The Problem With Missing Hot Leads

Your AI agent just classified a lead as HOT. The prospect asked about pricing, mentioned they need a solution this week, and wants to talk to someone on your team. This is the exact moment that determines whether you close the deal or lose it to a competitor.

But you are in a meeting. Or driving. Or handling another conversation. By the time you check your dashboard, 45 minutes have passed. The prospect has already messaged two other businesses and is deep in conversation with one of them.

This scenario plays out thousands of times a day across businesses using WhatsApp for sales. The AI agent does its job perfectly — qualifying the lead, extracting intent signals, classifying them as HOT — but the human handoff fails because nobody saw the notification in time.

Email alerts are too slow. Most people check email on a schedule, not in real time. SMS notifications cost money and get lost in a sea of verification codes and spam. Push notifications from web dashboards only work if you have the browser tab open.

What you need is a notification channel that is instant, free, always on your phone, and impossible to miss. That is exactly what Telegram provides.

Why Telegram Is the Perfect Notification Channel

You might be wondering: why Telegram instead of WhatsApp itself? After all, if you are managing WhatsApp leads, would it not make sense to get notifications on WhatsApp too?

There are several important reasons why Telegram is the better choice:

Separation of Concerns

Your WhatsApp number is handling customer conversations through your AI agent. Mixing notifications into that same channel creates confusion. Is this a customer message or a system alert? With Telegram, your notifications live in a completely separate app. Customer conversations stay on WhatsApp. Team alerts stay on Telegram. Clean separation.

Bot API Capabilities

Telegram has one of the most powerful bot APIs available. Creating a notification bot takes minutes, it is completely free, and there are no per-message fees or rate limits for reasonable usage. The bot sends structured messages with rich formatting — lead name, phone number, classification, conversation summary — all neatly organized.

Group Chat Support

You can add your Telegram notification bot to a team group chat. This means your entire sales team gets alerted simultaneously. No need to configure individual notification recipients. Add the bot to your sales team's Telegram group, and everyone sees hot leads the moment they come in.

Always-On Mobile Presence

Most people keep Telegram installed and notifications enabled. Unlike email (which many people batch-process) or web dashboards (which require an open browser), Telegram notifications pop up on your phone instantly. The combination of push notifications and Telegram's fast delivery means you see a hot lead alert within seconds of it being triggered.

It Is Free

No SMS costs. No API fees. No message limits. Telegram's bot API is entirely free for sending notifications. For a business sending dozens of alerts per day, this adds up to significant savings compared to SMS-based notification systems.

Setting Up Telegram Notifications: Complete Guide

Here is a step-by-step walkthrough for connecting Telegram notifications to your Waslo WhatsApp AI agent.

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather — this is Telegram's official bot for creating other bots.

Send the command /newbot and follow the prompts:

Choose a name for your bot (e.g., "Waslo Lead Alerts")
Choose a username for your bot (must end in "bot", e.g., "waslo_leads_bot")
BotFather will give you a bot token — a long string that looks something like 1234567890:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz

Copy this token. You will need it in the next step.

Step 2: Get Your Chat ID

You need to tell Waslo where to send notifications. This is your chat ID — either your personal Telegram ID or a group chat ID.

For personal notifications:

Search for your new bot in Telegram and send it any message (like "hello")
Open this URL in your browser: https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates
Look for the "chat" object in the response — the "id" field is your chat ID

For group notifications:

Create a Telegram group (or use an existing one)
Add your bot to the group
Send a message in the group
Use the same getUpdates URL — the chat ID for groups is a negative number

Step 3: Connect in Waslo

Navigate to your Waslo dashboard, go to Integrations, and find the Telegram section.

Enter your bot token and chat ID. Click Test Connection to verify everything works — you should receive a test message in Telegram within seconds.

Step 4: Configure Notification Triggers

This is where you decide what events trigger a Telegram alert. Waslo supports three types of notification triggers:

HOT Lead Notifications

When the AI classifies a lead as HOT, you get an instant alert. The notification includes:

Lead name and phone number
Classification (HOT)
Conversation summary
A quick link to the lead's conversation in your dashboard

This is the most critical trigger. Enable this first.

Handoff Notifications

When a lead triggers the human handoff — either by saying a handoff keyword or by explicitly asking to speak to a human — you get notified immediately. The notification includes:

Lead name and phone number
The handoff reason (which keyword triggered it or if they explicitly requested a human)
Recent conversation context

This trigger ensures that when your AI agent escalates a conversation, your team knows about it in real time.

Custom Keyword Notifications

This is the most flexible trigger. Define a list of keywords, and whenever a lead mentions any of them, you get a notification. Use cases include:

Competitor mentions — Know immediately when a prospect mentions a competitor by name
Urgency signals — Keywords like "urgent," "today," "ASAP," or "deadline"
Product-specific triggers — Keywords related to your highest-value products or services
Complaint signals — Words like "problem," "issue," "complaint," or "refund"

For example, a car dealership might set up keyword notifications for "test drive," "trade-in," "financing," and specific car model names. A SaaS company might watch for "enterprise," "annual plan," "migration," and competitor product names.

Notification Message Format

Here is what a typical Telegram notification looks like when a HOT lead comes in:

🔥 HOT Lead Alert

Name: Sarah Johnson
Phone: +1 (555) ***-**89
Classification: HOT

The lead asked about enterprise pricing and wants
to schedule a demo this week. They mentioned a team
size of 50 users and a Q1 deployment timeline.

View in Dashboard →

The notification gives you enough context to prioritize without needing to open the dashboard. You can see at a glance whether this is a lead worth interrupting your current task for.

Advanced Configuration: Per-Number Triggers

If you are on Waslo's Growth plan or above and have multiple WhatsApp numbers connected, you can configure different notification triggers for each number.

For example:

Sales number — Notify on HOT leads and handoff requests
Support number — Notify on custom keywords like "refund," "cancel," and "complaint"
VIP number — Notify on every single message (using broad keyword matching)

Each number inherits your organization's default notification settings unless you explicitly override them. This means you only need to configure exceptions, not every number from scratch.

Building a Notification Workflow for Your Team

Setting up the Telegram integration is step one. Here is how to build a complete notification workflow that turns alerts into closed deals.

Create a Dedicated Team Channel

Set up a Telegram group specifically for lead notifications. Name it something clear like "Waslo Hot Leads" or "WhatsApp Sales Alerts." Add your entire sales team and the notification bot.

Establish Response Protocols

Define clear rules for your team:

HOT lead alerts: First available team member claims the lead by responding in the Telegram group. They then jump into the Waslo dashboard to take over the conversation. Target response time: under 5 minutes.
Handoff alerts: Assigned team member or round-robin rotation. Target response time: under 10 minutes.
Keyword alerts: Team reviews and decides if action is needed. No immediate response required unless the keyword signals urgency.

Use Telegram Reactions for Status

Team members can use Telegram reactions or quick replies to signal status:

Thumbs up: "I am on it"
Eyes: "Looking into it"
Checkmark: "Handled"

This prevents multiple team members from jumping on the same lead and provides visibility into response coverage.

Monitor Response Times

Track how long it takes from notification to first human response. The data consistently shows that leads contacted within 5 minutes of expressing high intent are 21 times more likely to convert than those contacted after 30 minutes.

Your Telegram notification timestamp plus your Waslo dashboard's conversation timeline gives you this metric easily.

Notification Triggers and the Sales Funnel

Here is how Telegram notifications fit into each stage of your WhatsApp sales funnel:

Top of Funnel (Awareness)

Not typically a notification trigger. Your AI agent handles initial engagement autonomously. No human action needed.

Middle of Funnel (Qualification)

Keyword notifications are useful here. If a prospect mentions a specific product, service, or competitor, your team gets a heads-up that this lead might be worth monitoring closely.

Bottom of Funnel (Close)

HOT lead notifications and handoff alerts are critical here. The prospect has shown buying intent. Your team needs to know immediately so they can step in and close.

Post-Sale (Retention)

Custom keyword notifications for words like "cancel," "unhappy," "refund," or "switch" help your team catch churn signals early. Even though the AI agent is handling the conversation, your team can intervene proactively when they see these alerts.

Telegram vs. Other Notification Methods

| Method | Speed | Cost | Mobile | Formatting | Team Support | |--------|-------|------|--------|------------|-------------| | Telegram | Instant | Free | Native app | Rich (markdown) | Group chats | | Email | Minutes | Free | Requires app | HTML | CC/lists | | SMS | Seconds | $0.01-0.05/msg | Native | Plain text | Individual only | | Slack | Instant | Free-paid | App required | Rich | Channels | | Web Push | Instant | Free | Browser only | Basic | No |

Telegram wins on the combination of speed, cost, mobile presence, and team support. Slack is a close alternative if your team already lives in Slack, but Telegram has the advantage of being universally installed on personal phones — meaning your team gets alerts even when they are not at their desk.

Common Questions

"Will I get too many notifications?"

This depends on your configuration. If you only enable HOT lead notifications, you will typically get a handful per day — exactly the ones that matter. If you add broad keyword triggers, the volume will increase. Start with HOT leads and handoff alerts, then add keyword triggers selectively as needed.

"What if multiple team members respond to the same lead?"

Use the Telegram group to coordinate. The first person to claim a lead (by reacting or replying in the group) takes ownership. In the Waslo dashboard, the conversation shows who sent the last manual message, so there is visibility into who is handling each lead.

"Can I get notifications on my smartwatch?"

Yes. Telegram notifications sync to Apple Watch, Wear OS, and other smartwatch platforms. You can see the lead alert on your wrist and decide whether to act immediately or wait until you are at your desk.

"What about notification fatigue?"

This is a real concern. The solution is precise trigger configuration. Rather than getting notified on every message, limit notifications to high-value events: HOT classifications, handoff requests, and a short list of high-intent keywords. Quality over quantity.

Making the Most of Instant Notifications

The real power of Telegram notifications is not just speed — it is the context they provide. When you receive a HOT lead alert with the prospect's name, classification, and conversation summary, you can walk into that conversation prepared.

You already know what the prospect wants. You know their budget signals. You know what questions they asked. You are not starting cold — you are continuing a conversation with full context, stepping in at exactly the moment the prospect is ready for a human.

This combination of AI-powered qualification and instant human notification creates a sales process that is both scalable and personal. The AI handles the volume. Telegram handles the speed. Your team handles the close.

Ready to Get Started?

Waslo gives you an AI-powered WhatsApp agent with flat pricing, zero per-message fees, and setup in under 2 minutes. No WhatsApp Business API required — just scan a QR code and go live.

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How to Get Instant Telegram Notifications for Hot WhatsApp Leads