sales-qualification

refoundai/lenny-skills

Qualify sales leads decisively using frameworks from top product leaders.

What is sales-qualification?

This skill helps you build a systematic approach to identifying which leads are worth pursuing and which should be disqualified early. Use it when you're wasting time on bad leads, struggling with low conversion rates, or need to improve your discovery process.

Assess your current lead qualification process and identify gaps
Define explicit disqualification criteria so you stop pursuing wrong-fit leads
Design efficient discovery questions that reveal fit in a single call
Build a repeatable qualification framework to systematize decisions
Recognize when you're pursuing leads out of hope rather than fit

How to install sales-qualification

npx skills add https://github.com/refoundai/lenny-skills --skill sales-qualification

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How to use sales-qualification

1.Analyze your current qualification process by tracking what percentage of your pipeline actually closes
2.Identify the characteristics of your best customers and define what makes a lead a good fit
3.Create a list of explicit disqualification criteria—reasons to say no early
4.Design 3-5 discovery questions that efficiently reveal whether a lead meets your fit criteria
5.Practice saying no on the first call when a lead doesn't meet your criteria
6.Track how many leads you disqualify early and measure the impact on your close rate

Use cases

Good for

You have a low conversion rate and need to determine if it's a qualification or execution problem
You're spending too much time on leads that never close and want to filter earlier
You need to create discovery questions that quickly reveal whether a prospect is a fit
You want to train your team on aggressive disqualification to improve pipeline quality
You're building a sales process from scratch and need qualification principles

Who it's for

Sales leaders and managers
Individual sales reps struggling with conversion
Founders selling their own product
Sales operations professionals designing processes
Anyone trying to improve sales productivity

sales-qualification FAQ

How do I know if my problem is qualification or sales execution?

Track your conversion rate and analyze your closed deals. If your best customers share clear characteristics that many of your prospects lack, it's a qualification problem. If your best customers look similar to your lost deals, it's likely an execution issue.

What should I ask in discovery to qualify a lead?

Ask questions that reveal the specific traits of your ideal customer: budget authority, timeline, problem severity, and whether they match your best customer profile. The goal is to determine fit, not to convince—a clear no on the first call is a win.

When should I disqualify a lead?

Disqualify as soon as you identify a mismatch with your fit criteria. If a lead requires multiple calls to determine fit, your discovery process is too slow. Aggressive early disqualification frees time for better opportunities.

How do I avoid hope selling?

Define your disqualification criteria upfront and commit to them. When pipeline looks thin, it's tempting to pursue weak leads, but this wastes time. Focus on qualifying more leads rather than stretching to close bad ones.

How do I get my team to disqualify more aggressively?

Make disqualification a success metric. Celebrate clear nos and track qualified opportunities created, not just calls made. Share examples of leads that were correctly disqualified early.

Full instructions (SKILL.md)

Source of truth, from refoundai/lenny-skills.

name: sales-qualification description: Help users qualify sales leads effectively. Use when someone is wasting time on bad leads, struggling with low conversion rates, needs to build a qualification framework, or wants to improve their discovery process.

Sales Qualification

Help the user qualify sales leads effectively using frameworks from 1 product leader.

How to Help

When the user asks for help with sales qualification:

Understand current process - Ask how they currently decide which leads to pursue
Identify disqualification criteria - Help them define what makes a lead NOT worth pursuing
Design discovery questions - Create questions that efficiently reveal fit
Build a qualification framework - Help them systematize qualification decisions

Core Principles

Most sales problems are qualification problems

Jen Abel: "It's qualification. Qualification because if you spend your time on the wrong leads, that equates to a zero." If conversion rates are low, the issue is often pursuing leads that were never going to close rather than poor sales execution.

"No" is a successful outcome

Jen Abel: "I am a qualification crazy person. I will not get in on another call with someone because on the first call it's either a yes or a no, there's no in between." The goal of early calls is to determine fit, not to convince. A clear "no" saves time that can be spent on better leads.

Disqualify aggressively

The best salespeople are rigorous about disqualification. They'd rather pursue fewer, better-qualified opportunities than spread themselves thin across mediocre leads.

First call should determine fit

If a lead requires multiple calls before you can determine whether they're a fit, your discovery process is too slow. Qualification should happen early and decisively.

Time is the scarcest resource

Every hour spent on a bad lead is an hour not spent on a good one. The math of sales productivity favors aggressive filtering.

Questions to Help Users

"What percentage of your pipeline actually closes? Is the problem quality or execution?"
"What are the characteristics of your best customers? How quickly can you identify those traits?"
"What questions do you ask in discovery that reveal whether a lead is qualified?"
"When was the last time you disqualified a lead on the first call?"
"What would need to be true for you to walk away from a lead earlier?"

Common Mistakes to Flag

Pursuing all inbound - Treating every lead as equally worthy of time
Slow qualification - Taking multiple calls to determine what could be known in one
Hope selling - Continuing to pursue leads you know aren't a fit because the pipeline looks thin
No disqualification criteria - Not having explicit reasons to say no
Confusing activity with progress - Measuring calls made rather than qualified opportunities created