Enquiries, leads & the Lead Agent
The first ten minutes decide whether a person becomes a client. DeedSpring's front door is two pages — Enquiries for people who just got in touch and Leads for the ones you are working — and a Lead Agent that answers first, keeps in touch on a rhythm, and tells the owner exactly when to pick up the phone.
How a person moves through
| Stage | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Enquiry | Someone new reached out — a form, an email or text to a connected inbox, a referral. Nothing is promised yet. The Lead Agent replies; you decide whether to take them on. |
| Lead | You accepted them. The lead playbook starts (Enquiry → First contact → Qualified → Consultation → Agreement) and the nurture rhythm runs until an agreement is signed. |
| Client | Convert to deal — a buyer search or a listing. The same person becomes a client and the Client Agent takes over on the deal. |
| Past client / Lost | Kept for history; the agents stand down. |
A lead and a client are the same person record at different stages, so nothing is re-typed. Leads open on the Leads page, clients on Contacts, and each page sends you to the other when the person's stage has moved on.
Enquiries: the front door
New people land on Enquiries with their original message, the property they asked about, and an AI status column showing what the Lead Agent has done so far. Accept as lead starts working them; dismissing files them away with the original message kept.
Brokerages that do not want a separate front door can turn Enquiries off under Config → Pipeline. New business then goes straight in as a lead, the Enquiries page leaves the sidebar, and the Lead Agent still replies first.
The lead page
Open a lead and you get two columns.
Left: the facts
Stage and nurture selectors, the owner, then the file bar — Step (where they are in the lead playbook and when it is due; click to edit), Last touch, Next touch (red when the check-in is overdue), Enquired (when and from where) and Re (the property of interest) — followed by contact details, their deals and your notes.
Right: the story
The lead as one conversation, oldest at the top: the original enquiry, every message either way (“Jordan wrote (email)”, “AI lead agent replied (text)”), the calls and meetings you logged, each step completed. Then a Now line with a composer, then Planned: the next action in one line and the moves ahead as cards — who does each (You / AI / Them), when, and a button to act (Answer, Review draft, Tell the AI, Edit step). The check-in rhythm is one of those cards. Plan something adds a move and lets you give it to the AI with a brief or keep it for yourself.
The Lead Agent's drafts to the lead sit under the story so “Review draft” lands on them; its standing thread is in the sidebar if you want to talk to it about this person.
What the Lead Agent does
Responds first
Within minutes of a new enquiry it reads everything you have — the message, the property, any inbound email or text — answers the actual question in the first two sentences, asks one question back, and matches the channel they arrived on. The reply is a draft for the owner unless that address is allowed to send routine messages itself.
Keeps in touch on your rhythm
Set a lead to hot, warm or quiet and the agent checks in every 3, 7 or 21 days (or follows your brokerage's own lead follow-up brief). Every weekday morning it looks at who is due. A missed check-in shows on Today whether or not the agent is on.
Qualifies and tells you when to call
It fills in budget, timeframe, areas and must-haves from what the person says, keeps the notes current, and creates a call task for the owner — with a two-minute briefing — when a human voice is the right next move. Today lists call tasks with tap-to-call; you log the outcome and the agent carries on from it.
Keeps the timeline true
It completes First contact when its reply actually goes out, Qualified when you move the stage, re-dates Consultation to the booked call. The Agreement step is yours alone — the agent never touches it.
Hands over cleanly
When you convert the lead to a deal it makes sure its notes hold everything it learned, logs “Deal started — handed to the client agent”, and stops.
What it will never do
Quote fees or commission, give advice on price, value or financing, promise a showing or an appointment, or say the brokerage will take someone on. Those become a holding line to the person plus a question or a call task for you.
Converting a lead to a deal
Press Convert to deal on the lead page
Start the deal
The Client Agent picks up
Switches that matter here
| Switch | Where / what |
|---|---|
| Leads | Config → Pipeline. The Leads page. Off on a fresh install; off, the Lead Agent stands down and new business is filed for a person to triage. |
| Track inbound enquiries | Under Leads on Config → Pipeline. The front door before Leads; needs Leads on. Off, new people arrive as leads. |
| Automatically engage leads (Lead Agent AI) | Under Leads on Config → Pipeline — the same switch as AI Lead Agent on Config → AI, where its lead follow-up brief lives. Both only appear while Leads are on. Existing brokerages upgrading to this release turn it on themselves. |
| Texting numbers | Config → Messaging. Texts go from the owner's own number, else their team's, else the brokerage's shared number; a reply stays on the number the conversation arrived on. |