How to Use AI Leads Manager: Complete Step-by-Step Guide

This guide walks you through using AI Leads Manager end-to-end — from your first lead to a fully automated capture-and-nurture pipeline. Plan on about 30 minutes for the full setup, including embedding a capture form and connecting AI Email Marketing.

Introduction

AI Leads Manager is the leads management software built into Custom AI Dashboard. By the end of this guide you will have a working sales pipeline, a lead-capture form on your website, automated tagging, and (optionally) an email nurture sequence triggered every time a new lead lands.

Prerequisites

You need a Custom AI Dashboard account. That is it — no integrations to set up, no separate CRM contract, no onboarding call.

Step 1 — Open AI Leads Manager and pick your view

In the dashboard sidebar, expand "Business" and click AI Leads Manager. You land on the Dashboard tab. There are four tabs at the top:

  • Dashboard — analytics, conversion rate, pipeline value, tasks due today.
  • List — table view of every lead with sorting and filtering.
  • Kanban — drag-and-drop pipeline board.
  • Forms — your lead-capture form library.

    • Click List to start adding leads.

    Step 2 — Add your first lead manually

    Click + New Lead. Fill in the fields:

  • First name, last name, email (required).
  • Optional: phone, company, job title, website.
  • Status (default: "new"), priority (low / medium / high), source.
  • Deal value, currency, expected close date.
  • Tags — comma-separated.
  • Notes — free text for context.

    • Save. The lead now appears on the List, the Kanban (under "new"), and the Dashboard count.

    Step 3 — Bulk-import existing leads from a CSV

    If you are migrating from a spreadsheet or another CRM, click Import. Drop your CSV onto the modal. The mapper will guess columns automatically — review and adjust if needed. Click Import.

    The system handles 10,000+ rows comfortably. Duplicates by email are detected and you choose to skip or update.

    Step 4 — Build and embed a lead-capture form

    This is where the magic starts. Open the Forms tab, click + New Form.

    In the form builder:

  • Add fields — name, email, company, phone, message. Reorder by drag.
  • Pick a theme (light, dark, branded).
  • Set the heading ("Get a free quote") and the submit-button label.
  • Choose a success message or a redirect URL.
  • Set defaults — every submission becomes a new lead with this status, this source, these tags.
  • Add a notification email address — you will get an email every time someone submits.

    • Save the form. Click Embed to grab two snippet options: an HTML script (drop into any site) or an iframe (works in any CMS that allows raw HTML, including most WordPress, Shopify, and Webflow blocks).

    Paste the snippet into your website and reload. You now have a live capture form pumping leads into your pipeline.

    Step 5 — Work the pipeline on the kanban board

    Open the Kanban tab. Each column is a stage. Drag a lead between columns to move them down the pipeline. Click any card to open the detail drawer.

    In the drawer:

  • See every field on the lead.
  • See the activity timeline.
  • Add a new activity — note, call, email, meeting, task, or a stage change.
  • Set a "next follow-up at" date — overdue tasks surface on the Dashboard.
  • Update deal value, expected close date, status, priority.

    • This is where most of your daily work happens. Open the Dashboard each morning, scan tasks due today and overdue, click into each, work through them.

    Step 6 — Connect AI Email Marketing for automated nurture

    Open AI Email Marketing (sidebar, also under Business). Build a sequence — say a 5-email "new-lead nurture" series. In the sequence trigger settings, choose:

  • Trigger type: lead created, or status changed, or tag added.
  • For "tag added," pick a tag (e.g. "demo-requested") that your form sets by default.

    • Save and activate. Now every new lead from your form is automatically enrolled in the sequence. Every send is logged back on the lead's timeline so your sales team sees what marketing has already done.

    Step 7 — Review weekly on the Dashboard

    Open the Dashboard tab once a week. You see:

  • Total leads, won count, lost count, conversion rate.
  • Pipeline value and won value, by currency.
  • Leads grouped by stage, by source, and by priority.
  • Tasks due today and tasks overdue.

    • Use this to spot patterns: which sources are converting best, which stage leads stall at, who needs a follow-up call.

    Tips and Best Practices

  • Use tags aggressively. Tag by industry, lead source campaign, content downloaded. Tags drive sequence enrolment and segmentation.
  • Set a "next follow-up at" date on every active lead. This is what surfaces them on the Dashboard.
  • Log lost reasons. Over time you will see clusters — "too expensive," "chose competitor X," "bad timing" — that inform your sales pitch and pricing.
  • Audit your pipeline weekly. Anything stuck in "qualified" or "proposal" for more than two weeks needs a personal nudge.

    • Troubleshooting

    My form is not submitting. Check your browser console for errors. The most common cause is a Content Security Policy blocking the script — switch to the iframe embed instead.

    Imports are creating duplicates. Make sure email addresses are clean (no trailing whitespace) and pick "update" rather than "skip" on the import modal so existing leads get updated instead of duplicated.

    Email sequence is not triggering. Confirm the sequence is set to "active" (not "draft"), and that the trigger conditions match your form's defaults.

    FAQ

    How many leads can I store? No hard limit — the system is designed to handle tens of thousands per account comfortably.

    Can I have multiple capture forms? Yes. Build one per page, per campaign, per offer. Each tracks its own submission count.

    Can the pipeline be customised? The default 7 stages cover most sales motions. Custom stages are on the roadmap.

    Where do email sends from sequences appear? On the lead's activity timeline as "email" entries with the subject and timestamp.

    Conclusion

    AI Leads Manager is designed to take you from spreadsheet-and-Gmail to a real, working sales pipeline in well under an hour. The combination of pipeline, capture forms, and tight integration with AI Email Marketing covers the full lead-to-customer journey without needing a separate CRM contract.

    Open AI Leads Manager and capture your first lead today.