When a lead arrives, the operational question is who qualifies it, by what criteria, where it routes next, and on what cadence the team follows up. We design and write that workflow with the people who will run it — qualification criteria, routing rules, named owners, response SLAs, and a follow-up rhythm a 10–500 person B2B team can keep, then we hand it over. This is operational discipline, not SDR-as-a-service, not paid media, and not lead-list buying.
Common pain points
A lead fills the form, books a demo or replies, and then nothing happens for a day — because nobody is the named owner of the first response.
Two different reps qualify the same kind of lead two different ways, because the criteria live in their heads, not in a written document.
The marketing-to-sales handoff is improvised — sometimes a Slack ping, sometimes an email, sometimes a forgotten note in the CRM.
Hot leads cool off because the response cadence depends on whoever is least busy that day.
Lead source context (campaign, page, content) does not travel with the lead, so the first touch ignores what brought them in.
Senior people are the bottleneck because junior people cannot apply the qualification criteria — they were never written down.
Lead qualification and routing is the workflow that decides what happens between "a lead arrived" and "the right person made the right next move" — and it is not an SDR-as-a-service, paid media, or a lead-list product. It is the qualification criteria, the routing rules, the named owners, the response SLA, the follow-up rhythm, and the CRM fields that make the workflow trustworthy. We write the criteria with the people who already qualify leads, design the routing rules to fit the team you actually have, and define the follow-up cadence and ownership so leads stop falling through the gaps between marketing and sales. AI assists where it helps — summarising lead context, suggesting routing, flagging missing fields, drafting follow-up — but ownership stays with named humans. The workflow lives inside the CRM and tools your team already uses, and it is handed over with a runbook the team owns.
What we build
Area 1
We write the criteria for what makes a lead worth a sales touch — fit, intent, segment, source, and any disqualifiers — in language a junior person can apply without guessing. The criteria are visible inside the CRM, not in a forgotten doc. Output: a one-page qualification rubric your team uses the same way across reps and across weeks.
Area 2
We design the routing rules — by owner, segment, geography, lead source, deal size, or whatever criteria fit your operation — so each lead reaches the right person without manual triage. Routine cases route automatically; edge cases go to a named owner with explicit fallback criteria. Output: a written routing flow with owners and an escape valve.
Area 3
We define how fast the first response happens, what the follow-up rhythm looks like for each lead type, and who is responsible if the SLA slips. The cadence is realistic for a 2–10 person commercial team — not a 5-minute promise the team cannot keep — and it is auditable in the CRM. Output: a written SLA and follow-up cadence with owners and a check.
Area 4
We document the handoff: what data must travel with a lead (source, campaign, content seen, fields captured), who acknowledges receipt, what the disqualification loop looks like when sales rejects a lead, and how marketing learns from it. Output: a written handoff protocol with the data contract and the disqualification feedback loop.
Area 5
We define the CRM fields the workflow depends on, who fills them, and where AI assists — summarising lead context, suggesting routing, flagging missing fields, drafting follow-up prompts — without removing human ownership of the decision. Output: a per-stage CRM field list, an AI-assist map, and the boundaries where humans keep the call.
Area 6
We hand over the workflow as a runbook written for the people who will keep running it: criteria, routing, SLA, cadence, owners, AI-assist boundaries, and what to do when something breaks. Output: a runbook your team can operate and edit after the engagement, with a 30-minute monthly review agenda.
Hot leads get a first response from the right person on a written schedule — not when someone happens to notice.
Qualification is consistent across reps and across weeks, because the criteria are written and applied the same way.
The marketing → sales handoff stops being improvised — there is a written protocol, a data contract, and a feedback loop.
Junior people can qualify and route leads on their own, so senior people stop being the bottleneck.
Lead source context travels with the lead, so the first touch fits what the lead came in for.
AI helps with summary, routing suggestions, and follow-up drafts — and your team keeps the decision.
No. We do not act as your SDR team, run outbound campaigns, buy or rent lead lists, or do prospecting on your behalf. This work is the qualification, routing, and follow-up workflow your team runs on the leads you already have. If you need outbound prospecting, that is a different service and we will point you to someone who does that.
Yes. We are tool-agnostic and we design the workflow to live inside the CRM your team already uses — HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, or whatever you have. We do not resell platforms, and we do not require a CRM migration to start. The workflow is the rules, owners, and cadence, not a tool change.
No. This work is about not wasting the leads you already get — qualifying them well, routing them right, and following up on a cadence. If your problem is volume, that is a different conversation (demand creation, not demand capture) and we will say so. The pillar `AI-Assisted Growth Operations` covers where this sits in the bigger picture.
Whatever a 2–10 person commercial team can realistically keep, given your lead volume and time zones — not a marketing promise the team cannot honour. We write the SLA with the people who will answer the leads, set it to something they can hit on a normal week, and design the follow-up cadence to recover when a single day slips.
No. AI assists — summarising lead context, suggesting routing, flagging missing fields, drafting follow-up — but the qualification and routing decisions stay with named humans. The point is to remove friction from the workflow, not to remove judgement.
It does not include running outbound campaigns, buying lead lists, SDR-as-a-service, paid media, creative production, CRM migration, sales coaching, ABM strategy authoring, or legal/compliance review. If what you need is one of those, we will tell you and point you to the right partner.
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Read moreBook a call to scope the qualification and routing workflow your team needs. We will talk through how leads land today, where the first touch happens, what your CRM looks like, and what the team can realistically keep on a normal week. If your problem is lead volume rather than lead handling, we will say so.
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