Marketing reports a strong month for leads. On the same call, sales says nobody worth talking to came in. Both can be telling the truth, because each team is counting something different and nobody ever wrote the definition down.
Enterprise software companies solve this with lead scoring models and acronyms like MQL and SQL. A team of ten usually needs something simpler: one short page saying which inquiries deserve a salesperson's time this week, agreed by the people who generate them and the people who call them. You can draft that page in one meeting if you bring real records.
Start from your last closed deals
Pull your last 20 closed deals, or as many as you have if that takes you back a year. Add 20 leads that went nowhere. Put them in one sheet and sit down with whoever does the selling. Avoid asking anyone what a good lead looks like in theory, because the answer tends to describe the customer you wish you had.
Go through the sheet and look for what the wins had in common at the moment they first contacted you. Only use facts you would have known then. Someone's eventual contract size is useless for this job unless you could have seen it coming from the first form or call.
Write four kinds of criteria
Most useful definitions come down to these four questions. A small company rarely needs more:
- Fit: is this the type of company or person you serve well, by industry, size or location?
- Need: did they describe a problem you actually solve?
- Timing: is there a reason to act soon, such as a deadline, a contract ending or a recent loss?
- Authority: is this the person who decides, or can they get you to that person?
Write each criterion so two different people would answer it the same way. "Serious buyer" fails that test. "Runs a clinic with its own front desk and asked about starting this quarter" passes it. Leave budget out unless you can actually learn it in the first exchange, because many buyers will not tell you, and a rule nobody can check just gets ignored.
Add a short disqualifier list
Often the fastest improvement comes from writing down who is definitely out. Students researching a paper, competitors, vendors pitching you, and buyers in a region you cannot serve all take time away from real prospects. List them so nobody has to re-decide each case, and so marketing can stop paying to attract them.
Agree what happens next
A definition without a response rule changes little. For each category, state who owns the lead and how quickly they act. A workable version looks like this:
- Qualified: a named salesperson contacts them within a set time, such as the same working day.
- Good fit but not ready: they go into a nurture list, with a reminder to check back on a set date.
- Unclear: someone asks one or two questions by email before it goes to sales.
- Out: a polite reply and a closed record with the reason noted.
Add a rule for rejection as well. When sales turns down a lead marketing sent over, they pick a reason from a short list instead of writing "bad lead." Keep the list to five or six options, such as wrong industry, no budget, wrong contact or no response. Those reasons become your best feedback on targeting.
Put it where the work happens
The page should live in your CRM as much as in a document. Add a required field for the qualification status and another for the rejection reason. Add one or two questions to your contact form that collect the facts you need, and watch how that changes completion, since each extra question can cost you some inquiries.
If your form cannot capture a criterion, have the salesperson ask it on the first call and record the answer. Reports built on empty fields will restart the same argument next quarter.
Review it monthly, with both teams
Book a short monthly review. Look at how many leads met the definition, how many of those became real conversations, and the most common rejection reasons. Pick three leads from the month, one accepted, one rejected and one that surprised someone, and talk through them.
Expect to change the page. A new service, a new salesperson or a shift in your ad targeting can all change who qualifies. Date each version so that when your numbers jump, you can tell whether more good leads arrived or the definition moved. Marketing's main report should count qualified leads and the deals that followed, so both teams are judged on the same line of the sheet.
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