Qualify a lead in minutes by checking four things: do they have the problem you solve, can they pay for the fix, can the person you are talking to say yes, and do they need it soon. Score every new lead against those four within a day, then route them: book, nurture, or pass.
You do not need a scoring model. You need four honest answers, gathered early.
The point is speed with a paper trail. Every lead gets a verdict within a day.
No budget signal after you have asked twice, a contact who cannot say yes and will not introduce you to the person who can, a timeline that stays "someday" after two conversations, or a problem that is adjacent to what you do but not actually it.
Passing early is a win, not a failure. Every hour spent on a C lead is an hour taken from an A lead, and C leads consume the most hours precisely because they never resolve.
A fast no is the second-best outcome in sales. Only a fast yes beats it.
Orbit will not invent a scoring model for you, but its one AI assistant, Hiro, keeps qualification tidy. Ask Hiro to tag a new lead A, B, or C from your notes, set the next task so a hot lead does not go cold, and draft the first reply with your qualifying questions. It creates and updates the contact and deal as you learn more, and it remembers what you decided across chats. Everything lands as a card for your approval.
Qualifying a lead means checking whether a prospect is worth active sales time before you spend it. The classic checks are problem fit, budget, authority, and timing. A qualified lead gets a meeting; an unqualified one gets nurtured or politely declined.
Within one day of the lead arriving, and ideally in the first conversation. Interest decays quickly, and unqualified leads quietly eat your calendar while they wait. A same-day verdict of book, nurture, or pass keeps your pipeline honest.
BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing, a qualification checklist from enterprise sales that works just as well for freelancers and small teams. If a lead clears all four, book the meeting. If one or two are soft, nurture. If most are missing, pass.
Yes, as a range rather than a demand: "work like this usually lands between X and Y, is that workable?" Asking early is a kindness to both sides. The awkwardness of the question is far smaller than the cost of three meetings before discovering there was never a budget.
Put them on a light nurture track: a useful resource now, a scheduled check-back in a month or a quarter, and a note about what would change their timing. Do not book meetings with not-yet leads; meetings are for leads who cleared your four questions.
Hiro tags each lead, sets the next task, and drafts the first reply. You approve it all. AI comes standard on every plan, with monthly credits included, no credit card to start.
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