Send new demo requests to your sales channel
A rep sees each inbound demo request in #sales the moment it lands, and claims it with an emoji reaction before anyone else replies.
New submission on your "Request a demo" form
Send a channel message to #sales with the prospect's name, company and email
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
Inbound demo requests go cold quickly, and the usual delay is not the reply itself but the twenty minutes before anyone notices the request exists. This flow posts each submission from your demo form into #sales, with the company and job title in the first line so a rep can judge the lead without opening anything.
Small sales teams that keep Slack open all day use it as their queue. Whoever takes the lead reacts to the message, everyone else moves on, and the follow-up happens in a thread underneath rather than in a separate tool.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish your demo request form first. The Demo Request Form template already asks for Work Email, Company and Job Title, which is what a rep needs to judge a lead before the first call.
- 2
In Zapier, set formformform's New Submission trigger to watch that demo form on its own, so #sales never picks up traffic from your contact or newsletter forms.
- 3
Add Slack's Send Channel Message action, authorise the workspace, and pick #sales as the destination. Give the bot a name like "new demo request" so the source is obvious in the sidebar.
- 4
Build the first line as First Name, Last Name, then Company — that line is the whole message for anyone skimming the channel on a phone.
- 5
Put Job Title and Company Size on the second line. Those two decide whether the lead goes to the rep who handles self-serve or the one who handles teams.
- 6
Give Work Email a line of its own so it can be copied in one go, and leave the remaining answers in your responses list.
- 7
Map "What problem are you trying to solve?" as the closing block; it is usually the sentence that decides who claims the lead.
- 8
Send one test submission, check how the message renders in #sales, then turn the Zap on and agree that a raised-hand reaction means the lead is taken.
What maps where
Using the Demo Request Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | Slack |
|---|---|
| First Name | First line of the Slack message, ahead of the company |
| Company | First line, so the channel scans as a list of accounts |
| Job Title | Second line, beside the company size |
| Company Size | Second line, used to route the lead to the right rep |
| Work Email | Its own line, kept clean so it can be copied in one go |
| What problem are you trying to solve? | Closing block of the message |
Variations worth knowing
Add a second Slack step after the channel message — a direct message to whoever owns enterprise deals — and filter it on Company Size. The channel keeps the full record, while the DM only fires for the handful of leads worth interrupting someone for.
Slack's channel message action returns a message timestamp. Feed that into a second Slack step so a qualification checklist lands as a threaded reply, and the rep's notes end up under the lead instead of scattered down the channel.
If something isn't arriving
Slack only lists channels the authorising account can post in, and a private channel needs the app invited with /invite first. Join or invite, then refresh the channel list in the action step rather than typing the name by hand.
Notifications come from the mention inside the message, not from the Zap. Drop @channel from the template and let people set their own keyword alerts, or keep the mention behind a filter so it only fires for the leads that warrant it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I post demo requests to a private Slack channel?
Yes. Invite the Zapier app to the private channel with /invite, then refresh the channel list in the action step so it appears. Everything else works the same way; the only difference is which people in the workspace can read the lead.
Does a reply in the Slack thread reach the prospect?
No. The connection runs one way — a submission triggers the message, and nothing typed in Slack is written back to the form or sent onwards. Reply by email or phone using the details the message carries, and the thread stays internal.
Should I map every answer into the message?
You can, though a long message is harder to act on. Map the handful a rep needs to decide who takes it, and open the response in formformform for the rest — the full submission sits there, searchable and exportable, whenever anyone needs it.
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Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
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