Qualify an incoming lead within one working day

When to use

A new lead has arrived from any channel and nobody has answered it yet. Not for a lead that already received an offer — use sales.prepare-offer. Not for an existing customer asking for more work — use sales.quarterly-account-review. Not for re-contacting a lost deal — use sales.win-back-customer.

Before you start

• The lead's raw message is in the shared inbox or pasted into the lead record — not only in one person's mailbox.
• The ideal-customer profile is written down somewhere the agent can read it; if it is not, qualify against
• The person who owns replies this week is named (the owner role), so the approval step does not stall.

What a run requires1

The trail8 steps

1. S1

   Capture the lead the same hour it arrivesagent

   Create the lead record: contact, company, channel, the message verbatim, date received. Link it to the campaign or referral source if known.

   Done when the lead exists in the sales module with a received date and nobody has to remember it from memory.

2. S2

   Look the company upagent

   Search the company register (Latvia: ur.gov.lv; other countries: the national register) and the company's own website: legal name, registration number, size, what they actually do, who the person is and what role they hold.

   Done when the lead record contains the legal name and registration number, and one line on what the company does — or a note "could not identify the company", which is itself a qualification fact.

   ⛔ A person's name is not a company. A gmail sender who claims to be a director is recorded as unverified, not as the buyer.

3. S3

   Score against the checklistagent

   Answer, with evidence for each: does the need match what the company sells; is the person the decision maker or a named path to them; is the budget range plausible for this product; is the timing stated; does the country and sector fit the ideal-customer profile.

   Done when each of the five questions has yes / no / unknown and a one-line reason — a score without reasons is not done.

4. S4

   Draft the reply and the next stepagent

   If the checklist leans "go": draft a short reply that confirms understanding, asks the one missing question (budget or timing, whichever is unknown), and proposes a concrete call slot. If "nurture": draft a reply plus a nurture task with a revisit date. If "no": draft a polite decline that says why, and, where honest, names an alternative.

   Done when a reply draft and a proposed next step exist on the lead record.

5. S5

   Decide and approveownerneeds approval · owner

   Approval · S5 · owner — the run stops until a named person records the decision

   Show the owner the record: who, what they want, the score with reasons, the draft. The owner picks the verdict (go / nurture / no) and approves or edits the reply.

   Done when the verdict and the approved reply text are recorded with the owner's name and the time.

   ⛔ The agent never sends the first reply to a lead without this approval — a wrong price or promise in writing is expensive to walk back.

6. S6

   Send the approved replyagent

   Send from the shared sales address, not a personal one, so the thread stays with the company.

   Done when the sent message is on the lead record with a timestamp inside one working day of lead-received.

7. S7

   Book or schedule the next stepagent

   "Go": propose the call slot from the reply and put the meeting on the calendar with the owner. "Nurture": add a dated follow-up task. "No": mark the lead closed-no with the reason.

   Done when the lead has a dated next action or a closed status — no lead sits in "waiting" without a date.

8. S8

   Record and hand backagent

   Write the three-line summary into the weekly pipeline view: lead, verdict, next step and date.

   Done when the pipeline review (sales.pipeline-review-weekly) will show this lead without anyone re-typing it.

Checks — how we know it worked

• Read the lead record back: verdict, score with five reasons, reply sent (timestamp), next step with a date — all present.
• The reply went from the shared address and its text matches what the owner approved.
• Time from lead-received to first reply is inside one working day — check the two timestamps.
• Every "go" lead has a calendar entry; every "no" lead has a reason string, not an empty field.

If it goes wrong

What each step leaves behind

1. S1the lead exists in the sales module with a received date and nobody has to remember it from memory.
2. S2the lead record contains the legal name and registration number, and one line on what the company does — or a note "could not identify the company", which is itself a qualification fact.
3. S3each of the five questions has yes / no / unknown and a one-line reason — a score without reasons is not done.
4. S4a reply draft and a proposed next step exist on the lead record.
5. S5the verdict and the approved reply text are recorded with the owner's name and the time.
6. S6the sent message is on the lead record with a timestamp inside one working day of lead-received.
7. S7the lead has a dated next action or a closed status — no lead sits in "waiting" without a date.
8. S8the pipeline review (sales.pipeline-review-weekly) will show this lead without anyone re-typing it.

Evidence to keep

Lead record id · the original message verbatim · register lookup result (legal name, registration number, date checked) · the five checklist answers with reasons · the owner's verdict and approval time · the sent reply · the next step and its date.

How this playbook improves

After every 20 leads ask: what share got a first reply inside one working day, and where did the delay sit (S1 capture, S5 approval, or the weekend)? How many "go" verdicts were overturned later, and which checklist question was wrong each time? Did any unverified sender (S2 trap) reach an owner's calendar? A new version tightens the checklist question or the step that caused the delay, and says so in its change note.