When your pipeline is full but your close rate is under 10%, /sales-qualification rewrites your discovery and disqualification criteria in 15 minutes. — Claude Skill
Rewrite your qualification framework and get a 'yes or no' on the first call.
- Jen Abel qualification doctrine: 'it's never a bottom-of-funnel problem, it's always qualification'
- First-call yes-or-no framework: no second call without a clear decision
- Disqualification criteria: verify the prospect is actively measuring or managing the problem today
- Discovery question rewrite: 4-6 questions that reveal fit, urgency, authority, and existing workaround
- Pipeline triage: rank open deals by fit score and cut the bottom third to free up rep time
Who this is for
Qualify deals out early so your pipeline reflects real buying intent, not happy-ears optimism
See skills for this roleAudit pipeline quality and coach reps on where they're skipping qualification
See skills for this roleSet qualification bars before booking meetings so AEs don't waste cycles on bad-fit demos
See skills for this roleWhat it does
Reps are running calls all day but only 8% of pipeline closes. /sales-qualification applies Jen Abel's rule ('it's always qualification') and diagnoses whether the leak is ICP, discovery questions, or 'polite yes' leads that were never going to buy.
Your team books second and third meetings that keep slipping. /sales-qualification rewrites the first-call script to force a yes or no, using Jen Abel's 'there's no in-between' rule so reps stop spending hours on leads who are 'just being nice'.
Your reps fill in Salesforce but can't articulate why a lead is worth pursuing. /sales-qualification builds an explicit 5-point fit score (active problem, measurable impact, authority, timeline, budget) and cuts anything below threshold.
The pipeline report shows 4x coverage but forecast accuracy is off by 40%. /sales-qualification re-scores every open deal against the new criteria, surfaces the 'hope-selling' deals, and rebuilds the forecast on what's actually qualified.
How it works
You share your current discovery script, close rate, and 3-5 example deals that recently closed lost
The skill applies Jen Abel's qualification doctrine to diagnose whether the issue is ICP, discovery, or disqualification discipline
Get a rewritten first-call script: 4-6 questions that reveal active problem-solving, authority, and urgency in one meeting
Get explicit disqualification criteria: when to walk away on the first call and why 'no' is a successful outcome
Re-score your open pipeline against the new framework and get a ranked cut list of deals to drop
Example
Motion: outbound to Head of RevOps at B2B SaaS ACV: 25K Close rate: 7% over last 90 days Typical death: stage 3, 'we're not ready right now' Current discovery: 'walk me through your current process', 'what are your biggest challenges'
This is not a closing problem. 'Not ready right now' at stage 3 is textbook Jen Abel qualification failure. Your discovery questions are soft and don't reveal whether the prospect is actively measuring or managing the problem today. You're spending reps on 'polite yes' leads.
1. How are you solving this today, and what tools or spreadsheets are involved? 2. What does this cost you in hours, errors, or revenue each month? (If they can't quantify, they're not measuring it, disqualify.) 3. Who else is involved when you want to fix something like this? 4. What changed in the last 90 days that made this worth a call with me? 5. If we solved this for you in 30 days, what would you do with the reclaimed time or revenue?
Walk away on call 1 if any of: - They can't name the dollar or hour cost of the problem. - No named budget owner other than the person on the call. - 'Exploring options' with no defined decision timeline. - 'Sounds interesting' without a specific trigger event in last 90 days. Jen Abel: 'No is a successful outcome.'
Re-score every open deal against the 5 questions. Cut the bottom third this week. Reinvest those hours into 30 manually-researched outbound prospects. Expected lift: close rate from 7% to 15-20% within 60 days.
Metrics this improves
Works with
Enforce stage-gate exit criteria and qualification fields on every opp
Review discovery calls against MEDDPICC-style qualification checklist
Validate champion authority and identify economic buyer
Document qualification playbook, discovery scripts, and disqualify criteria
Want to use Sales Qualification?
Choose how to get started.
Install and run this skill locally on your computer.
Open a terminal on your computer and paste this command:
This downloads the skill with all its files to your computer:
Add -g at the end to make it available in all your projects.
Start Claude Code, then type the command:
Sales Qualification
Help the user qualify sales leads effectively using frameworks from 1 product leader.
How to Help
When the user asks for help with sales qualification:
- Understand current process - Ask how they currently decide which leads to pursue
- Identify disqualification criteria - Help them define what makes a lead NOT worth pursuing
- Design discovery questions - Create questions that efficiently reveal fit
- Build a qualification framework - Help them systematize qualification decisions
Core Principles
Most sales problems are qualification problems
Jen Abel: "It's qualification. Qualification because if you spend your time on the wrong leads, that equates to a zero." If conversion rates are low, the issue is often pursuing leads that were never going to close rather than poor sales execution.
"No" is a successful outcome
Jen Abel: "I am a qualification crazy person. I will not get in on another call with someone because on the first call it's either a yes or a no, there's no in between." The goal of early calls is to determine fit, not to convince. A clear "no" saves time that can be spent on better leads.
Disqualify aggressively
The best salespeople are rigorous about disqualification. They'd rather pursue fewer, better-qualified opportunities than spread themselves thin across mediocre leads.
First call should determine fit
If a lead requires multiple calls before you can determine whether they're a fit, your discovery process is too slow. Qualification should happen early and decisively.
Time is the scarcest resource
Every hour spent on a bad lead is an hour not spent on a good one. The math of sales productivity favors aggressive filtering.
Questions to Help Users
- "What percentage of your pipeline actually closes? Is the problem quality or execution?"
- "What are the characteristics of your best customers? How quickly can you identify those traits?"
- "What questions do you ask in discovery that reveal whether a lead is qualified?"
- "When was the last time you disqualified a lead on the first call?"
- "What would need to be true for you to walk away from a lead earlier?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Pursuing all inbound - Treating every lead as equally worthy of time
- Slow qualification - Taking multiple calls to determine what could be known in one
- Hope selling - Continuing to pursue leads you know aren't a fit because the pipeline looks thin
- No disqualification criteria - Not having explicit reasons to say no
- Confusing activity with progress - Measuring calls made rather than qualified opportunities created
Deep Dive
For all 2 insights from 1 guest, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- product-led-sales
- sales-compensation
- pricing-strategy
Reference documents
Sales Qualification - All Guest Insights
1 guests, 2 mentions
Jen Abel
Jen Abel
"It's qualification. Qualification because if you spend your time on the wrong leads, that equates to a zero."
Insight: The guest explicitly states that most sales problems are actually qualification problems and provides a specific framework for determining if a lead is worth pursuing.
"I am a qualification crazy person. I will not get in on another call with someone because on the first call it's either a yes or a no, there's no in between."
Insight: The guest emphasizes 'qualification' as a core discipline—specifically the ability to aggressively filter out bad leads and value 'No' as a successful outcome to save time.