CRM configuration if you sell online

Part of milestone 2 · Your starting configuration

In two lines: the CRM is built around the deal, not the order: it's for the pre-purchase inquiry, consultative or wholesale selling and after-sales. It's a short variant of the many inquiries configuration.

It's yours if: you sell online and inquiries reach you before the purchase — over WhatsApp, through your form or on social — that today aren't recorded anywhere.

When you finish you'll have: your stages, your lost reasons and your fields written down, and it will be clear which part of your store enters the CRM and which part doesn't.

What the CRM brings from your store, and what it doesn't

Read this before anything else, so you don't get a surprise.

Your catalog, yes, you can bring it. In CRM > Settings > Products, New catalog connects your store's feed by URL — the same one you already use for your ad catalogs — and it syncs on its own. Products that arrive through the feed are edited in your store, not in MB Suite. See Products and catalogs: your manual list and synced feeds.

Your orders and your checkout, no. What enters the CRM is what you send it: inquiries from an MB Suite form, WhatsApp messages, or data you push to the generic webhook from an automation you build yourself. That automation doesn't come ready-made.

The stages

Stage · probability · rotting days:

Inquiry received 20% · 3 d — Quote sent 50% · 5 d — Awaiting payment 80% · 2 d — Won 100%

The days are short on purpose: in online selling, two days without payment is already a signal.

If you also want to recover those who asked and didn't buy, add a stage No response, to recover (10%, 15 d) instead of writing them off as lost. They stay in a visible place to be worked, which is exactly the value of bringing this into the CRM.

The lost reasons

Price · Out of stock · Didn't reply · Bought elsewhere · Shipping cost

The custom fields

Deals: Products inquired about (Multi-select) · Sales channel (Select) · Payment method (Select) · Shipping or pickup (Select)

How leads come in and how they're distributed

Same as in the many inquiries configuration: forms to Direct deal, raw WhatsApp to the Prospect inbox, and Round robin distribution across the team.

If you sell wholesale and retail, that's two funnels: the process, the ticket and who works it are different.

What to do with AI

For repetitive product and price inquiries, the seat designed for that is the Seller: it sells only over WhatsApp, from your catalog. In Ecommerce sales mode it recommends products from a synced catalog and sends the link to buy in your store; in Orders & quotes mode it talks through your catalog, builds the order and leaves it as the deal's quote for your team to close. It never invents prices or stock: if the customer asks for something that isn't in the catalog, it hands the conversation to a person. See The CRM's AI Team: Qualifier, Setter and Seller.

Neither the Setter nor the Qualifier reads your catalog. They answer only with what's in their Knowledge tab. The products you load in CRM > Settings > Products feed the Seller and the Quote inside the deal, not those two seats' conversation. If you use them to qualify product inquiries and want them to talk about prices, those prices have to be in Knowledge.

And Knowledge isn't the place for a whole catalog either: the seat accepts a limited number of files — the tab itself shows the maximum when you upload them — and a list of thousands of products doesn't fit there and doesn't work well. Upload your price ranges, your shipping and return policies, and your frequently asked questions.

It's worth deciding this with the lead in mind: if they're asked a price that isn't loaded, the seat doesn't invent it, it hands off to a person. That's the right thing, but for whoever is on the other side it's a wait — and in online selling, waiting means going somewhere else.

What's next?

You have your numbers. Now load them: Set up the CRM foundations: team, funnel and custom fields.

Save this page. On day 30 you'll come back to it to adjust what reality has shown you, and having the "before" written down makes all the difference.

Still have questions?

Ask MIA, the MB Suite AI assistant: open it with the MB AI button (⌘J) in the top bar. MIA knows the section you're in, so you can ask it about what you see on screen — and it can also answer how-to questions about using MB Suite.