Best Practices for Qualifying Leads Before Meetings

Before you chase leads, answer this: Not everyone who books a call is worth your time. (Yes, even if they seem interested.) We’ve learned this the hard way. Here’s our 5-step sanity check to qualify leads before we pitch: 1. Are they your ICP? If they’re not the kind of person you built your offer for—skip. 2. Do they NEED what you offer? Interest is not the same as need. Big difference. 3. Are they LOOKING for a solution? If they’re just “exploring options”... come back later. 4. Do they have the BUDGET? A broke lead is not a lead. It’s a distraction. 5. If not, walk away. Seriously. Even if your calendar feels empty. The best businesses say “no” more often than they say “yes.” Your time is not free. Question: Do you have the courage to disqualify a lead—even if they booked a call? #leadgeneration #b2bsales #qualifyleads

If you think sales is about convincing people to buy your products or services, you've already lost. Here’s the truth: People don’t buy because you convince them: they buy for their own reasons. If a prospect doesn't want to change, get help, or solve a problem, even the best salesperson in the world will not close them. That is why the top sellers stop trying to sell altogether. Instead, they "become the buyer." Their initial meeting has one purpose: determine whether or not they can help the prospect. Before ever talking about their solutions or showing a demo, top sellers have authentic conversations to determine whether or not they can help. Here’s how that works step by step. Step 1: Create a POV before the initial meeting Your POV should show: • You've researched the goals they are trying to achieve • You understand the problems they may be facing. • You've identified which problems you are uniquely positioned to solve You walk into the meeting thinking, “If they have these goals and problems, I may be able to help. If they don’t, no worries.” Step 2: Lead with understanding, not selling Early in the conversation, share your POV so they have context as to where you may be able to help based on your research. Then pause and ask: “Is any of this resonating with you?” “If not, what prompted you to take this meeting?” “Is there a higher priority for you right now? If so, what is it” Customers rarely open up unless they know what you can you do for them, so going first is way more effective than asking them all about their business. Discovery is not interrogation. Step 3: Explore the problem, not the product If they acknowledge the problems you outlined exist, dig deeper. If not, explore adjacent problems you may be able to help with. Never pitch, demo, or jump to solutions until you determine if you can help. Stay focused on: • What's not working • Why it matters • What happens if nothing changes Keep the convo focused on them, not you. Step 4: Pitch the discovery process, not the solution Only after confirming there is a legitimate problem you can solve do you move forward. And even then, don't pitch your solution. Instead, sell a deeper discovery to understand their current environment. The reason is simple: “I need to understand more about how your company works before I can propose anything.” Being the buyer means you qualify them as much as they qualify you. Do they want help? Can you actually help? Is the problem worth solving? When the answer is yes, your confidence, energy, and conviction show up naturally. When the answer is no, you walk away. No pressure. No attachment. Only service. That is how great sellers sell. To learn how to become the buyer, watch this week's training video below 👇 https://lnkd.in/dYWsjNKa

Reason to meet vs reason to buy. This one key shift doubled a client's cold call conversion rates from 4.7% to 10%+ That's 1 meeting booked from every 10 live conversations vs. 20+. Here are the three steps our client took to massively improve their cold calling: ✅ Step 1) Use data to diagnose WHERE the problem is happening We didn't start listening to a bunch of recordings right away. We just looked at these stats: - Connects vs. Conversations: The connect rate was 7-8%, but the conversation rate was <10%. That means that less than 1/10 prospects even wanted to talk with them. This helped us identify the problem in the intros of their calls What we did: Implemented a permission-based opener and our Reason To Meet (RTM) framework. Every opener needs a trigger, tension, and trust. Example in step #2. - Call length: For reps with call lengths longer than 3 min, but no meeting booked...we knew they were running into specific objections. - Dispositions: We looked for how often dispositions for "not the decision maker" or specific objections came up and adjusted accordingly. ✅ Step 2) Shift from reason to buy to Reason To Meet (RTM) The cold call is NOT about a place to sell. The buyer does NOT need a reason to buy. They need a reason to meet. A reason to meet (RTM) has three parts: - Trigger - Why now? Make it timely. - Tension - Why change? Make it relevant. - Trust - Why us? Make it credible. You should deliver all three Ts in the first 60 seconds of the cold call: Example: "Hi Dave, it's Jason. Calling about the EMEA hiring efforts. Do you have a minute? Great. I imagine you're dealing with a bunch of red tape in setting up in Italy and France. It can really derail hiring timelines. We recently helped another staffing firm in Seattle cut down time to hire by almost half. Does any of this sound relevant to your day to day? Or are you seeing something else?" ✅ Step 3) Go and see Senior leaders should be actively listening to call recordings. Bert Brokaw shared this on the Outbound Squad podcast. He spends 1-2 hours per day as a Director of Sales Development listening to cold calls. You have to stay active in what's happening at the ground level. ~~~ Follow these three steps, and you'll see massive improvements in your team's cold calling efforts.

We spend so much time just trying to get a meeting. 160+ hours a month. Outbound cadences. Events. Ads. Personas. ICP mapping. The works. All of that, just to get maybe 10 or 15 people to give us 30 minutes of their time. That’s not just a meeting - it’s an investment. Behind every booked call is: → Hours of campaign work from marketing → Strategic outbound from sales → A whole lot of budget and brainpower Yet once we get that meeting on the calendar… We often show up underprepared. No agenda. No real research. No hypotheses. No game plan. It’s wild how little effort we put into maximising something we worked so hard to create. Here’s the mindset shift....The meeting isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting line. So act like it. Want to make that 30 minutes count? Here’s a simple checklist that’ll instantly level-up your team’s approach: ✅ Agenda: Why are we meeting? Who else should be there? ✅ Calendar title: Make it clear, relevant, and mutually valuable. What did they say “yes” to? ✅ Research: →Industry. →Company. →Team. →Role. →How do they make money and how does this person contribute to that? ✅ Hypothesis: What do we think we can help with? Why now? ✅ Anticipated next steps: Based on what we know, what might come next? ✅ No fit? No problem: Leave them with a feeling of increase. Value doesn’t always mean a proposal. If you're not preparing this way, you’re wasting the most expensive part of your funnel. How does your team prep for discovery or intro calls? Side note: Thinking about turning this checklist into a 1-pager for teams to use before every meeting. Want a copy? Comment “Checklist” and I’ll finalise it and then send it over.

The best deals are not won by the best talkers. They are won by the most prepared people in the room. And most people in that room are not prepared. They have a pitch. They have a product. They have a hope that the conversation goes well. The best people have something different entirely. They know who is sitting across from them. Their industry. Their pressures. Their culture. Their language. And they speak it before anyone asks them to. That is what changes everything. Not the pitch. Not the product. The moment the other person realises this is someone who actually did the work to understand me. Nobody does that anymore. Most people show up and perform. The best people show up and connect. The difference between those two things is preparation. And preparation is a choice available to everyone in the room. Most deals are not lost because the product was wrong. They are lost because the person never felt understood enough to say yes. Trust is not built in the meeting. It is built in the hours before it begins. 💡 Try this: ↳ Notice how much time you spend on the pitch versus the person ↳ Research one cultural detail before every important meeting ↳ Find one challenge specific to their industry before you arrive ↳ Watch what happens when someone feels genuinely understood ↳ Track how quickly trust builds when you speak their language first ↳ Ask yourself if you are preparing to sell or preparing to serve Preparation is not extra effort. It is the thing that makes everything else feel effortless. The deal is not closed in the meeting. It is closed in the work nobody sees before it begins. What is one thing you do before an important meeting that most people skip entirely? #Sales #Preparation #BusinessGrowth #CustomerSuccess #Communication #Leadership #KnowYourCustomer #Mindset #ProfessionalDevelopment #Winning

My team has hit quota every single quarter so far in 2025 😤 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘄: We ask smart discovery questions. Here's the best ones you can use on your next discovery call with a prospect. 𝟭𝟬 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 1. “What are your biggest priorities this quarter and what’s getting in the way?” Gets to goals and blockers in one clean question. 2. “What prompted you to take this call today?” Cuts through the noise. Starts the conversation with what's most important to them. 3. “Walk me through how you're currently handling [XYZ thing you solve for].” Opens up their process and shows you where the gaps are (aka where you win and are differentiated). 4. “Who else on your team would weigh in on something like this?” No “decision maker” guessing games. Bonus: “I noticed [Name] is Head of [X]. Do they typically get looped in?” 5. “Have you purchased software like this before?” Helps you gauge how familiar they are with buying and what roadblocks might pop up. 6. “What did that buying process look like? Who was involved and how long did it take?” Gives you a window into timelines, stakeholders, and deal structure. 7. "Is there a typical process your team follows when evaluating new tools or partners?” Uncovers internal steps, security reviews, legal, procurement, etc. 8. “Other teams I work with often run into issues like [X, Y, or Z]. Does any of that sound familiar based on what you’re dealing with?” Helps prospects open up by giving them language they can relate to. 9. "When I hear [what they just told you], it usually connects to challenges around [example]. Is that the case for you or is your experience different?” Shows you’re listening and thinking critically about how it applies to them. 10. “Let me quickly recap what I heard. Please tell me what I missed or got wrong.” Makes them feel heard and invites correction or elaboration. What would you add? - Mike G 👉 Get The Best Sales Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for FREE: https://lnkd.in/g-dHTj7s

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐞. 🔍🤝 A client had great marketing… but sales kept saying: “These leads aren’t ready.” The mistake: no shared definition of a “qualified lead.” 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿: ✔️ Lead scoring rules (behavior + fit) ✔️ Auto-tagging (industry, budget, urgency) ✔️ Routing logic (only send qualified leads to sales) ✔️ Unqualified leads go into nurture (automated) 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: fewer arguments, better focus, cleaner pipeline. 🚀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆: if marketing and sales aren’t aligned, you burn money quietly. 🔥 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: teams with automated qualification will scale faster than teams with meetings. 👉 Do you have lead scoring today or is it “gut feeling”? #AutomationGuy #ScaleThroughAutomation #LeadScoring #MarketingAutomation Follow me for AI & Automation updates and resources: https://lnkd.in/gjG8gvRd

Whenever an AE is struggling to set meetings, I run a three-step diagnosis: 1) Are you calling the right accounts? Here are a few questions I ask to check territory management strategy: Are the accounts you are working investing in areas tied to your solution? For example, at LaunchDarkly, we look for companies that are hiring developers. If they are hiring developers, they are more likely to be investing in solutions that support releasing software fast without the risk. Are there multiple landing spots for your product? For example, at Qualtrics I focused on accounts that needed to understand brand, customer, and product experience. Three different use cases = three shots to win business at the account. Do you understand the accounts you are calling? Massive budget and multiple use cases won’t help you land an account if you can’t speak their language. Simple question to ask yourself: “If I was in a room with their executive team, could I have a conversation about their business, in their language, without being completely out of place?” Good accounts that you understand are better targets than great accounts that you don’t understand. 2) Are you calling the right contacts? Two questions to ask about the contacts in your sequences: - Would this person personally benefit from our solution? - Is this person at all responsible for solving the business pain our solution solves? No personal benefit = no reason for them to respond. No connection to business pain = no reason for you to want them to respond. 3) Messaging Two points I’m looking for in effective messaging: - Emotional relevance What is the email/phone call your buyer never wants to get from their boss? If your email shows them a way to avoid that dreaded call, it’s emotionally relevant. - Specificity Could you use the same messaging with another prospect? Or, worse, could your competitor send your same email to your buyer? If the answer to either of those questions is “yes,” your messaging isn’t specific enough. Meetings are tough to come by right now. But it’s hard to go wrong if you use the right messaging, with the right people, within the right accounts. Any other tips for how to break a prospecting cold streak? p.s. I recently updated my Leadership Frameworks - my full guide of how I recruit, develop, and retain high performing sales organizations. Get my blueprint here: https://lnkd.in/gWB_Jh8B

Too many sellers wait for the meeting to happen before they try to create momentum. Flip that. Ask yourself: what can I do before the next call to increase the probability of success? Here are 4 things I do consistently: 1. Single-thread a new stakeholder before they join. If someone's coming in for the first time, reach out early. Ask a short question. Send a resource tied to their role - a digital sales room, a proof point, a case study. 2. Send a short value touch referencing your last call. They asked how an integration works? Send a 90-second Loom. They mentioned a pain point? Drop a one-pager. Show them you were listening. 3. Send a pre-read or agenda with intent. Not just "here's what we'll cover." Frame your goals. What decisions need to be made? What do you want them to walk away thinking? Shows you're running a process, not just showing up. 4. Connect on LinkedIn with a personal note. Small move. Big signal. Something like: "Great meeting last week - looking forward to Wednesday." Takes 20 seconds. Makes you human. You might be their 20th priority that week. Anything you can do to win mindshare between meetings, is a huge win. is a competitive advantage most sellers leave on the table. Are you willing to put in that effort? P.S. Account planning template to ensure you're staying on top of your best accounts with a real plan of attack - https://lnkd.in/gwjX9Nya