Lead Qualification: A Complete Guide to Converting More Qualified Leads

Sushma Nagendran
Published
February 3, 2025

In a rush and need the TL/DR version?

Short Summary

Generating leads has gotten a lot easier, thanks to the dozens of sales intelligence tools offering databases with millions of company names. But lead qualification, or finding the right leads that actually match your ideal customer profile and show real potential, is the real challenge. 

Sifting through large lead lists, filtering out irrelevant contacts, and narrowing it down to prospects worth pursuing is a long and difficult, yet crucial process for B2B companies. After all, no matter how great your product is or how skilled your sales team might be, none of it will matter if your efforts aren’t directed toward the right leads and accounts.

What is lead qualification

Lead qualification is the process of identifying if a lead you have is a right fit for your business and is likely to convert in the immediate or near future.  

Lead qualification involves determining if the product or service you offer solves a problem for them, helps them grow their business, and fits into their budgets and strategy. 

Why lead qualification matters in sales and marketing

Lead qualification is critical for sales and marketing teams because it ensures that all the time, effort, and resources are channelled towards leads that are more likely to convert and bring in revenues. It helps teams focus and spend time on nurturing high-value leads and get better returns on their time investment. 

When leads aren’t properly qualified, sales teams would end up contacting every lead in the account book, wasting valuable time and resources on prospects that are unlikely to convert. This leads to inefficiency and delays growth. 

Qualifying leads is essential to also help your sales teams tailor their outreach and increase the chances of conversions. 

Difference between qualified and unqualified leads

Qualified leads are those that are more likely to convert into customers, and more likely to bring in revenues. They are leads that show potential and are considered important enough for sales teams to invest time in for outreach and engagement. 

Unqualified leads are those that might match your ideal customer profile but are not a good fit at the moment because they have no need for a product like yours, and don't have the budgets and other prerequisites to buy a product like yours, or might not find value in what you have to offer. 

Types of qualified leads (MQL vs SQL)

In most B2B companies, leads are generated by the marketing team and are then passed on to the sales team. Leads generated by the marketing team first go through a process of qualification, and these marketing qualified leads (MQL) are then passed to the sales team for further qualification. The sales qualified leads (SQL) are then handed to sales development representatives (SDRs) for outreach.

An MQL is one that the marketing team believes has the potential to become a customer, but the lead becomes an SQL only after it is certain that the lead is willing to actually consider buying the product in the near future. Even if an MQL doesn't turn into an SQL, most organizations continue to nurture these leads so they might buy in the future. 

  • MQL - An MQL is a lead the marketing team considers more likely to convert, compared to other leads. This lead qualification is done based on intent signals the team receives, such as clicks on CTAs, website page visits, engagement on social posts, etc. 
  • SQL - An SQL is a lead or contact who is willing to enter the active sales cycle and have a conversation with the sales or presales team with an intent to buy the product. 

Role of lead qualification in the sales funnel

Lead qualification is an important step in the sales funnel. It comes between the phase when the company has an extensive list of raw leads, and the phase when the list is cleaned up to only have leads that are more likely to convert into customers in the near future. 

This is essential to make sure your sales team operates efficiently and focuses all efforts on high-potential leads. 

Key steps in lead qualification

Lead qualification is an ongoing process in any B2B organization. This is typically what the process looks like: 

1. Gathering initial contact information 

The first step is documenting and enriching the leads with details such as website visits, email subscriptions, or social media interactions. 

2. Evaluation against the ideal customer profile (ICP)

Once you have a basic understanding of the lead, you check if the lead matches your ICP. If there is a good fit, the lead is then passed on to the sales team as an MQL.  

3. Assessment of buying signals

Before the sales teams start reaching out to the SQLs, it is important to dive deeper into the signals and intent data about the leads to get a better understanding of how likely they are to enter the sales cycle. This will also help the sales teams have better conversations during the initial outreach.   

4. Discovery call by the sales team

The next step is a discovery call conducted by a sales development representative. This is to check if the lead is in the market for a product like yours, whether they are considering other alternatives, etc. 

5. Determining qualification criteria 

After the discovery call, the sales team qualifies the lead further to decide if the lead is worth proposing. This is the core of the lead qualification process as this is where the team decides whether the lead goes down the funnel or is discarded for the moment. 

What is lead scoring

Lead scoring is the process of assigning scores against your leads and sorting them using intent signals based on how likely they are to convert. It involves ranking leads against others based on different criteria relevant to your business and the market you are in.

How lead scoring works

Lead scoring helps organizations manage their leads in a more structured, analytical process to improve efficiency. 

In most B2B companies, lead scoring is handled by both the sales and marketing teams, using lead scoring models customized for their business. Each organization defines the categories or criteria based on which leads are scored and comes up with a customized model or system that is followed for lead scoring. 

Importance of lead scoring in the qualification process

Lead scoring enables organizations to prioritize leads and start reaching out to the ones more likely to convert. The lead scoring process helps bring structure and order to the sales outreach process, improve revenue forecasting and plan better. 

Popular lead qualification frameworks

Lead qualification looks different at every organization, and the exact process depends on the type of business you’re in, the type of clients you deal with, and who your target audience is. You will have to have a clear framework that defines and documents how leads are to be qualified in your organization. 

There are many popular, tried and tested frameworks available that you can customize and use for your business. We’ll go over the three most common ones here: 

1. BANT Framework

BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe and is among the most common frameworks.  You can decide to either pursue or discard a lead based on insight into these four basic but important pieces of information about the lead. 

🔹Budget

The first step in qualifying a lead is determining if your product or service fits their budget, especially if your offering is on the higher end of the price spectrum. 

🔹Authority

The next step is identifying whether the prospect has the authority to make purchasing decisions. If they don’t, it’s essential to involve the decision-maker early in the process to avoid unnecessary delays. This isn’t about bypassing your initial contact but rather ensuring that the conversation includes the right people to ensure the sales cycles are not too long.

🔹Need

Understanding the prospect’s needs is another critical element of BANT. Ask questions such as, “What needs are you trying to meet, and what has stood in the way so far?” This helps you determine if there’s a pressing requirement for your product or if the prospect is merely exploring options. You can then tailor your offering to address their specific pain points.

🔹Timeframe

Finally, knowing the prospect’s timeline is important while prioritizing leads. This allows you to align your efforts with their decision-making process. This helps you focus on prospects who are ready to act soon and avoid wasting time on those just shopping around.

Pros of the BANT framework

  • BANT provides a clear and straightforward framework for qualifying leads, making it simple and easy for sales teams to implement.
  • By focusing on high-potential leads, it saves time and resources and drives efficiency.
  • You can uncover critical insights about the prospect’s readiness to purchase and tailor your conversations or pitches accordingly.
  • You can make sure that only leads with real potential move forward.

Cons of the BANT framework

  • BANT is too focused on sales needs and the framework can feel self-serving if not handled carefully.
  • It doesn’t account for more complex buyer journeys, where certain factors that you can’t quantify easily may play a significant role.
  • BANT assumes the lead is already familiar with your brand, making it less effective for cold outreach.

When to use BANT

  • BANT is particularly effective for products or services with a higher price point, where budget and decision-making authority are critical.
  • This framework helps quickly get to the buying committee and identify the right people to engage with.
  • The framework works best when engaging with warm leads who have already expressed interest or are familiar with your offering.
  • This is ideal for time-sensitive deals when sales teams need to prioritize prospects based on readiness to buy.

2. CHAMP Framework

CHAMP stands for Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization.

🔹Challenges

CHAMP begins by identifying the challenges your prospect is facing. Questions like, “What challenges are you hoping to solve?” or “What’s missing from your current solution?” uncover pain points that your product or service can address. Focusing on their challenges positions you as a problem solver rather than a salesperson. It also provides insights to tailor your pitch, highlighting how your offering specifically addresses their needs.

🔹Authority

This helps identify whether your lead can make decisions or if they need input from other stakeholders. Asking, “Do you have purchasing authority?” or “Who else needs to be involved in this decision?” helps identify the buying committee.

🔹Money

Next comes the budget. Questions like, “Does your budget allow for this solution?” help understand financial situations and enable you to tailor the pitch and product plans accordingly.

🔹Prioritization

Rather than relying on a fixed timeline, CHAMP emphasizes prioritization. It nudges you to explore questions like “Which challenges need to be solved first?” or “What other solutions are you considering?” so you get a better sense of how urgent the need is and where your solution fits within their priorities. 

Pros of the CHAMP Framework

  • CHAMP is customer-focused, prioritizing the prospect’s needs over the seller’s agenda.
  • It is flexible, emphasizing prioritization, which allows for more adaptive sales strategies.
  • The framework drives trust and helps nurture better relationships, positioning sales teams as problem solvers.

Cons of the CHAMP Framework

  • CHAMP can be time-intensive, as it requires identifying challenges and navigating organizational structures.
  • It demands skilled sales representatives with strong communication and active listening abilities to execute effectively.
  • It is not ideal for hot leads who are ready to make a purchase quickly, as it focuses more on relationship building than immediate selling.

When to Use CHAMP

  • CHAMP is ideal for warm leads who need more education and guidance about their challenges and solutions.
  • It works well in complex sales cycles, where decisions require ongoing engagement and multiple touchpoints.
  • It is particularly suited for industries with multiple stakeholders or decision-makers, where nurturing relationships over time is necessary.

3. MEDDIC Framework

MEDDIC stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Pain Identification, and Champion.

🔹Metrics

This helps identify quantifiable results the prospect wants to achieve. For example, are they looking to boost revenue or cut costs? This helps create your pitch accordingly.

🔹Economic Buyer

The buying committee is critical, and this factor helps determine who has the final decision-making authority so you can engage this individual or team early in the process to enable decision-making.

🔹Decision Criteria

This helps understand the factors the prospect uses to evaluate vendors, so you can customize your pitch for them and make sure you stay ahead of competitors. 

🔹Decision Process

It is critical to understand how decisions are made within the organization. Be sure to ask about approval steps and timelines to better position your product and allocate resources.

🔹Pain Identification

Take the time to clearly identify the challenges your prospect is facing. Make sure you address their pain points and highlight how your product or solution meets their needs.

🔹Champion

Especially in a large organization with a large buying committee, it is important to find an internal advocate who believes in your solution so you can work with them to navigate the buying process and build internal support.

🔹Competition

This stresses learning about who else they are evaluating so you can establish your competitive edge. 

Best use cases

  • This is ideal and important for large enterprise deals and ideal for teams managing high-value sales.
  • The framework works when procurement processes at companies are complex because it provides a structured approach to making decisions.

Modern lead qualification strategies

Lead qualification is a process that’s perfect for automation and the use of AI. It’s repetitive by nature and needs to be done consistently, making it an ideal task to be handed over to AI.

AI-native tools such as Highperformr can be used to set up automated workflows that run lead qualification checks and filters on all contacts periodically and give a prioritized list of high-potential leads. 

AI tools can be used to make the lead qualification process easier, faster, and more efficient. 

Here’s how AI can help with lead qualification: 

  • Identify ICP match 
  • Enrich contacts for initial outreach
  • Curate, enhance and enrich leads with signals and social insight 
  • Analyze competitor activity to qualify leads
  • Group leads by categories and filters to help prioritize leads 
  • Score leads as per your organization’s lead scoring models and criteria 
  • Manage workflows to route leads to SDRs 
  • Craft personalized conversation starters

Benefits of AI lead qualification

  • Businesses of all sizes can streamline the sales funnel and focus resources on closing deals with your top prospects.
  • Follow-up automation can be used in the early stages of handling a lead, such as when they’ve had their first conversation with sales and are first evaluating the product. 
  • Accurately score every lead in real-time without too much manual effort. 
  • Never lose track of a lead, thanks to constant automated lead monitoring.

Limitations of AI lead qualification

  • Despite the popularity of AI SDRs, sales continue to be a process that requires a human touch, so AI lead qualification cannot entirely replace human effort 
  • Using AI lead qualification tools for discovery calls might not be comprehensive because AI might not be able to grasp subtle, sensitive nuances and can miss important details

Best practices for lead qualification

Lead qualification, as you can see, is a critical function for any business, helping to ensure that your team focuses on the most promising prospects. While the specifics of the process will vary across organizations, there are certain best practices that apply to any lead qualification process. When setting up the process, be sure to follow the best practices so your foundation is strong and you don’t falter on the basics.

✅ Create business-specific qualification criteria

Develop clear and comprehensive qualification standards specific to the product you’re selling, the market you are in, the sales cycle for your business, etc. 

✅ Develop sharp ideal customer profiles

Write out an ideal customer profile that includes target accounts and ICP individuals within these accounts who are the decision-makers part of the buying committee.

✅ Ensure alignment between sales and marketing

Lead qualification is a process handled by both the sales and marketing teams, so it is important to ensure that both teams are aligned. It ensures that each team is clear about the criteria and what their responsibilities are to achieve the goal. Smooth collaboration between the teams helps avoid dropped leads and accurate lead qualification.

✅ Keep disqualified ICP leads in your nurture pipeline.

There might be many leads that don’t make the cut now but still match your ICP. Be sure to engage with them and nurture them so that it is easier for you to convert the leads whenever they are ready to buy. 

✅ Document everything

Business priorities keep evolving, and lead qualification criteria need to be tweaked and iterated periodically. As this happens, it is important to document all processes, criteria, and workflows. 

✅ Review and optimize regularly

Be sure to periodically evaluate your lead qualification criteria, frameworks, and processes to identify gaps and to make sure the processes are not outdated. 

✅ Be sure to use advanced technologies like AI

The market is rife with AI tools for lead qualification. Be sure to include them in your tech stack and workflows to make the most of the technology and tools available at your disposal so you’re able to scale your operations efficiently. 

Common mistakes to avoid in the lead qualification process

As you scale your sales efforts and establish a lead qualification process, it’s essential to navigate the many nuances involved. Even small missteps can hinder your ability to identify and engage the right prospects. Here are some common mistakes to watch out for:

❌ Having a generic ICP

A broad, imprecise ICP that lends itself to multiple interpretations defeats the purpose of having an ICP to qualify a lead against.   won’t provide the focus you need. Ensure your ICP is specific and tailored to your company,highlight details of both the right accounts and the key decision-makers at the company.

❌ Over-qualification

Setting very strict criteria can result in disqualifying leads that may still have potential. While it is important to prioritize and focus, being inflexible and strict can result in missing opportunities.

❌ Under-qualification

Just as over-qualification can be harmful, under-qualifying can also bring in inefficiencies as your team would end up spending time chasing prospects that are unlikely to convert.

❌ Misalignment between sales and marketing

If sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned on how leads are qualified, how MQLs and SQLs are defined, and who is in charge of which part of the lead qualification process, the entire function of lead qualification can fall through. 

❌ Not investing time in discovery

The discovery phase is one of the most important parts of the lead qualification process. Skipping this, or relying entirely on AI tools for this step can be a mistake as you might miss out on small but important insights about a lead’s needs, challenges, or intent. 

❌ Using the wrong lead qualification framework

We discussed many lead qualification frameworks, but not every model is suitable for every kind of business. Be sure to pick a lead qualification model that works best for the size and scale of your business and the kind of leads you’re targeting

❌ Ignoring leads that aren’t ready to buy now

Often, there are many leads that match your ICP but aren’t ready to buy now. These leads can be precious, and it is important to not ignore them during the qualification process. If these are disqualified and discarded, you will miss out on a solid opportunity to nurture leads in such a way that they are aware of your brand and will convert more easily when they are actually ready to buy. 

❌ Dismissing AI tools and technology 

Relying solely on manual processes despite the availability of tools limits your ability to scale. Investing in automation and AI lead qualification tools will enhance efficiency, accuracy, and your ability to scale lead qualification.

Conclusion

Highperformr is an AI-native tool that has been built to help businesses with lead qualification. Highperformr provides you access to signals that help qualify leads based on buying intent, ICP match, social signals, and other such signals that help prioritize your account book and reach out to the leads that are most likely to convert and spearfish leads with insight that helps you personalize outreach with precision. 

To learn about how you can use Highperformr for lead qualification, schedule a demo with our GTM engineer today! 

Frequently asked questions

Try Highperformr for Free

No credit card required

Related Articles

Join 4,000+ others who use and love Highperformr.

Start for Free now.