If you manage inbound B2B sales and your team is drowning in random chats or missed leads, you’re in the right place. This guide is for people who want to actually get qualified sales conversations to the right humans—without needing a computer science degree or a week of meetings. I’ll walk you through using HubSpot Chatflows to route sales inquiries, step by step, and call out what’s worth your time (and what isn’t).
Why bother with Chatflows for B2B sales?
If you’re getting a trickle—or a flood—of chat inquiries from your website, the default “catch-all” approach wastes everyone’s time. Marketing gets sales questions; sales gets support tickets; no one’s happy. Good chat routing can:
- Get qualified leads in front of sales ASAP
- Keep support and marketing teams focused on their stuff
- Avoid the black hole where leads go to die
Sounds obvious, but plenty of companies still make prospects fill out a generic contact form and hope for the best. Chatflows are a solid way to do better, especially if you’re already on HubSpot.
Step 1: Get clear on your routing goals
Before you build anything, figure out what you want to achieve. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a mess of confusing chatbots and angry reps. Ask yourself:
- Who should handle B2B sales inquiries? (Named reps, teams, round robin?)
- Which types of inquiries should go to sales, and which should go elsewhere?
- What info does sales actually need before jumping in? (Company size, budget, etc.)
Write this down. If you skip this, you’ll waste time later trying to fix a broken flow.
Pro tip: Don’t try to solve every possible scenario on day one. Start with your main use case (e.g., “Connect qualified buyers with a sales rep”) and expand later.
Step 2: Sketch your chat flow (on paper)
Yes, really—before clicking anything in HubSpot, sketch out how you want the conversation to go. This doesn’t need to be fancy. Just answer:
- What’s the first thing a visitor sees?
- What qualifying questions do you need to ask?
- How do you decide if someone is a sales lead or not?
- When do you route to a human?
It’s tempting to automate everything, but most people want to talk to a person if they’re serious. Aim for the simplest path to “talk to sales” for real leads.
Step 3: Build the Chatflow in HubSpot
Now it’s time to get your hands dirty. Log into HubSpot, go to “Conversations” > “Chatflows,” and click “Create chatflow.” You’ll get a few options—pick “Website” to start.
Here’s the basic structure for B2B sales routing:
a. Choose your Chatflow type
- Live chat: Connects visitors directly to a human (either immediately or after qualification). Best for B2B sales.
- Bot: Handles the initial questions, then hands off to the right team. More scalable if you get lots of chats.
Most companies use a bot to qualify leads, then route to a live person. Don’t overthink it—start with HubSpot’s “Qualify leads” bot template if you’re new.
b. Set up your welcome message
Keep it friendly and clear. Example:
“Hi there! Looking to talk with sales or have a question about our product? I can connect you with the right person.”
Avoid robotic intros or open-ended “How can I help you?” questions. Guide the visitor.
c. Build your qualifying questions
Ask only what you need. Typical B2B qualifiers:
- “What’s your company name?”
- “Roughly how many employees do you have?”
- “What’s your main goal with our product?”
Keep it short—more than 2-3 questions, and you’ll lose people. Don’t ask budget unless you absolutely need it.
What doesn’t work: Long forms, or pretending your bot is a real person. People can tell.
d. Add branching logic
This is where the magic happens. Based on answers, you can:
- Route qualified leads to sales (human handoff or meeting link)
- Send support questions to your help desk
- Direct unqualified leads elsewhere (politely)
In HubSpot, use “If/then” branches to set this up. For example:
- If company size > 50, route to enterprise sales
- If company size < 10, send to SMB rep or self-service resources
Pro tip: Don’t try to anticipate every possible answer. Cover your main cases and have a fallback (“I’ll get someone to follow up with you”).
e. Assign conversations to the right people
HubSpot lets you assign chats by:
- Specific users (e.g., your top AE)
- Teams (e.g., “Sales - North America”)
- Round robin (rotates evenly between reps)
Pick what matches your sales structure. If you don’t have enough reps for round robin, just assign to a single user or team.
f. Add meeting scheduling (optional, but powerful)
If you want to let qualified leads book a meeting right in the chat, connect your sales team’s calendars (via HubSpot Meetings). After the qualifying questions, add a “Book a meeting” action.
This skips the back-and-forth and gets real prospects on your calendar fast.
What to ignore: Don’t force every visitor to book a meeting. Give them a way to leave a message or talk live if they’re ready.
Step 4: Set targeting rules
You don’t want your carefully crafted sales Chatflow popping up on every page. In HubSpot, set up targeting to control:
- Which pages show the sales chat (e.g., “Contact Sales,” pricing pages)
- Who sees it (e.g., only first-time visitors, or only users from certain countries)
Start narrow. Show the sales chat only where it makes sense—usually high-intent pages. You can always expand later.
Pro tip: Don’t launch chat on your support or blog pages unless you want a flood of non-sales questions.
Step 5: Test your Chatflow (and break it on purpose)
Before you go live, run through the full flow as a visitor. Try to:
- Give all the “right” answers (should get routed to sales)
- Give “wrong” answers (should get routed elsewhere)
- Skip answers or give weird responses
Fix any dead ends or confusing spots. If something feels clunky, your prospects will bail even faster.
Honest take: Most chatbots are annoying because no one tests them from the visitor’s POV. Spend 15 minutes here—it’s worth it.
Step 6: Train your team
Don’t assume your sales reps will figure it out on their own. Run through a few sample chats with them:
- Show them what the chat looks like from the customer’s side
- Make sure they know how to claim, reply, and close chats in HubSpot
- Set expectations for response time (especially if you promise “immediate” handoff)
If you skip this, leads will sit in limbo and everyone will blame the tech.
Step 7: Launch, watch, and tweak
Once you’re live, monitor chats daily for the first couple of weeks. Look for:
- Leads getting stuck or dropping off
- Sales reps not picking up chats
- Junk leads sneaking through
Don’t be afraid to make quick tweaks—change questions, adjust routing, or narrow targeting. No one gets it perfect the first time.
What works: Short, clear flows that get people to a human fast. What doesn’t: Trying to automate every edge case or making visitors jump through hoops.
What about integrations and advanced stuff?
If you’re more technical or want to get fancy:
- CRM enrichment: Use HubSpot’s CRM properties to auto-fill info or segment leads.
- Workflows: Trigger follow-ups if a chat isn’t answered.
- Slack integration: Route hot leads to a Slack channel for instant alerts.
But honestly, most teams get bogged down trying to connect everything before they’ve nailed the basics. Get the core flow working first. You can always add bells and whistles later.
A few honest pros and cons
Where Chatflows shine:
- Routing sales leads is straightforward once set up
- Built-in meeting booking is great
- Easy for non-technical folks to tweak
Weak spots to watch for:
- Chatbot logic can get messy if you overcomplicate
- Limited customization compared to high-end bots
- If sales reps are slow to respond, the best tech won’t save you
Keep it simple—and keep improving
Chat routing isn’t magic, but it does cut down on wasted time and missed leads. Start with a basic flow, focus on getting real sales conversations to the right people, and watch how things run. Iterate as you go—don’t let “the perfect” be the enemy of “working.”
If you keep your process simple and put yourself in the prospect’s shoes, you’ll be ahead of most companies using HubSpot Chatflows.