It seems right to begin the new year with some fresh, clean definitions of terms that are so often misunderstood and abused in business development.

The my last post, I defined “sales lead. In this post, I’ll tackle “Qualified”.

There are several uses of the word “Qualified”. Here’s one from Dictionary.com:

qual-i-fied? ?[kwol-uh-fahyd] Show IPA Pronunciation –adjective
1. having the qualities, accomplishments, etc., that fit a person for some function, office, or the like.
2. having the qualities, accomplishments, etc., required by law or custom for getting, having, or exercising a right, holding an office, or the like.
3. modified, limited, or restricted in some way: a qualified endorsement.

I’ll go with “having the qualities, accomplishments, etc., that fit a person for some function”. In this case, the function we need performed is to buy our product or service.

Simply, a “qualified” sales lead represents a person who is able to buy. It’s not any more complicated than that.

Sometimes people attach “qualified” to “lead” automatically. Just because someone expresses interest in a product or service doesn;t mean they are able to buy. I might be interested in a test ride in a Lear Jet but, trust me, I can’t afford one! If I called the local Lear Jet dealer and asked for some information, I might be considered a “lead” but certainly am not a “qualified” lead.

In larger and more complex sales (to larger companies), there is a concept called “influencer”. A shipping clerk may be able to persuade a vice preseident to buy something because they are related or are friends but that doesn’t make the shipping clerk a “qualified” lead.

In order for a lead to be qualified, the sales person or team needs to do soem work. Leads don’t qualify themselves. Someone needs to verify that the “lead” has authority to spend money from a budget and enough of it to cover the cost of what you’re selling.

Just because a lead is a senior executive doesn’t mean they’re “qualified”. For example, a senior vice president of marketing doesn’t have the ability to buy a server for the the datacenter no matter how senior he is. Maybe they can, but this needs to be verified and probably checked twice!

Of course, people lie. Sometimes people will say they are qualified to buy when they aren’t. There may be a bit of self delusion going on when they have more clout than they really do. Better ask a few folks first before updating your sales forecast with a new “qualified” lead!