The “starter” lead framework that I typically use with clients has four lead qualification levels
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2025 11:55 am
– Inquiry, Profiled Lead, Sales-Ready Lead, and Sales Opportunity.The conceptual approach underlying this framework is simple.
The first significant event in the lead
qualification process occurs when someone identifies himself or herself and indicates some initial interest in your company (or, more likely, in a content resource your company has published). This makes the individual an Inquiry.
Your first task is to determine
which of your Inquiries fit within your target market. Depending on what information you collected when the individual identified himself or herself, you may be able to perform this task without micronesia cell phone database needing more information from the lead. For example, if you have a company name, a few minutes of research will enable you to determine whether the company fits your target market definition (in terms of size, industry, etc.).
On the individual level,
you may have collected a job title during the initial identification, but if not, a little research should enable you to obtain that information. If a lead fits within your target market, you then have a Profiled Lead.
For marketing/sales alignment purposes,
the most critical lead stage to define is what I call a Sales-Ready Lead. In an optimized demand generation system, marketing is primarily responsible for acquiring new leads and for nurturing leads until they are sales ready. Once a lead becomes sales ready, sales assumes primary responsibility for managing that relationship.
What transforms a Profiled Lead
into a Sales-Ready Lead is the level of interest the lead expresses (either explicitly or via behavior) in what your company offers. For a discussion of how I define Sales-Ready Lead, see my earlier post titled What is a “Sales-Ready Lead?”
The final lead stage used in
my starter framework is Sales Opportunity. The critical defining characteristic of a Sales Opportunity is that the prospect’s buying process has advanced far enough that you can reasonably project when a buy/no-buy decision will be made. In other words, with a Sales Opportunity, you can forecast (within reasonable parameters) when a prospective deal will close.
A simple lead qualification framework is not that difficult to develop, and it can drive a significant improvement in marketing/sales alignment.
David Dodd David Dodd on the Web David Dodd on Twitter David Dodd on LinkedIn David Dodd RSS FeedDavid Dodd is a B2B business and marketing
The first significant event in the lead
qualification process occurs when someone identifies himself or herself and indicates some initial interest in your company (or, more likely, in a content resource your company has published). This makes the individual an Inquiry.
Your first task is to determine
which of your Inquiries fit within your target market. Depending on what information you collected when the individual identified himself or herself, you may be able to perform this task without micronesia cell phone database needing more information from the lead. For example, if you have a company name, a few minutes of research will enable you to determine whether the company fits your target market definition (in terms of size, industry, etc.).
On the individual level,
you may have collected a job title during the initial identification, but if not, a little research should enable you to obtain that information. If a lead fits within your target market, you then have a Profiled Lead.
For marketing/sales alignment purposes,
the most critical lead stage to define is what I call a Sales-Ready Lead. In an optimized demand generation system, marketing is primarily responsible for acquiring new leads and for nurturing leads until they are sales ready. Once a lead becomes sales ready, sales assumes primary responsibility for managing that relationship.
What transforms a Profiled Lead
into a Sales-Ready Lead is the level of interest the lead expresses (either explicitly or via behavior) in what your company offers. For a discussion of how I define Sales-Ready Lead, see my earlier post titled What is a “Sales-Ready Lead?”
The final lead stage used in
my starter framework is Sales Opportunity. The critical defining characteristic of a Sales Opportunity is that the prospect’s buying process has advanced far enough that you can reasonably project when a buy/no-buy decision will be made. In other words, with a Sales Opportunity, you can forecast (within reasonable parameters) when a prospective deal will close.
A simple lead qualification framework is not that difficult to develop, and it can drive a significant improvement in marketing/sales alignment.
David Dodd David Dodd on the Web David Dodd on Twitter David Dodd on LinkedIn David Dodd RSS FeedDavid Dodd is a B2B business and marketing