Qualify a Lead

Turn one received buyer signal into an evidence-backed recommendation. Do not invent fit or surrender the sales decision.

Use when. A customer signal has arrived and its fit for a discovery conversation is unclear.

Do not use when. You need to contact the buyer, enrich data, update a CRM, or make a promise.

Your input. Buyer’s own words or observed action; offer; permitted evidence; delivery constraints; named sales owner.

Your quality check. Pain, authority, urgency, value, and trust each cite supplied evidence or stay unknown. Human decision remains blank.

Put this to work

Create an evidence-backed Lead Qualification Brief

For the accountable sales owner

Copy this prompt. Paste it with the relevant source material into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant, then review the result before acting.

You are assisting an accountable sales owner to qualify one received lead. You may assess only the evidence I supply. You do not contact the buyer, enrich data, update a CRM, make promises, or make the final decision.

LEAD CONTEXT

- Buyer signal: [paste the buyer's own words or observed action]
- Offer being considered: [offer]
- Permitted evidence: [sources I am authorised to use]
- Delivery constraints: [capacity, timing, exclusions]
- Accountable sales owner: [name or role]

ASSESSMENT METHOD
Assess these five gates separately:

1. PAIN — What buyer statement or observable behaviour supports a real problem?
2. AUTHORITY — What evidence confirms involvement in the decision? A title alone is not proof.
3. URGENCY — What trigger, timeline, or cost of inaction is supported?
4. VALUE — What budget, comparable spend, or explicit value expectation is supported?
5. TRUST — What delivery-capacity or constraint evidence supports our ability to help?

For every gate, return exactly one evidence state: SUPPORTED, CONTRADICTED, or UNKNOWN. Cite the supplied evidence. Never infer a missing fact.

OUTPUT — LEAD QUALIFICATION BRIEF

- Lead and assessment date
- Accountable owner
- A table with: Gate | Evidence state | Supplied evidence | Missing evidence
- Recommendation: QUALIFY FOR DISCOVERY, HOLD FOR EVIDENCE, or DISQUALIFY
- Reason for the recommendation
- Smallest ethical evidence request, if held
- Boundary exceptions or risks
- Human decision: [leave blank]
- Next responsible person and review date: [leave blank]

Recommend QUALIFY only when all five gates are supported. Recommend DISQUALIFY only when supplied evidence establishes a mismatch. Otherwise recommend HOLD FOR EVIDENCE.

Stop for invented facts, permission expansion, a requested promise, or an unclear owner. Recovery: preserve the brief, name the failed gate, and return it for manual assessment.

Final acceptance check: verify every gate cites supplied evidence and the accountable owner still makes the decision.

End with: “What is your decision?”

Human decision — cannot be delegated. Qualify, hold, or disqualify. AI drafts the brief. The sales owner decides. No clinic CTA. No buyer contact from this page.

Outcome

A human-approved decision: qualify for discovery, hold for evidence, or disqualify with a recorded reason.

Use When

Use after an enquiry has arrived and an accountable seller owns it. Qualification does not authorise contact.

Inputs

Buyer signal, offer, permitted sources, delivery constraints, and named sales owner. A title is not buying authority.

Recipe

Copy the prompt. Assess pain, authority, urgency, value, and trust from supplied evidence only. Leave the human decision blank.

Human and AI Control

The owner may permit one draft from supplied text. Stop for invented facts, permission expansion, a requested promise, or an unclear owner.

Output and Handoff

Return the brief, gate evidence, unknowns, and a blank decision. A qualified lead may move to secure buyer commitment.

Evidence and Stop

Stop when the assistant invents facts, hides unknowns, acts without a current owner, or requests contact. A synthetic success does not prove demand.

Reliability

Skill and tool: biz-dev-sales with a private AI chat limited to permitted evidence. The qualification brief is the pattern; five evidence states and owner approval are the protocol. Retain the brief and decision as evidence. Accept only evidence-backed human judgment.

When the lead is qualified, prepare discovery before asking for commitment. If the recommendation misleads, compare the outcome and correct the method.