Qualified lead

A qualified lead is a contact you know has a problem you solve, a budget or a path to one, and access to somebody who can make the decision.

Qualification is not a CRM formality — it is the decision about whether to invest time in writing a proposal at all. The minimum set of questions is short: does the problem exist and is it costing them, is there a budget or a route to one, and are you talking to someone who can say yes or introduce you to whoever can.

Skipping it shows up later in the proposal. If you do not know who decides or the order of magnitude of the budget, the proposal has to guess — and guessing reads to the buyer as vagueness.