What is Lead Qualification?

What is Lead Qualification? (Definition, MQLs, SQLs, Frameworks, etc.)

According to MarketingSherpa, about 73% of B2B leads are not sales-ready when first generated.

Unfortunately, this data shows that many sales teams keep going after leads that are not a good fit instead of focusing on qualified leads. Perhaps they don’t know how to distinguish between serious customers and curious browsers.

The good news is that lead qualification fixes this issue. It helps businesses ignore distractions and focus on the people most likely to buy their products.

In this article, I'll walk you through everything you need to know about qualifying leads, including their importance, common types, and popular frameworks. I will also give a step-by-step guide on how to qualify leads and the five best tools for lead qualification in your business.

But before any of that, we need to know what lead qualification is.

What is Lead Qualification?

Lead Qualification is simply the process that determines whether a person or company is interested in buying what you are offering, and whether they can afford it. In other words, it involves knowing if they match your ideal customer profile (ICP) and are a good prospect for your service or product.

To help you understand better, here is an example.

Let’s say you run a marketing agency, and you use a tool like meetergo or one of the best lead capture tools to create a lead capture form on your website. The questions on the form are:

• What is your company size?
• What is your budget?
• When do you want to start your campaign?

Two leads fill out the form.

Lead A’s answers: “10-30 employees”, “$10,000”, “ Next month”.

Lead B’s answers: “1-5 employees”, “$120”, “Not sure when”.

Thanks to the responses from the form, meetergo will automatically recognize Lead A as a qualified lead and ping the right team member to proceed. Lead B, on the other hand, could be tagged as undecided.

This process of qualifying potential leads is what we call lead qualification.

How is Lead Qualification Different for Marketing and Sales Teams?

Marketing and Sales teams work hand in hand; however, they have specific roles.

The marketing team is responsible for attracting a large pool of leads. To do so, they collect information from forms or email sign-ups and filter potential customer data using tools like meetergo or HubSpot.

The marketing team usually qualifies leads based on engagement and behavior. For instance, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) can be people who have visited the pricing or demo booking page, downloaded an e-book, registered for a webinar, or clicked important links in a marketing email.

The goal is to identify who fits the ideal customer profile (ICP), such as job title, industry, or company size.

After filtering these leads, the marketing team passes them on to the Sales teams. The Sales team then qualifies these MQLs further by checking who is more likely to become a customer. They will call, email, or meet with them to see if they have problems and the budget to solve them.

In a video, digital marketing expert John Arnott summarized the difference between marketing and sales teams in lead qualification. Here’s what he said: “The role of Marketing is to bring qualified leads to the sales team. The role of Sales is to take those qualified leads through the sales process to close sales.”

Why is Lead Qualification Important?

Lead qualification is important because it helps sales and marketing teams identify high-potential prospects most likely to become customers. It improves sales efficiency, increases conversion rates, reduces cost, and creates a stronger sales pipeline.

A recent research from DC Analytics indicates that about 79% of marketing leads never materialize in sales due to poor lead qualification.

This statistic is evidence that without a lead qualification strategy, you will lose many potential customers.

Moreover, as the saying goes, time is money. Without a good sales qualification process, sales reps will waste hours chasing unfit leads, which will slow down revenue growth.

In fact, a statement by Thibault Heinkens, from Teamleader CRM, supports this: “Lead Qualification will make sure you don’t waste time on resources or unqualified leads.”

Where Does Lead Qualification Fit in the Sales Process?

Lead qualification typically happens early in the sales process, between the marketing and sales stages. In business, we can divide the sales process into four(4) key steps:

• Lead generation
• Qualification
• Nurturing
• Closing

1 . Lead Generation

Generating leads is the first step and probably the most important for marketers. According to Ruler Analytics, 91% of marketers say that lead generation is their top priority.

The reason is simple: Without leads, there will be no conversion rates, sales, or revenue. Everything begins with getting leads.

2 . Lead Qualification

As a business owner, you may understand that not every lead will be converted into a paying customer. Based on this, most businesses ask a common question: How do we know or identify which leads to chase?

A lead qualification tool like meetergo can help you create forms that ask questions like:

• What is your business size?
• What is your budget?

When do you want to start?

The answers to these questions will help you spot the right leads.

3 . Nurturing

Nurturing is the third step in this flow and is as essential for businesses as the first two steps. Even though qualifying a lead is a step in the right direction, some qualified leads don’t buy your product immediately. That is where the concept of nurturing comes in.

You need to build a relationship with them by staying in touch through emails, follow-up calls, or helpful content. By doing so, you are building trust. And when they are finally ready, they won’t hesitate to choose you.

I like how Waseem Bashir, a B2B consultant and the Founder/CEO of Apexure, illustrated it:

“Think of it as if you are walking with somebody and holding their hand to take the next step towards better business decisions.” He couldn’t have said it any better.

This illustration demonstrates that you have to follow your qualified leads every step of the way.

4 . Closing

After going through the above steps, you will still have one final non-negotiable step: Closing.

This is when the sales team openly makes the offer and guides the lead toward a decision based on the ultimate goal, which is to turn them into paying customers.

Closing a deal becomes faster if all the steps are done right.

Common Types of Qualified Leads

There are three common types of Qualified Leads.

• Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
• Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
• Product Qualified Lead (PQL)

Let’s dive into each one of them.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

The Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service by engaging with your marketing materials but is still not ready to make a purchase.

A few things they might do:

• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Visit your website repeatedly
• Attend a webinar
• Download your free materials (e.g, ebook)

All these behaviors are signals about their interest, but they still need more nurturing before they can make a purchase decision.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

The Sales Qualified Lead(SQL) is not just interested in the product or service but has shown a certain level of engagement that goes beyond simple interest. Their behavior suggests a clear buying intent.

An example would be a CEO who reads many case studies on your website and decides to fill in a booking form through meetergo to schedule a live demo of your product (e.g., CRM tool).

In the form, he clearly states that his company is looking for an alternative platform to switch to the following month.

We can call this lead a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) because they are interested in the product and ready to make a purchasing decision.

Product Qualified Lead (PQL)

Unlike the previous lead types, the Product Qualified Lead has used your product(perhaps a free trial) thoroughly enough to understand its value. But they don’t stop there. Their actions show a strong buying interest.

Such actions may include:

• Using the product actively after signing up
• Bringing in team members
• Exploring premium features
• Hitting usage limits

Aside from the ones listed above, there are many other actions we can use to spot a PQL.

Again, if a user contacts your customer support team after using the product to discuss the pricing plans and features included in the paid plan, you might be dealing with a PQL.

Popular Lead Qualification Frameworks

Among all the popular lead qualification frameworks, there are three that stand out:

• B.A.N.T
• C.H.A.M.P
• M.E.D.D.I.C

We will look at them in detail and mention the pros and cons of each.

B.A.N.T

Sales Teams craft questions using this framework to determine the resources and urgency of the lead. B.A.N.T stands for:

• Budget: What is the lead's budget?
• Authority: Who has the authority to make the purchasing decision?
• Need: What issues are they facing that your product can solve?
• Timeline: When are they planning to make that purchase?

Salespeople use this framework mostly in the early stages of the sales process, especially for fast-moving deals. For example, a sales team from a SaaS company selling project management tools at an affordable price (say $50) can use B.A.N.T. to qualify leads quickly.

Using this technique, you will have to ask direct questions early to decide if the lead has the budget, the authority to make the buying decision, the challenges they are facing, and when they want to implement the solution. This will quickly show if they are ready or not.

Though B.A.N.T. is a useful framework with advantages, it also has some disadvantages.

Pros

• Simple and quick to apply
• Helps to avoid wasting time and energy

Cons

• Can disqualify future great leads
• Does not focus on the lead’s challenges or pain

C.H.A.M.P

Unlike B.A.N.T., the C.H.A.M.P. framework focuses on understanding the lead’s pain points before considering the financial aspect. It stands for:

• Challenges: What are the pain points of the lead?
• Authority: Are they the decision-maker?
• Money: What is their financial capability?
• Prioritization: What is the level of urgency?

Like B.A.N.T., the C.H.A.M.P. framework is perfect. Below are its pros & cons.

Pros

• Centers around the prospect
• Customer-friendly
• Focuses on solving problems

Cons

• Takes time to qualify
• A bit more complex to implement

M.E.D.D.I.C

Lastly, the M.E.D.D.I.C framework goes deeper into the buying process, understanding your lead's numbers, decision-making, and real pain points. It stands for:

• Metrics: What are the expected business results?
• Economic Buyer: Who is in charge of the budget?
• Decision Criteria: What are some of the factors that influence the decision?
• Decision Process: What’s the decision process?
• Identify Pain: What’s the main problem?
• Champion: Who inside the company can help you push the sale forward?

Let’s check out the pros & cons of M.E.D.D.I.C.

Pros

• Provides clear and measurable goals
• Helps with complex deals
• Gives insights into the buyer’s motivation

Cons

• Requires more time and training
• Too detailed for small sales
• Relies too much on data

How to Qualify Leads: Step-by-Step

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that I’d share a step-by-step guide on how to qualify leads. Here are the five steps:

• Step 1: Collect Information
• Step 2: Score Leads (Using Lead Scoring Models)
• Step 3: Segment Based on Fit and Intent
• Step 4: Use Lead Qualification Frameworks to Dig Deeper
• Step 5: Pass the Qualified Leads to Sales

Now let’s take each step and

1 . Collect Information

The first step is to collect and gather details about the prospect. You can do this via forms, calls, or with CRM data. meetergo, for example, allows you to create forms and ask questions that help you qualify leads. Here is how you do that.

On your account homepage, go to ‘Tools’ and click on ‘Routing Forms and Funnels.’

Next, click ‘create.’

Name your funnel(e.g., Lead qualification Funnel) and choose the funnel type.

Now, name your field label and add a description that your customers will see.

On the form, you can collect information such as a name, an email, and a phone number.

You can also allow meetergo to block certain emails and ask for first and last names on the form.

This is what your leads will see on the form.

2 . Score Leads

The next step to qualifying leads is scoring them. This step involves assigning numerical values to leads based on how likely they are to convert. There are many lead scoring models, but we will look at only a few of them.

1 . Demographic Scoring

This particular model allows you to score leads based on who they are and if they match your Ideal Customer Profile(ICP)

For example:

• +10 points for Company Size
• +10 points for Job Title(e.g. CEO)
• +5 points for Location

2 . Behavioral Scoring

This second model assigns points to leads based on their actions and activities on your websites or emails. Here’s an example:

• +10 points for visiting your pricing page
• +5 points for clicking emails
• +6 points for filling a form

3 . Negative Scoring

Some leads are not worth chasing, and this model helps you identify them. With the negative scoring model, you remove points from a lead based on actions or characteristics that disqualify them. This is what negative scoring will look like:

• -10 points for unsubscribing from an email list
• -15 points for visiting the careers page
• -5 points for being from an industry that has nothing to do with your product or service

3 . Segment Based on Fit and Intent

After collecting information and scoring your leads, the next step is to group them based on their fit with your business and their intent to purchase your product.

Generally, the higher the fit and intent, the better your chances of converting them into paying customers.

These are the four possible combinations for your lead’s fit and intent:

• High fit and High Intent: This is the perfect match. They are sales-ready.
• High fit and Low intent: They are also a good fit, but not ready.
• Low Fit and High Intent: They are not the ideal leads.
• Low fit and Low intent: These leads are not worth following

So, based on what we have discussed, a business owner who visits your website about seven times a week, fills in a form on your site, and downloads your pricing guide can be considered a high-fit and high-intent lead.

4 . Use Lead Qualification Frameworks to Dig Deeper

Segmentation based on fit and intent alone doesn’t guarantee sales. You must dig deeper by using lead qualification frameworks. We have seen earlier what some of the popular lead qualification frameworks are:

• B.A.N.T(Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)
• C.H.A.M.P(Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization)
• M.E.D.D.I.C(Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion)

You can use any of these frameworks to help you further qualify the various leads you’ve already segmented. It is a great way to assess whether your leads are ready for the sales team.

5 . Pass the Qualified Leads to Sales

If a lead passes all of the above steps, the final step is to send them to your sales team. Your sales team will have all the data they need on their leads, which speeds up the process and helps the team close a deal much faster.

The necessary lead data may include:

• Their personal information
• Their challenges
• Why they are interested
• Their lead score
• Their level of urgency

Without this piece of information, sales teams could take longer to close a deal with the lead.

5 Best Lead Qualification Tools

1. meetergo - For Collecting Leads Through Lead Qualification Forms

Meetergo is an online scheduling tool that lets you create booking pages by giving a title, providing a short description, setting a duration, and choosing your preferred venue. Using the Routing form and Funnels feature, you can create a funnel by adding a name and choosing a type. You can also create fields by naming the field label, adding a description, and choosing a slide type(e.g., checklist).

meetergo already provides a template form with default input fields for collecting information such as a lead’s full name, email, and phone number. Interestingly, it comes with an option that lets you separate fields for first and last names. Not only that, but you can also create more fields for your form and add custom questions for your leads using the ‘Text input’ field type.

2. HubSpot — For Managing and Scoring Leads

HubSpot is a CRM platform that allows you to import and create contacts by adding their names, email addresses, phone numbers, primary companies, last activity dates, lead statuses, and the dates they were created. When you click on a contact, you will see their activities, which include when and where they completed the form, how many times they filled it out, and which webpages they visited on the website.

Under the Contact Property feature, using the HubSpot score, you can build leads' scores by setting criteria that will either add to or lower each lead’s score (e.g., +5 points for clicking and opening their email).

Hubspot processes the list based on the filters you will choose(e.g., If the score is greater than 45). It also gives results which include the lead’s name, when it was added to the list, their email, phone number, and contact owner.

3. Apollo.io — For Enriching Lead Data

With a massive database of over 280 million people and 70 million companies, Apollo.io, a sales intelligence and engagement platform, allows you to search and find your ideal leads using advanced filters such as Job changes, territories, or time zones.

After collecting a lead through meetergo, Apollo can enrich their data using its chrome extension to access that lead's information on platforms like LinkedIn. On the extension, you can see their names and job title, business email and number, contact stage, and score.

Among all its filters, the buying intent filter lets you see what your prospects are searching online by selecting an intent topic and an intent score, which can be high, medium, low, or none.

The Email feature on Apollo.io lets you connect your mailbox, such as Gmail or Outlook. Once connected, you can view details about who opened your email and book a meeting from it.

4. 6sense — For Predictive Lead Scoring and Identifying Buyer Intent Signals

6sense is a sales intelligence tool that allows you to search for companies and people using specific filters such as the company name, job title, location, and industry sector.

It comes with a predictive insight dashboard that shows which accounts are actively researching topics related to what you sell using top-branded and top-generated keywords. You can also see the top accounts, people, recent activities, and recommended actions.

If you open the recent activity section, you can find key insights such as the number of forms filled, events, webinars, meetings attended, email replies, web visits, and keywords researched. That’s not all! Predictive analytics reveals accounts with high buying intent, their last engagement, intent score, buying stage (decision), and how well they fit.

5. Zapier — For automating Lead Qualification Workflows

Zapier is an automation tool that allows you to create automated workflows called Zaps by selecting a trigger (what starts the workflow) and an action(what happens next). A trigger could be someone submitting a form, and the action could be sending a notification.

For example, when a lead fills out a form through meetergo, Zapier can automatically send the data to Hubspot, notify your sales team in Slack, and log the lead in a Google Sheet for tracking.

Moreover, Zapier has a table feature that allows you to create and automate contact lists for your leads by adding their first name, last name, business name, phone number, email address, comments, and website. You can also add an email subject and body, choose the date of the last email sent, and turn on the send email button.

How Do You Handle Unqualified Leads?

A popular way for handling unqualified leads is using the Drop and Drip approach.

The ‘Drop’ is because you let go of all leads that do not match your Ideal Customer Profile(ICP) instead of wasting time and effort on them.

An example would be a B2C lead coming into your B2B Business. What would the necessary outcome be? It’s just best to let them go instead of spending time and resources on them.

The “Drip” is because some leads might not be ready now but might qualify in the future. For example, their budget may be too low at the moment. Or perhaps they need a feature that is not yet available but will be in the future. Such leads must be nurtured until they are ready.

Another approach is to refer or redirect them, especially if they are a bad fit.

If a lead is not a good fit for your business, you might want to refer them to another business or even recommend a different product or service.

This way, you still build some trust, which is good for your business. If they can trust you, then they can talk about you and even direct other leads to you.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Qualifying Leads

When qualifying leads, avoid some common mistakes people make, like:

• Relying only on job titles or company size
• Ignoring behavioral signals
• Passing leads to sales too early
• Not refining your criteria over time

Let me add more clarity to each of them.

1 . Relying Only on Job Titles or Company Size

Oftentimes, we make the mistake of relying too much on job titles and the company size when filtering out our leads. Just because someone is a CEO doesn't automatically make them a perfect leader. Just because a lead has over 70 employees doesn’t mean they are the perfect match.

Razu Talukder, a lead generation and pre-qualified prospect research expert, shared a post on LinkedIn about job titles not reflecting reality.

He said, “Job titles do not always reflect an individual's actual responsibilities within their company, leading to ineffective targeting and missed opportunities.”

He further explained that in small businesses, employees often handle multiple roles beyond their official titles.

So, job titles or the company size alone may not determine the quality of a lead.

2 . Ignoring Behavioral Signals

If you desire to qualify more leads, you should not ignore behavioral signals. Why?

The reason is simple: those signals can give you insights into a lead’s interest level and help you determine if they are ready or not to make a purchasing decision.

For instance, if you spot a lead who keeps visiting your site, engages with your customer support, fills in forms, and looks at your free materials, ignoring all these signals could cause you to lose such a potential customer.

3 . Passing Leads to Sales Too Early

Regarding the passing of leads to sales, Jason Ball, the founder and managing director at Considered, said: ”Only hand them over to sales when they are deeply into selection and about to tip into the decision stage.”

He clearly understands that a lead has to go through stages before qualifying as a sales-ready lead. In Sales, timing is everything. That being said, passing Leads to sales too early is a mistake you must avoid.

4 . Not Refining Your Criteria Over Time

Society and technology are constantly improving, and this often leads to frequent changes in many areas. Since many things change over time, you must adapt too if you want your business to remain relevant.

FasterCapital put it best: “Lead qualification is not a one-and-done activity, but an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and refinement.”

To Sum Up

In this article, we’ve discussed lead qualification thoroughly. We’ve also seen its Importance, some popular lead qualification frameworks, a step-by-step guide on how to qualify leads, and the best lead qualification tools.

The list includes meetergo, which helps you collect leads through lead capture forms, Hubspot, Apollo.io, 6sense, and Zapier.

Finally, we wrapped up our article with ways to handle unqualified leads and common mistakes to avoid when qualifying leads.

FAQ

What does it mean to qualify a lead?

To qualify a lead means figuring out whether that person or company is worth your time and effort. The goal is to assess if they are a real potential customer or just someone casually browsing.

What’s the difference between an MQL and an SQL?

An MQL (marketing-qualified lead) is a person who is not ready to buy yet, but has shown interest in your product or service by visiting key pages, such as pricing or demo pages, downloading an e-book, or registering for a webinar or event. A SQL (sales-qualified lead) is someone who is considering buying because they requested a demo, contacted sales for more questions, or replied to a cold outreach.

What is the difference in lead qualification in marketing and sales?

Lead qualification in marketing focuses on identifying leads who show interest in your product or service and fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). These leads are called MQLs (marketing-qualified leads). On the other hand, lead qualification in sales focuses on assessing MQLs, identifying who is likely to become a customer, and converting them into paying customers. The leads sales handled are called SQLs (sales-qualified leads).

Is lead scoring the same as lead qualification?

No, lead scoring is a system that assigns points to leads and ranks them based on their behavior and engagement. On the other hand, lead qualification is a process that assesses who is a good fit and likely to buy.

How do you know if a lead is ready to buy?

You know if a lead is ready to buy when they meet your key qualification criteria or show clear intent by requesting a demo, asking about pricing, or having a call to discuss their needs and goals.

Can you automate lead qualification?

Yes, you can automate lead qualification using tools like CRMs, marketing automation platforms, meeting scheduling software, and lead scoring systems.

How often should you review your qualification criteria?

You should review your qualification criteria at least every quarter, especially if you're in a fast-moving industry like tech or B2B SaaS.

What happens to unqualified leads?

Most of the time, it’s better to drop unqualified leads, especially if they don’t meet your ideal customer profile. In other cases, you may keep and nurture them until they are ready to buy.