LeadsDex

How to qualify a lead in twenty seconds at the stand

The handshake is over, the next visitor is waiting, and you have to decide whether this one is worth an hour of follow-up. Four questions, one rating, and the words that give it away.

16 September 2026 · 4 min read

A busy stand gives you twenty seconds between visitors. In that time the person who just left has to be turned into something a colleague can act on next week: a rating, a reason, and a next step. Get it wrong in one direction and hot leads sit in a pile of cold ones. Get it wrong in the other and the team spends the month chasing people who were collecting pens.

Qualification at a stand is not a form. It is four questions you answer from what was said, and you can answer most of them without asking.

The four questions

  1. Do they have the problem you solve? Not "are they in the industry" but "did they describe a situation your product changes". Someone who says "our changeovers take two hours" has the problem. Someone who says "we do packaging too" does not, yet.
  2. Is there a date attached? "Next year", "after the audit", "before the new line arrives". A dated need is the strongest signal there is. An undated one is interest, not intent.
  3. Can this person move it? Job titles mislead, but the way people talk does not. "I would need to run it past" tells you they are not the decision maker; "send it to me and I will decide" tells you they are, or close enough.
  4. Are they buying from someone already? A customer with a supplier they are unhappy with is warmer than one with no supplier at all. Displacement is a shorter sale than education.

You rarely get clean answers to all four. Two strong ones are enough to rate.

The rating

Four levels are enough. More than that and nobody uses the middle ones consistently.

  • Hot. A dated need, or a live request for a quote, or budget already approved. Somebody owns this lead by tonight and calls within two days.
  • Warm. Real interest and a described problem, but no date yet. Follow up this week with the thing they asked for.
  • Early. Curious, relevant, no need in view. A useful email now and a check-in in a few months.
  • Contact. A card exchanged, nothing more. Keep it; it may matter next year.

Write the reason next to the rating, in one line, in their words. "Wants the quote by Friday" is a reason. "Seemed keen" is not. The reason is what lets a colleague pick the lead up on Monday without having been there.

The words that give it away

Listen for these; they decide the rating faster than anything you could ask.

  • "By" and "before". "By the end of the quarter", "before the shutdown". A date.
  • "Budget", "approved", "signed off". Money exists.
  • "Quote", "pricing", "proposal". They want a number, which means they are comparing, which means they are buying from somebody.
  • "Unhappy with", "problems with", "looking to change". An incumbent is losing them.
  • "Just looking", "no plans", "maybe next year". Be polite, be quick, rate it Early and move on.

What to ask when you have five seconds

If the visitor is leaving and you know nothing, one question does more than any other:

"What would need to happen for this to be a project this year?"

The answer tells you whether there is a problem, a date and a budget in one breath. "Nothing, we are just looking" is a clean Early. "If the audit in May flags the old line" is a Warm with a date. "It already is, we are collecting quotes" is Hot, and the next question is when they need it.

What to do with it in the twenty seconds

Say it out loud. Rating, reason, next step, date. "Warm. Three lines up for review next year, wants the retrofit brochure, send Tuesday." Whether you say it into a phone, to a colleague or onto the back of the card, saying it forces the decision while the conversation is still in your head. Twenty minutes later, after three more visitors, it is gone.

Then the next visitor.

What not to do

  • Do not rate on job title. A manager who is bored is not warm. A junior engineer who has been told to find a supplier by June is hot.
  • Do not rate on how nice the conversation was. Friendly is not the same as buying.
  • Do not leave the rating for the evening. By then all the conversations blur into one and everybody becomes Warm.
  • Do not collect without deciding. A badge scan with no rating is a card in a drawer with extra steps.

The stand is where the lead is born. The rating you give it in those twenty seconds decides whether anyone ever calls.

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