Growth Glossary
What Is a Qualified Lead?
A qualified lead is an enquiry that meets buying criteria a business has written down in advance, such as a real need, the budget to pay, authority to decide and a timeframe that makes a sales conversation worthwhile.
Updated
How it works
How it works in practice
Step 1: Write the criteria
Agree what a lead must have before sales spends time on it, for example budget, authority, need and timeline (BANT).
Step 2: Ask at capture
Put the most important questions in the form, chat or first call, so answers arrive with the lead.
Step 3: Record in the CRM
Store the answers so the sales team can prioritise and so qualification can be measured.
Step 4: Measure CPQL
Divide ad spend by the number of leads that met the criteria to get the cost per qualified lead.
Why it matters
Why it matters
A cheap lead that never buys still costs sales time. Judging campaigns by qualified leads keeps marketing and sales working towards the same result.
Qualification also improves the campaigns: ad platforms learn from the leads you mark as good.
Example
An example
For a Dubai real estate company targeting investors in Nigeria, every lead was screened against BANT before delivery to the client's CRM: 142 BANT-qualified investor leads at AED 4.17 CPL.
Read the Dubai real estate case studyCommon mistake
The common mistake
Optimising for the lowest cost per lead. Every extra qualifying question lowers volume, so the right set is tested, but removing all of them usually fills the pipeline with people who were never going to buy.
Next Step
Partner Up with MADVERT Labs.
- No generic pitch.
- No pressure.
- Just a serious conversation about growth.