Qualification

Vetting a lead to see whether there’s a genuine opportunity worth pursuing, and doing it from the expert position — where you are qualifying the client at least as much as they are qualifying you. Enns replaces the “need” in the old BANT checklist (budget, authority, need, timeframe) with desired future state — “describe what success looks like” — which lifts the conversation above the spec the buyer walked in with. A qualified conversation has cleared four tests: future state, authority and decision process, timing, and money.

Source: Blair Enns, The Four Conversations / Win Without Pitching (PRACTITIONER) — the qualifying conversation, whose objective is to vet the lead while maintaining the expert position. “There is no credentials meeting”: you are not auditioning for the client; you are assessing fit.

First used in: 2.7 · Discovery: diagnose before you prescribe