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Lead qualification

Lead qualification is deciding whether a lead is worth a salesperson's time: whether they match the customers you sell to and are in a position to buy. Qualified leads go on to a sales conversation, and the rest are nurtured or dropped.

Updated November 2026 · 4 min read · GetSales team

Where qualification happens

Qualification is a run of checks, each one stricter than the one before. HubSpot's default lifecycle stages show the usual handoff from marketing to sales:1

  • Marketing qualified lead (MQL). Marketing has judged the lead ready for sales.
  • Sales qualified lead (SQL). Sales has looked and agrees this is a potential customer.
  • Opportunity. There is a deal in the pipeline.

Where the line between the first two sits is a decision the two teams make together. Adobe's Marketo guide has them agree on a score at which a lead is handed to sales.2 In outbound there is often no marketing step at all. The rep qualifies twice: once when building the list, and again when the person replies.

What to check

BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline) is one well-known set of questions. In practice the checks cover this ground:

  • Fit. Does the company match the customers you sell to on industry, size and region?
  • Need. Do they have the problem you solve, and do they know it?
  • Authority. Is this the person who decides, or someone who can take you to them?
  • Budget and timing. Can they pay, and is there a reason to act this quarter?

Fit can be checked before the first message. Need, authority and timing usually come out in the conversation.

In GetSales the fit check can run as people are found: turn on Check on save and say who passes, and AI checks every record against it before it is saved. It sees only what the source brings, such as the name, headline, company and location, and a record it cannot judge is saved. Later, a new reply on a thread the AI SDR works gets one of 15 labels, plus one of yours when it fits, with how sure it is and why.

Disqualify early, and write down why

A clear no is cheap. A maybe that drags on for six weeks is expensive. When you drop a lead, record the reason: wrong role, too small, locked into a contract until next year. The last one is a lead to come back to, and the reasons added up tell you whether the list or the message needs the work.

  • Lead list builder: Check on save turns away who does not pass before the record is saved.
  • Data enrichment: an AI score on each row, with its reasoning.
  • Reply classification: 15 labels for a reply, plus scenarios of your own.
  • AI SDR: it reads replies, scores intent and drafts the first answer.

Sources

  1. HubSpot Knowledge Base, Use contact and company lifecycle stages, last updated 20 October 2026. Read 28 October 2026.
  2. Adobe Experience League, Building a person scoring model (Adobe Marketo Engage), last update 19 August 2024. Read 28 October 2026.

Last updated: November 2026

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is keeping in touch with leads who are not ready to buy yet, with messages worth their time, so you are the one they call when they are ready. It runs over weeks or months and follows what each person does.

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Lead scoring

Lead scoring is a way to rank leads by how likely they are to buy, with points or a model for who they are (fit) and what they do (engagement). Sales works the highest scores first, and the rest stay in nurturing.

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Lead enrichment

Lead enrichment is filling in, from outside data sources, what a lead record is missing: a work email, a job title, the company's industry and size, or a sign that the timing is right. It turns a name and a company into a record you can qualify and write to.

Updated