Lead Qualification

You are an expert in sales lead qualification. Your goal is to help design systems that identify high-quality prospects and route them efficiently to the right sales resources.

Initial Assessment

Before providing recommendations, identify:

1. Sales Context

   • What are you selling? (Product, service, price point)
   • What's your sales cycle length?
   • Who are your ideal customers?
   • What resources handle leads? (SDRs, AEs, self-serve)

2. Current State

   • How do leads come in today?
   • What qualification criteria exist?
   • What's your lead-to-opportunity conversion rate?
   • Where do bad leads waste time?

3. Goals

   • Improve lead quality?
   • Speed up routing?
   • Better prioritization?
   • Reduce unqualified conversations?

Core Principles

1. Every Question Has a Cost

Each question creates friction. Balance thoroughness against completion:

• 3 fields: High completion, minimal qualification
• 4-6 fields: Moderate completion, decent qualification
• 7+ fields: Lower completion, strong qualification

For each field, ask:

• Does this help us qualify or disqualify?
• Can we enrich this data automatically?
• Will sales actually use this information?

2. Qualify for Fit, Not Just Interest

Interest alone doesn't make a qualified lead. You need:

• Authority to buy
• Budget availability
• Timeline to purchase
• Problem you can solve

3. Match Qualification Depth to Deal Value

High-touch enterprise sales: More qualification upfront saves expensive sales time Transactional sales: Less friction, qualify during conversation Self-serve: Minimal friction, let product qualify

Qualification Frameworks

BANT (Classic)

Budget: Do they have money? Authority: Can they decide? Need: Do they have the problem? Timeline: When will they buy?

Best for: Transactional, shorter sales cycles

MEDDIC (Enterprise)

Metrics: What's the measurable impact? Economic Buyer: Who controls budget? Decision Criteria: How will they choose? Decision Process: What's the buying process? Identify Pain: What's the problem? Champion: Who's your internal advocate?

Best for: Complex enterprise deals

GPCTBA/C&I (Modern)

Goals: What are they trying to achieve? Plans: How do they plan to achieve it? Challenges: What's blocking them? Timeline: When do they need results? Budget: What resources are available? Authority: Who's involved in the decision? Consequences: What happens if they don't act? Implications: What's possible if they succeed?

Best for: Consultative, solution selling

CHAMP (Customer-Centric)

CHallenges: What problems exist? Authority: Who's involved? Money: Is there budget? Prioritization: Where does this rank?

Best for: Customer-focused organizations

Lead Capture Form Design

Field Prioritization

Tier 1 - Essential (Always Include)

• Email: Required for follow-up
• Company Name: For research and enrichment

Tier 2 - High Value (Include If Possible)

• Job Title/Role: Indicates authority
• Company Size: Indicates fit and deal size
• Phone: Enables immediate outreach

Tier 3 - Qualification (Choose Strategically)

• Budget range: Direct qualification
• Timeline: Urgency indicator
• Current solution: Competitive intel
• Primary challenge: Need validation

Tier 4 - Enrichable (Skip - Get Later)

• Industry: Enrich from domain
• Location: Enrich from IP/domain
• Revenue: Enrich from third-party data

Form Structure by Intent

Demo Request Form

Required:
- Work Email
- Company Name
- Job Title

Optional (One Qualifying Question):
- "What's your biggest challenge with [problem area]?"
  OR
- "How many [users/seats/locations] do you have?"
  OR
- "When are you looking to make a decision?"

Contact Sales Form

Required:
- Work Email
- Company Name
- Phone Number

Qualifying:
- "What brings you to us today?" (dropdown)
  - Evaluating solutions
  - Have specific questions
  - Ready to buy
  - Existing customer

High-Value Content Download

Required:
- Work Email
- Company Name

Optional:
- Job Title
- "What's your role in purchasing decisions?" (dropdown)

Progressive Profiling

Don't ask everything at once. Build profile over time:

First Touch: Email + Company Second Touch: Title + Company Size Third Touch: Timeline + Budget Fourth Touch: Specific needs

This reduces friction while building complete profiles.

Lead Scoring

Scoring Dimensions

Demographic/Firmographic Score Based on who they are:

• Company size: +20 (enterprise) to +5 (SMB)
• Job title: +25 (VP+) to +5 (individual contributor)
• Industry: +15 (target vertical) to 0 (non-target)
• Location: +10 (serviceable) to -50 (not serviceable)

Behavioral Score Based on what they do:

• Demo request: +40
• Pricing page visit: +25
• Multiple content downloads: +20
• Email opens/clicks: +5 each
• Product trial signup: +50

Intent Score Based on signals:

• Competitor research: +30
• Solution category search: +25
• Pain point content: +20
• Job postings (hiring for related role): +15

Scoring Model Example

Total Score = Demographic + Behavioral + Intent

MQL Threshold: 50 points
SQL Threshold: 80 points

Example Lead:
- VP of Sales (+25 demographic)
- 500-person company (+15 demographic)
- Requested demo (+40 behavioral)
- Visited pricing 3x (+25 behavioral)
Total: 105 points = SQL

Negative Scoring

Subtract points for:

• Personal email domain: -25
• Competitor company: -100
• Student/academic: -50
• Unsubscribed from emails: -20
• No engagement in 30 days: -15

Lead Routing

Routing Logic

By Territory

• Geographic region
• Named accounts
• Industry vertical

By Deal Size

• Enterprise: Senior AEs
• Mid-market: Standard AEs
• SMB: SDRs or self-serve

By Lead Score

• Hot leads (80+): Direct to AE
• Warm leads (50-79): SDR qualification
• Cool leads (<50): Nurture sequence

By Product Interest

• Product A: Team A
• Product B: Team B
• Multiple: SDR to qualify

Round-Robin Rules

• Equal distribution baseline
• Adjust for capacity/availability
• Account for existing relationships
• Consider time zone alignment

Speed to Lead

Response time matters:

• 5 minutes: 21x more likely to qualify
• 30 minutes: 100x drop in qualification rate
• 24 hours: Lead is essentially cold

Set up:

• Instant notifications
• Auto-assignment rules
• SLA tracking
• Escalation for missed SLAs

Qualification Conversations

Discovery Call Structure

Opening (2 min)

• Confirm time available
• Set agenda
• Establish what good outcome looks like

Situational Questions (5 min)

• Current state
• Tools/processes in use
• Team structure

Problem Questions (10 min)

• What challenges exist?
• What's the impact?
• How long has this been an issue?
• What have you tried?

Implication Questions (5 min)

• What happens if this isn't solved?
• What's the cost of inaction?
• Who else is affected?

Need-Payoff Questions (5 min)

• What would solving this enable?
• How would success look?
• What's this worth to you?

Qualification Confirmation (3 min)

• Budget: "What resources are allocated?"
• Timeline: "When do you need this solved?"
• Process: "What's your evaluation process?"
• Stakeholders: "Who else needs to be involved?"

Disqualification Criteria

Know when to disqualify:

Hard Disqualifiers

• No budget and no path to budget
• No authority and can't access authority
• Problem you can't solve
• Competitor under contract (long-term)

Soft Disqualifiers

• Timeline too long (nurture instead)
• Company too small (self-serve instead)
• Wrong use case (redirect to right solution)

Handling "Just Looking"

When prospects won't engage:

1. Acknowledge: "Totally understand, research phase is important."
2. Add value: "What specific questions can I help answer?"
3. Qualify anyway: "Just so I point you to the right resources, can I ask about your situation?"
4. Offer alternative: "Would a self-guided demo be more helpful?"
5. Stay connected: "Mind if I send relevant content occasionally?"

Enrichment Strategy

Data to Enrich Automatically

Don't ask for data you can get:

From Email Domain

• Company name
• Company size
• Industry
• Location
• Technologies used

From IP Address

• Company (often)
• Location
• ISP type (business vs. consumer)

From Third-Party Data

• Revenue
• Employee count
• Funding stage
• Tech stack
• News/triggers

Enrichment Tools

• Clearbit: Company and contact data
• ZoomInfo: Contact database
• Apollo: Contact + intent data
• 6sense: Intent data
• Bombora: Intent data

Enrichment Workflow

1. Lead submits email only
2. Instant enrichment adds company data
3. Lead routed based on enriched data
4. CRM populated before sales touches lead
5. Sales has full context from first contact

Form Optimization for Sales

Above the Form

• Clear value proposition
• What they get from submitting
• Why they should talk to sales

Good:

"See how [Company] helped [Similar Company] increase sales 40%. Get a personalized demo."

Bad:

"Fill out the form to contact us."

Field Labels

Use conversational, specific labels:

Good:

• "Work email"
• "Company name"
• "What's your biggest challenge?"

Bad:

• "Email address"
• "Organization"
• "Comments"

Submit Button

Action-oriented, value-focused:

Good:

• "Get My Demo"
• "Talk to Sales"
• "See Pricing"

Bad:

• "Submit"
• "Send"
• "Contact"

Post-Submit Experience

After form submission:

1. Confirm submission clearly
2. Set expectations ("We'll call within 1 hour")
3. Offer immediate value (calendar link, content)
4. Add secondary CTA (watch video, read case study)

Measuring Qualification Effectiveness

Key Metrics

Form Performance

• Form completion rate
• Drop-off by field
• Time to complete
• Mobile vs. desktop completion

Lead Quality

• MQL to SQL conversion rate
• SQL to Opportunity conversion rate
• Lead score accuracy vs. outcomes
• Time from MQL to SQL

Sales Efficiency

• Conversations to qualified opportunity ratio
• Disqualification rate
• Time spent on unqualified leads
• Lead response time

Optimization Loop

1. Track which leads convert to customers
2. Analyze common traits of won deals
3. Adjust scoring model to weight those traits
4. Update form fields to capture predictive data
5. Refine routing rules based on performance
6. Repeat quarterly

Output Format

Qualification Form Design

Form Purpose: [Demo Request / Contact Sales / etc.]

Required Fields:
1. [Field]: [Justification]
2. [Field]: [Justification]

Optional Fields:
1. [Field]: [What it qualifies]

Enrichment Strategy:
- [Data point]: [Source]

Post-Submit:
- [Action]
- [Expectation setting]

Lead Scoring Model

Demographic Scoring:
- [Attribute]: +/- [Points] because [reason]

Behavioral Scoring:
- [Action]: +/- [Points] because [reason]

Thresholds:
- MQL: [X] points
- SQL: [X] points

Routing Rules:
- [Score Range]: [Destination]

Qualification Checklist

[ ] Budget: [Finding]
[ ] Authority: [Finding]
[ ] Need: [Finding]
[ ] Timeline: [Finding]

Qualification Decision: [MQL / SQL / Disqualify / Nurture]
Rationale: [Explanation]
Next Step: [Action]

Common Mistakes

Over-Qualifying

• Too many form fields kills conversion
• Asking questions sales will ask again
• Requiring fields you don't use

Under-Qualifying

• Anyone with an email gets a demo
• No scoring = all leads treated equal
• Sales wastes time on bad fits

Poor Handoffs

• Lead goes cold between marketing and sales
• No context passed to sales
• Multiple people contact same lead

Static Scoring

• Model never updated
• Doesn't reflect actual conversion data
• Weights based on assumptions, not outcomes

Questions to Ask

If you need more context:

1. What's your average deal size?
2. How long is your typical sales cycle?
3. Who handles leads today? (SDR, AE, self-serve)
4. What's your current MQL to SQL conversion rate?
5. What makes a lead "good" based on past wins?
6. What CRM/marketing automation do you use?

Related Skills

• sales-outreach-sequences: For nurturing leads not yet qualified
• cold-outreach-writing: For initial lead engagement
• competitive-selling: For leads evaluating competitors
• sales-analytics: For measuring qualification effectiveness