Lead qualification: deciding who deserves your time

On most teams, sales time is the scarcest resource, and qualification protects it. It also keeps forecasts honest, because a pipeline full of unqualified deals looks healthy until the quarter ends.

Qualification usually happens in two passes:

• Automated. Lead scoring ranks leads by fit and behaviour so the best rise to the top.
• Human. A rep asks questions, often using a framework such as BANT or MEDDIC, and decides whether it's a real opportunity.

The core questions are the same whichever framework you use:

1. Fit. Are they in your ideal customer profile?
2. Need. Have they described a problem you solve?
3. Timing. Is there a reason to act soon?
4. Authority. Can this person decide, or influence who does?

When someone asks for help in public, the post alone often answers all four questions. Here are sample sentences, scored 0 to 100 for buying intent the way HearBuyers scores posts:

• Sample, score 95. "I own a small business doing about $500k a year. I need a bookkeeper to clean up my books and work with my CPA before tax season." The post states fit, need, timing and authority.
• Sample, score 63. "Should a small business hire a bookkeeper or use software?" The need is forming, and the timing is unknown.
• Sample, score 0. "I'm a bookkeeper looking for new monthly clients." This is a seller, so it's disqualified at once.

The first sample paraphrases a request our bookkeeping scan found on 2026-10-16. The third shows why keyword matches need a judgment step: it uses the same words with the opposite intent.

• Qualifying too hard, too early. Grilling someone about budget in the first message ends the conversation.
• Qualifying once. Needs and timelines change, so re-check before you forecast.
• Ignoring disqualifiers. Job seekers, vendors and students match the same keywords as buyers.
• No shared definition. Write down what qualified means so marketing and sales agree.

• Sales qualified lead: what a lead becomes once qualified.
• Hot lead: a qualified lead with urgent timing.
• Lead vs prospect: the stages before qualification.

To try the automated pass on your own examples, paste a sentence into the buying intent scorer.