# From a conversation to a lead to a deal: the chain, step by step

> How messages become a captured field, a lead, a score, a qualification, a deal and a hand-over — and how to read the chain when it surprises you.

Source: https://www.linkubit.com/docs/conversation-to-lead-to-deal  
Section: Linkubit help centre › How the AI agent works  
Updated: 2026-10-09

## In short

A captured field creates the lead; fields and messages move the score; a score band or a completed goal qualifies the lead; lead.qualified opens the deal and runs any other workflow listening for it. Every link is a setting you can change, and every link is recorded in the conversation's automatic events and the audit log.

## The chain

| Step | What causes it | Setting that controls it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Field captured | The agent reads it from a message after replying | Fields you collect |
| Lead created (`lead.created`) | The first of the steering goal's required fields is captured | The goal's **Required fields** |
| Score changes (`contact.scored`) | A rule's condition starts or stops holding | Scoring rules |
| Lead qualified (`lead.qualified`) | A goal with **Qualifies as** completes, or `qualify_lead` runs — on the starter set, a score of 40 | The goal, the **Score qualifies the lead** workflow, its bands |
| Deal opened | `lead.qualified` → **Qualified lead → pipeline** | Workflows |
| Hand-over | A goal marked to escalate completes, an escalation topic, or `escalate_conversation` in any workflow on any of the events above | The goal, Human escalation, Workflows |

## A worked example

A retreat's agent asked for guest name, property, enquiry type, group size and date (its collecting goal, marked to escalate on completion). Its setup had also written a workflow: on `lead.qualified`, create a call task and **escalate_conversation**. The customer wrote:

1. "Hi" → **Replied to us** +10. Score 10.
2. A name, then a property → **Property Selected** +20 (the workspace's own rule). Score 30. The property is a required field, so the lead is created.
3. "Vellore" — the fifth message → **Engaged — five or more messages** +15. Score 45.
4. 45 ≥ 40 → **Score qualifies the lead** sets the class to low → `lead.qualified` fires.
5. Two workflows were on `lead.qualified`: the starter one opened a deal, and the setup's one created a task and handed the conversation to a person — with group size and date still uncollected.
6. The customer's next answer arrived in human mode, so nothing replied to it.

No escalation topic matched, and the AI decided nothing: a message count crossed a score band, and a workflow acted on the band. The fix is one of: switch off the workflow that escalates on `lead.qualified` (the goal already escalates when the details are in), raise the score bands, or stop rewarding a message count.

## Reading the chain on a real conversation

1. Open the conversation and expand the **automatic events** on the message where it happened — score changes, lead, qualification, deal, task and hand-over appear in order.
2. Open the contact's score breakdown to see which rules hold.
3. In **Settings › Audit log**, the `workflow:<trigger>` entries list which workflows ran and each action's result.
4. Then change the one link that should not have fired, and replay the conversation in **Test agent**.

## Related
- [Why did the agent hand over or stop replying?](https://www.linkubit.com/docs/why-the-agent-handed-over-or-stopped-replying)
- [Workflows, explained](https://www.linkubit.com/docs/workflows-explained)
- [Lead scoring, explained](https://www.linkubit.com/docs/lead-scoring-explained)