FAQs
The questions founders ask most as they put a qualification framework to work, answered plainly.
You have the full system. These are the questions that come up as you implement it, each answered so you can act without second-guessing.
What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL has earned attention; an SQL has earned a sales conversation.
A marketing-qualified lead clears a bar of fit and intent that makes a human worth assigning: the right kind of company, the right role, and at least one buying signal. A sales-qualified lead goes further, fit is confirmed and there is a real trigger, a problem you solve plus budget or timing. In a lean setup the MQL surfaces on your review list and the SQL gets a calendar invite within a working day. The point of keeping them distinct is that they trigger different actions, so do not collapse them into one stage.
Which qualification framework should I use?
Match the framework to your deal, not its fame. For a small, fast, single-decision-maker sale, use a light BANT or CHAMP. For a consultative founder-led sale, use CHAMP so you open on the prospect's challenge rather than their budget. For large, multi-stakeholder, long-cycle deals, use MEDDIC to map the buying committee and find a champion. Most lean B2B sales are consultative, so CHAMP is the safe default, and BANT's budget-first opener is usually the wrong move because it reads as transactional to a buyer who has a problem before they have a budget line.
How many fields should my lead-capture form have?
As few as you can, ideally two or three: email, name and at most company. Every extra field lowers completion and skews the leads who do complete it toward people with time on their hands, which correlates with lower fit. Collect the rest of your qualifying data without the form: enrich firmographics from the email or domain, infer intent from behaviour, and trade an interactive quiz or calculator for the inputs your scoring model needs. The form captures the lead; the qualification happens behind it.
Do I need lead scoring if my volume is low?
Not a complex model, but yes to the discipline behind it. At low volume you may not need automated point-scoring, but you do need written fit and intent criteria so you treat every lead consistently and can tell whether changes help. The simplest version is a one-line fit checklist plus a "has a real trigger?" question, applied to every lead the same way. Add automated scoring in your CRM once volume grows past what you can hold in your head, usually a few dozen leads a week, because that is the point at which manual sorting starts being skipped on busy weeks.
Should I qualify leads before or after they reach sales?
Both, in two passes. The first pass is automated and happens before any human time: scoring and routing sort leads into nurture, review or calendar. The second pass is the qualifying call, where your framework confirms or corrects the automated verdict and disqualifies on a hard criterion if one fails. The automated pass protects your hours from obviously poor-fit leads; the human pass catches what the data missed. Skipping the first wastes your time; skipping the second loses the nuance a score cannot capture.
How do I disqualify a lead without burning the relationship?
Do it early, honestly and generously. On the first call, the moment a hard criterion clearly fails, say plainly that you are not the right fit and, where you can, point them to someone who is. A gracious no leaves the prospect better off than months of half-hearted follow-up and often turns them into a referrer or a future customer when their situation changes. Log the reason every time, because the pattern in your disqualifications is what sharpens the framework that prevents them.
How often should I review my qualification framework?
Monthly for the thresholds and disqualification reasons, quarterly for the definitions. Score your recent closed-won deals against your model and move the MQL and SQL lines if real buyers are clearing or missing them wrongly. Read your logged disqualification reasons and promote any recurring one into an upstream filter. The framework is a living rule, not a set-and-forget config, and the founders who keep it sharp are the ones who treat reviewing it as part of the operating rhythm.