What is Lead Qualification?
Lead qualification is the process of identifying and assessing potential customers who are likely to be interested in a company’s products or services. It involves gathering information about leads and filtering out those that don’t meet the criteria for a potential customer. The goal is to create a list of leads that are likely to convert and to generate strong sustainable revenue.
Lead Qualification vs. Lead Scoring
Lead qualification and lead scoring are both used by marketing and sales teams to narrow down leads and optimize resources — but they’re different in a lot of ways:
- Lead qualification is the process of determining which leads are worth pursuing; lead scoring is the process of assigning numerical values to leads based on their likelihood to convert.
- Lead qualification is used to identify which leads to engage and which to discard; lead scoring is used to prioritize leads and determine which ones should be pursued first.
- Lead qualification involves understanding a company’s needs, budget, timeline, and decision-making process; lead scoring involves gathering data through surveys, website activity, customer interactions, and other marketing activities.
For example, a business may use lead qualification to determine whether a specific lead matches their ideal customer profile (ICP), then use lead scoring to prioritize which qualified accounts in the pipeline to focus on first.
| Lead qualification | Lead scoring |
| Process to determine which leads are worth pursuing | Process to assign numerical value to leads based on likelihood to convert |
| Used to identify which leads to engage and which to discard | Used to prioritize leads and determine which to pursue first |
| Involves understanding a company’s needs, budget, timeline, and decision-making process | Involves gathering data through surveys, website activity, customer interactions, and other marketing activities |
What is the B2B Lead Qualification Process?
The process may look different from one organization to the next, but lead qualification generally contains these steps:
- Identify an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). An ICP is a set of criteria that describes the customers who are likely to see the most value from your solutions and generate the most revenue for your business. It should include characteristics such as industry, company size, location, and budget.
- Develop a scoring system. The scoring system should gauge the strength of the account’s ICP fit as well as signs of purchase intent. Many companies do this by measuring how closely an account matches ICP, and then adding points to their score for activities like email opens, form fills, webinar attendance, etc. AI lead scoring solutions take a similar approach, but use a much broader set of signals which are compared against past deals to create a more robust and dynamic lead scoring system. By assigning a score to each lead, it’s easier to prioritize which leads should be followed up with first.
- Research leads as they come in. When a new lead comes in, it’s important to do some research to find out more about them. This can be done by looking into their company website, social media, or other resources. Having a better understanding of the lead will make it easier to determine if they are a good fit for the ICP.
- Engage leads to fill in gaps. Reaching out to a lead is important to fill in any missing information.
- Determine qualification. Based on account research and interaction, sellers can make an informed decision on whether they should be qualified as a potential customer.
What are the Different Kinds of Lead Qualification Frameworks?
Different frameworks of lead qualification use varying criteria to help sales teams evaluate whether an account fits their ICP.
- BANT: This framework assesses the budget, authority, need, and timeline to determine the viability of a potential customer.
- ANUM: This framework assesses the authority, need, urgency, and money to determine the viability of a potential customer.
- MEDDIC: The framework helps sales reps get a better understanding of what their customer wants, who has the authority to make decisions and sanctions, and what criteria they use to make those decisions.
- GPCTBA/C&I: This is an acronym for Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timing, Budget, Authority, Consequences, and Implications. The goal is to match your company’s goals and resources with potential customers.
Best Ways to Qualify Leads
Whatever lead qualification framework you choose, sales teams should follow these measures to make they’re focusing their efforts on the right accounts.
- Gather firmographics: Conduct research into the company to understand their financial health, size, and industry.
- Identify decision makers: Understand who within the company has the authority and influence to move deals across the finish line.
- Assess budget: Determine whether the company is financially able to purchase the product or service, given its available budget.
- Gauge need: Establish the scope of a lead’s need and interest, as well as the resources they currently have to solve the problem.
- Determine timeline: Based on data and lead interaction, establish a timeline for when the potential customer would be ready to purchase the product or service.
