Qualification
What Makes a Business a Qualified Web-Development Lead?
A practical test for deciding whether a website finding creates a defensible reason for outreach.
By Brian Woodson ·
Discovery is not qualification
A business appearing in a search result makes it a candidate, not a qualified prospect. Qualification begins only after you confirm the company, its current website, and a current observation that relates to the service you sell.
The evidence test
A useful finding should be factual, current, observable, relevant to your service, and meaningful to the business. A subjective preference about colors or typography is usually weak evidence. A broken estimate path on a current service page is concrete.
Connect the finding to a consequence
The purpose is not to criticize a website. It is to understand whether the finding can affect a business outcome: a prospective customer cannot request a quote, key information is inaccessible on mobile, or a conversion path fails.
Rejection is a valid result
If the evidence is weak, stale, or unrelated to your offer, reject the candidate. A disciplined system can produce zero qualified prospects from a batch. That is better than manufacturing a sales angle.
Choose the prospecting system that fits.
Compare four evidence-first implementation levels and start with the lowest tier that meets the need.