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Send a conversation to the CRM: from a social message to a prospect

Updated 2026-10-23

In two lines: Send to CRM turns the person on the other side into a prospect or a deal and copies the conversation across. From that moment you answer from CRM > Messages, and the Inbox keeps a read-only mirror marked with the In CRM chip.

When is it worth sending a conversation to the CRM?

When it stops being community management and starts being business. A DM asking about quantities, a price, availability or a quote is a lead, and a lead buried among comments gets lost: nobody assigns it, nobody follows up, and it doesn't show up in any report. Sending it across gives that person a record, an owner, a pipeline stage and a history — the same treatment as a lead coming from a form or an ad.

How do I send a direct message to the CRM?

  • Open the direct message in the Inbox and press Send to CRM in the conversation's action bar. You get two options: Create prospect or Link to existing prospect.
  • For a new record, the dialog opens on Create new. In Destination you choose the Source it enters through (the network's own DM source, or the system one), whether to Create as a Prospect or a Deal, and its Pipeline and Stage — leaving the stage empty uses the Pipeline's first stage.
  • If the person already exists in your CRM, switch to Link to existing, pick whether you're looking for a Prospect, a Deal or a Person, and search by name. This is the path that avoids a duplicate record for a customer who already writes to you by other channels.
  • The What gets linked block tells you exactly what travels before you confirm. Finish with Create prospect (or Link).

What travels is the whole thing: the person —with the social profile stamped on their record so the same account is recognised next time—, the company the CRM resolves for them, and the conversation's messages, not just the last one: up to the 200 most recent, with the photos, audio messages and files already showing in the Inbox. Nothing is retyped and nothing is lost in the handover.

Had they left their phone number, email or website in the chat before you sent it across? MB Suite checks that history when you send it and, if the record doesn't have the detail, the confirmation says so: under Prospect created in the CRM (or Conversation linked to the CRM) it adds We found 1 detail in the chat to review on the record., and Review opens the record right there, without leaving the Inbox. Nothing is saved on its own: on the record you add it with one click or dismiss it. The same goes for whatever they write afterwards in CRM > Messages. If the conversation moves across on its own, through a rule or the source, there's no notice, but the detail is waiting on the record all the same. How it works: Details your contacts leave in the chat: add them to the record with one click.

And if it's a comment?

A public comment isn't a private conversation, so it's treated differently: Create prospect builds the record from the author of the comment, and the comment itself is left as the prospect's first note (with the link to the original post). The public thread stays in the Inbox and you keep replying to it from there — nothing gets moved out of sight of whoever is moderating. Create prospect only shows up when the network identifies the author. That's why it isn't there on an Instagram mention inside a comment —Instagram doesn't say who wrote it, and the Inbox shows the author as Instagram user—, and it's usually missing on a mention in a post's text too: you see the @username of whoever published it, but Instagram generally doesn't provide the details the CRM needs.

Sending the same comment twice doesn't create a second note or a second record: the action is idempotent and simply returns you the record it already created.

Where do I follow the conversation from then on?

In CRM > Messages, alongside the rest of that contact's channels. In the Inbox the conversation stays visible with the In CRM chip, and the reply box appears covered with Reply from the CRM: the mirror is read-only on purpose, so two replies don't go out to the same person from two different screens. The chip's menu has Open in CRM to jump straight to the thread, and the CRM filter has Hide CRM conversations if you'd rather keep them out of your daily tray.

There, files look just like on WhatsApp —photos, videos, audio messages with their player, documents and stickers—, also in the Messages tab of the contact's history. Above the message, a line such as Replied to your story, Mentioned you in their story or Shared a post gives you the context, and on an Instagram story, View the story opens it while it's still available. As in the Inbox, Instagram files are shown from Instagram's link and Messenger and TikTok files stay saved; whatever the network doesn't deliver shows a notice to view it in the app. From the CRM you also reply with text: files aren't sent over Instagram, Messenger or TikTok.

If a Qualifier or a Setter from the CRM's AI Team handles the conversation, it looks at the photos and listens to the audio messages before replying, just like on WhatsApp —on Messenger and TikTok; on Instagram it only knows that a photo or an audio message arrived, because Instagram doesn't allow downloading its files—. How it works and which credits it uses: The CRM's AI Team: Qualifier, Setter and Seller.

Can I undo it?

Yes. From the same chip menu, Unlink from CRM returns the conversation to the Inbox and the reply box unlocks. From then on it doesn't go back to the CRM on its own, either through the source or through a rule, even if the person writes again: it goes back only if someone sends it by hand with Send to CRM. The prospect is not deleted and the messages already copied stay in the CRM — you're undoing the routing, not the record, so nobody loses the sales history over a misclick. The only thing that goes away is the chat-data suggestions that conversation had left pending on the record; whatever someone already added stays.

The two sides need permission, because the link writes into two modules: you need to be able to reply in the Inbox (member and up) and to have full access to the CRM module. Unlink from CRM goes one step further and is only available to owners and admins — undoing a routing that a whole sales team is already working on shouldn't be a one-person decision.

Can I make it automatic?

Two ways, and both reuse exactly the path above — same source, same deduplication, same history copy.

  • Everything, on the accounts you choose. In the CRM, a direct-message lead source has a When it enters the CRM block with two modes. Set it to All new messages and every message that arrives from then on at the accounts listed under Accounts moves to the CRM on its own, even when it comes from someone who had already written to you before. If the conversation isn't in the CRM yet, it comes in with its earlier messages —up to the 200 most recent— and the person enters as a prospect, or as a deal if the source's Destination is Direct deal.
  • Only what a rule decides. Leave the source on Only when a rule says so and add the Send to CRM action to a rule in Inbox > Settings > Rules. That's how you send across only the messages that mention a price or a quote, for example. The action applies to direct messages only, and it stops the rest of that rule's actions and replies — the conversation now belongs to the CRM.

When the source brings in a conversation that was already in the Inbox, what was waiting for a reply there is marked as read, and the conversation is answered from CRM > Messages. The Inbox keeps the conversations where the person doesn't write again (a reply from your team doesn't move them), which you can send one by one with Send to CRM; the ones where the person's last message is in Spam; and the ones returned with Unlink from CRM.

If you have an AI Community Manager running, this is the boundary of its territory: the moment a conversation belongs to the CRM, the Inbox's AI stops acting on it. Community management stays in the Inbox; the sale continues in the CRM, where its own team and rules apply.
Sending a conversation to the CRM copies personal data of a third party into a commercial record and keeps it there. Make sure you have the legal basis for that treatment in the jurisdictions where you operate; your use of MB Suite is governed by the Terms and Conditions, which always hold the current version.

Still have questions?

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