Inbound qualification answers one question: how much is this meeting worth, and how should you open it? You have a name and a LinkedIn profile, so you work outward — role, then company, then timing, then risk. Five minutes is enough. The point is not to filter people out, because inbound is expensive to generate; the point is to walk into the call knowing what it is actually about.
Step 1: Read the role, not the title
A title tells you seniority. What you need is whether this person touches the problem you solve.
- Owns the problem. They feel it daily and can describe it precisely. Best case: they can also sign, which happens mostly at smaller companies.
- Influences the problem. They will champion it internally but need someone else to approve. Most inbound falls here. Plan for a second call with a name you have not met.
- Researching for someone else. An analyst, a coordinator, or a consultant gathering options. Worth taking, worth handling differently — your goal on that call is to get introduced upward, not to pitch.
- Not connected to the problem at all. Often a student, a jobseeker, or a competitor. Still take fifteen minutes if you can spare it; do not build a proposal.
Check tenure too. Someone three weeks into a role is often reaching out precisely because they have a mandate to change things, which makes them a better lead than their title suggests.
Step 2: Check whether the company can buy
The person raised their hand. The company still has to be able to say yes.
- Headcount. Under 50, the person you are talking to may well be the decision maker. Over 500, assume a committee, procurement, and a security review.
- Industry and model. Does your product fit how this company makes money?
- Geography. Contracting, currency, and data residency all follow from this and all surface late if you skip it.
Step 3: Find the reason they are looking now
This is the highest-value five minutes in the process, and it is the one most people skip because the lead came to them.
Look for a recent funding round, hiring in the function that owns your problem, a new executive in that function, a product launch, or an expansion into a new market. Any one of these gives you a real opening line and a reason the timeline might be short.
If you find nothing, the inbound is probably curiosity rather than a project. Take the call, but plan to spend it building urgency instead of assuming it.
Step 4: Look for the disqualifiers
Four things should change how you run the call:
| Finding | What it means |
|---|---|
| Layoffs in the last two quarters | Budget is frozen regardless of enthusiasm |
| Public cost-cutting or hiring freeze | Same, and often longer-lasting |
| Departure of the executive who owns your area | No one can approve until the seat is filled |
| Profile suggests a competitor or a course project | Be helpful, be brief, do not build a proposal |
None of these is a reason to decline. Each is a reason to adjust what you ask for at the end of the call — a smaller first step, a longer timeline, or an introduction rather than a proposal.
The five-minute version
Open the profile. Open the company page. Open the jobs tab. Search for recent news. Decide.
That is four tabs and roughly five minutes for one lead, which is fine when inbound is a trickle and painful when it is not. Doing this properly at twenty leads a week is most of a day.
The ten-second version
LinkedIntel reads the LinkedIn profile or company page directly and returns the account context — funding, hiring signals, leadership changes, financial momentum, decision makers, and red flags like layoffs or cost cutting — scored as IMMEDIATE, MODERATE, or COLD. Steps 2 through 4 above happen in one click, which leaves your five minutes for step 1 and for writing an opening question worth asking.
It does not read the person’s intent or their messages. What it gives you is the company picture behind the name that just landed in your inbox.
Related reading
The B2B account research checklist is the fuller version of steps 2 to 4 for outbound. How to find decision makers on LinkedIn matters when your inbound lead turns out to be an influencer rather than a buyer, and what are buying signals in B2B sales covers step 3 in depth. Founders handling their own inbound should read LinkedIntel for founders.