A step-by-step WhatsApp CRM tutorial for setting up your first sales pipeline in The Chat Quotient, from install to your first dragged deal, in about 10 minutes.
Most WhatsApp CRM tutorials assume you’ve already signed up for a Business API account, found a BSP, and waited a few days for Meta to approve your number. This one doesn’t. It walks through setting up a pipeline in The Chat Quotient, a Chrome extension that runs on top of the WhatsApp Web you already use, so there’s no API application anywhere in the process.
Set a timer if you want. Install to first dragged deal takes about 10 minutes, most of it spent deciding what to name your pipeline stages.
You need three things: Google Chrome, a WhatsApp account you can log into on WhatsApp Web, and an email address for the CQ account (this is separate from your WhatsApp login and is how your data syncs if you ever switch computers).
You do not need a WhatsApp Business API number, a Meta Business verification, or a credit card. The free Basic plan covers everything in this tutorial.
Go to the Chrome Web Store listing and click Add to Chrome. Once it’s installed, open web.whatsapp.com and log in the way you normally do, by scanning the QR code with your phone.
A prompt will appear asking you to create a CQ account or log in. Click Create Account. Email is required here, mainly so you can recover the account or move to a new phone number later without losing your pipeline data.
You’ll now see a slim sidebar attached to the right edge of WhatsApp Web. It sits alongside your chats rather than covering them, so nothing about your normal WhatsApp layout changes.
A default pipeline is created automatically the first time you install the extension, so there’s nothing to build from scratch. Click the Deal icon on the CQ sidebar. This opens the Deals panel on the Deals (Kanban) tab, which is a board of columns, each one a stage, starting empty since you haven’t added any deals yet.
If the default stage names (typically something like New Deal, Qualified, Proposal, Closed Won) already match how you think about your sales process, you can skip straight to Step 4 and start adding deals. Most people rename at least one stage, so the next step covers how.
Click the Settings gear icon at the bottom of the CQ sidebar, then open Pipeline Settings. You’ll see your default pipeline with its current stages listed. From here you can rename a stage, delete one you don’t need, add a new one, or drag stages into a different order.
A basic sales pipeline for most small businesses looks something like this:
Yours doesn’t have to match this. A recruiter might use Applied, Screening, Interview, Offer. A support team might use Ticket Opened, In Progress, Resolved. The stage names are just labels for wherever a conversation currently sits, so pick ones that describe your actual process rather than copying someone else’s.
While you’re in Pipeline Settings, each stage also has a Win Probability field (0 to 100%). This isn’t required to use the pipeline, but if you fill it in, it’s what powers the Forecast Value number later in the Insights tab, so a stage near the start of your funnel might get 10%, and Closed Won gets 100%. You can leave the defaults if you’d rather set this up later.
Click Save once your stages look right.
Go back to WhatsApp Web and open a chat with an actual lead or customer, or use any chat for a test run. Click the Deal icon on the sidebar again, then click to create a new deal from this chat.
A form opens with the contact’s name and number already filled in from the chat. Below that, CQ’s AI reads the conversation and drafts a deal name, an estimated value, and a source, using whatever the chat has said so far. If you’ve just opened a chat with no messages yet, some of these fields will come back blank and you can fill them in yourself.
Check the fields, adjust anything that’s off, and click Create Deal. The card now appears in whichever stage you left as the default, usually the first one.
Go back to the Deals (Kanban) tab. You’ll see the card you just created sitting in its stage column, with the stage header showing the total value of everything in that column. Click and drag the card into the next stage as the conversation progresses. The move saves the moment you drop it, no separate save button.
Click on the card itself instead of dragging it and the Deal Detail Panel opens on the right, without leaving the Kanban view. This is where notes, tasks with due dates, and (on paid plans) a full history of every change to the deal live. For a first deal, dragging it one stage over is enough to confirm the pipeline is working end to end.
Install, account, pipeline stages, first deal, first stage move. From here, adding the next deal takes under a minute since the pipeline and stages are already set up, most of the time in this tutorial goes to the one-time setup.
Try the AI Reply button. There’s no setting to turn on, it’s an AI Reply button that sits right in the WhatsApp message box. Click it whenever you want a context-aware draft reply instead of typing one from scratch, on any chat, deal or not. It’s part of the same free plan.
Set up a second contact or two before you rely on it daily. Adding two or three real conversations as deals, instead of just the one test deal, gives you a better sense of whether your stage names actually fit before you’re depending on the pipeline for real leads.
Check Pipeline Settings again if your process doesn’t match a single pipeline. Sales and support are different workflows with different stages, and CQ supports multiple pipelines running side by side rather than forcing everything into one board.
Do I need a WhatsApp Business account for this tutorial? No. A regular personal WhatsApp account logged into WhatsApp Web works the same way as a WhatsApp Business account for setting up a CQ pipeline.
Is the CQ account the same as my WhatsApp login? No, they’re separate. Your WhatsApp login stays with Meta. The CQ account (email and password, created once) is what stores your pipeline, deals, and notes, and lets that data follow you if you log into WhatsApp Web from a different computer.
Can I change my pipeline stages after I’ve already added deals? Yes. Renaming a stage doesn’t move or delete the deals sitting in it, they just carry the new stage name. Deleting a stage that still has deals in it will prompt you to move those deals somewhere else first.
What happens if I close the tutorial halfway through? Nothing is lost. The extension and your CQ account stay installed and logged in, so picking up at Step 3 or Step 4 later works exactly the same as finishing in one sitting.
Does this pipeline setup cost anything? No. Everything in this tutorial, the extension, the CQ account, pipeline stages, and creating deals, is available on the free Basic plan with no credit card required. What the free plan actually includes is worth a look before you decide whether you’ll need to upgrade later.
A WhatsApp CRM tutorial doesn’t need to start with an API application and end a week later once Meta approves your number. With an extension-based tool like The Chat Quotient, the entire path from installing to dragging your first deal across a pipeline stage fits inside 10 minutes, most of it spent naming stages rather than waiting on anyone’s approval.
Install The Chat Quotient and turn that chat into a tracked lead, a faster reply, and — eventually — a closed deal. Free to start, right inside the WhatsApp Web you already use.
