.

### [Cape Town](https://eliteteqpos.com/cape-town/)

Western Cape Province · a major tourism, services and technology centre

The summer season fills the V&A, the city bowl and the Atlantic seaboard with international visitors, then empties them; staffing doubles and halves with it. The binding constraint is split-bill table service under load, because the peak-season restaurant trade is where the year's margin is made. Cape Town's retail and hospitality trade has a pronounced summer peak driven by international visitors, which means high card and foreign-currency volumes and staffing that expands and contracts with the season. Buyers in Cape Town who ask for a price and go quiet stay on the pipeline until someone follows up.

### EliteTeQ Inbox in every city of South Africa

- [Johannesburg](https://eliteteqpos.com/johannesburg/): Gauteng Province, South Africa's largest city and economic centre
- [Cape Town](https://eliteteqpos.com/cape-town/): Western Cape Province, a major tourism, services and technology centre
- [Durban](https://eliteteqpos.com/durban/): KwaZulu-Natal Province, the busiest port in sub-Saharan Africa
- [Pretoria](https://eliteteqpos.com/pretoria/): Gauteng Province, South Africa's administrative capital
- [Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)](https://eliteteqpos.com/port-elizabeth/): Eastern Cape Province, a port city and centre of vehicle manufacturing
- [Bloemfontein](https://eliteteqpos.com/bloemfontein/): Free State Province, South Africa's judicial capital and a regional service centre
- [East London](https://eliteteqpos.com/east-london/): Eastern Cape Province, a coastal port and manufacturing city
- [Polokwane](https://eliteteqpos.com/polokwane/): Limpopo Province, the commercial centre of Limpopo
- [Mbombela (Nelspruit)](https://eliteteqpos.com/nelspruit/): Mpumalanga Province, a regional centre and gateway to the Kruger National Park
- [Pietermaritzburg](https://eliteteqpos.com/pietermaritzburg/): KwaZulu-Natal Province, the provincial capital of KwaZulu-Natal


## Questions businesses ask us

**Can I bring in the contacts from my phone?**

Yes. Import a .vcf file exported from your phone or a .csv from Google Contacts or Excel. Names and numbers come in, not old messages: WhatsApp doesn’t let other apps read chats from your phone.

**Can we change the pipeline stages?**

Yes. Rename, add, reorder and colour stages for your workspace, and mark which ones count as won or lost.

**What makes a lead “hot”?**

The customer is waiting for your reply (within 24 hours), the lead came from an ad in the last 72 hours, or it’s active at a deciding stage. Your team can also mark any lead hot by hand.

**Can we sort customers into groups?**

Yes. Create categories in Settings, assign them in a chat or to many leads at once, and filter Chats and Pipeline by category.

**Can we message a lead who hasn’t written to us?**

Yes, with a template approved by WhatsApp, and only if they agreed to hear from you. Free-form replies are possible for 24 hours after they write.

**Can we import our customers’ South African phone numbers?**

Yes. Import a .vcf file from your phone or a .csv from Google Contacts or Excel. Numbers keep their country codes, so +27 numbers and overseas customers sit in the same pipeline, and importing again never makes duplicates.

**What pipeline stages should a business in South Africa use?**

Use the steps your customers actually go through. A hardware shop might use Enquiry, Quote sent, Delivery booked, Paid; a salon Enquiry, Booked, Came in, Regular. Stages are added, renamed and reordered in Settings, and each is marked in progress, won or lost.

Sources for the WhatsApp rules on this page (Meta):

- [WhatsApp Business Platform pricing (Meta)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/pricing)
- [Messaging limits (Meta)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messaging-limits)
- [Message templates (Meta)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/overview)
- [Business phone numbers and limits (Meta)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/business-phone-numbers/phone-numbers)
- [About the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/about-the-platform)

## See every lead you’re talking to in South Africa

Start the 7-day free trial and your pipeline fills from the first chat.

## More about EliteTeQ Inbox

- [EliteTeQ Inbox overview](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/)
- [Shared WhatsApp inbox](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/whatsapp-team-inbox/)
- [Facebook & Instagram inbox](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/facebook-instagram-inbox/)
- [Click-to-WhatsApp ad leads](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/click-to-whatsapp-ads/)
- [WhatsApp API for developers](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/api/)
- [Pricing](https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/pricing/)

## Talk to EliteTeQ about EliteTeQ Inbox

- WhatsApp or call: +1 214 423 5355 (https://wa.me/12144235355?text=Hi%20EliteTeQ!%20I%20want%20to%20track%20our%20WhatsApp%20leads%20in%20a%20pipeline.%20Can%20you%20help%20me%20set%20up%20stages%20for%20how%20we%20sell%3F%20I%E2%80%99m%20in%20South%20Africa.)
- Email: info@eliteteqpos.com
- Web: https://eliteteqpos.com/za/inbox/whatsapp-crm/