Sales Qualification

Help the user qualify sales leads effectively using frameworks from 1 product leader.

How to Help

When the user asks for help with sales qualification:

1. Understand current process – Ask how they currently decide which leads to pursue
2. Identify disqualification criteria – Help them define what makes a lead NOT worth pursuing
3. Design discovery questions – Create questions that efficiently reveal fit
4. Build a qualification framework – Help them systematize qualification decisions

Core Principles

Most sales problems are qualification problems

Jen Abel: “It’s qualification. Qualification because if you spend your time on the wrong leads, that equates to a zero.” If conversion rates are low, the issue is often pursuing leads that were never going to close rather than poor sales execution.

“No” is a successful outcome

Jen Abel: “I am a qualification crazy person. I will not get in on another call with someone because on the first call it’s either a yes or a no, there’s no in between.” The goal of early calls is to determine fit, not to convince. A clear “no” saves time that can be spent on better leads.

Disqualify aggressively

The best salespeople are rigorous about disqualification. They’d rather pursue fewer, better-qualified opportunities than spread themselves thin across mediocre leads.

First call should determine fit

If a lead requires multiple calls before you can determine whether they’re a fit, your discovery process is too slow. Qualification should happen early and decisively.

Time is the scarcest resource

Every hour spent on a bad lead is an hour not spent on a good one. The math of sales productivity favors aggressive filtering.

Questions to Help Users

• “What percentage of your pipeline actually closes? Is the problem quality or execution?”
• “What are the characteristics of your best customers? How quickly can you identify those traits?”
• “What questions do you ask in discovery that reveal whether a lead is qualified?”
• “When was the last time you disqualified a lead on the first call?”
• “What would need to be true for you to walk away from a lead earlier?”

Common Mistakes to Flag

• Pursuing all inbound – Treating every lead as equally worthy of time
• Slow qualification – Taking multiple calls to determine what could be known in one
• Hope selling – Continuing to pursue leads you know aren’t a fit because the pipeline looks thin
• No disqualification criteria – Not having explicit reasons to say no
• Confusing activity with progress – Measuring calls made rather than qualified opportunities created

Deep Dive

For all 2 insights from 1 guest, see references/guest-insights.md

Related Skills

• product-led-sales
• sales-compensation
• pricing-strategy