Qualifying Sales Leads: What It Is
- In simple terms: It's about finding your most promising potential customers.
Why Qualifying Leads Matters for Your Business
- Saves Time: Your sales team focuses only on truly interested buyers.
- Boosts Sales Success: Significantly increases your chances of closing deals.
- Speeds Up Sales: Helps you close deals faster.
- Avoids Wasted Effort: Quickly identifies those who are just browsing or not ready to buy.
How to Properly Sort and Identify Potential Customers
This practical guide is for small and growing businesses looking to boost their sales. Not every prospect you find or who reaches out to you is ready to buy. It's crucial to spend your time wisely and focus on those who are truly likely to become customers. This is where "lead qualification" comes in – it simply means quickly figuring out who deserves your attention.
✅ What Does Lead Qualification Actually Mean?
You'll vet each potential customer with a set of questions to figure out if they're worth pursuing further.
- Are they even interested in our product or service?
- Do they have a budget that matches our service?
- Are they the actual decision-maker?
- Do they need a solution right now, or "maybe someday"?
The Most Popular Lead Qualification Method: BANT
Ask each customer these questions. The acronym BANT helps you find out 4 key things about each lead:
- Budget Do you have the funds for our solution? Do you have a dedicated budget for this?
- Authority Can you make the purchasing decision, or who approves these purchases in your company?
- Need What led you to look for a solution right now? What do you want to solve with our product?
- Timeline When do you plan to make a purchase? When would you like to get started?
Tip for Small and Growing Teams: You Don't Need Complex Scoring
A basic three-point system is enough:
- 🟢 Green lead – interested, has decision-making power, budget → focus on them fully
- 🟡 Yellow lead – curious, not actively seeking a solution yet → follow up and keep in touch
- 🔴 Red lead – irrelevant or not interested → don't waste time
You Do This to Save Time and Make Your Sales Work More Efficient
- Don't skip qualification – it helps you focus only on quality opportunities.
- Use simple questions – you don't need to know complex methodologies.
- Common sense and a little practice are enough – the main thing is to ask and listen.
Practical Tips: What Methodologies Won't Tell You
- Add a status for "unresponsive" - if a customer doesn't respond from the start or stops answering calls, it's definitely a reason to disqualify them.
- Similarly, if you don't want an unpleasant customer from the beginning, add such a criterion if good customer relationships matter to you.
Summary and How to Set Up Lead Scoring in Aptien CRM
You can score your sales opportunities, new deals, or potential customers directly in the system:
- On the opportunity or deal record, set up your scoring criteria.
- If a potential customer does not meet the criteria, do not advance them to the next sales stage.
