Standard work

Qualification standard work

Qualification standard work is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).

1 · What it is

What it is

Qualification standard work is the same three-column job instruction as the canonical version — major steps, key points (a specific technique, not a generic prompt), and the reason each one matters — pointed at deciding whether a lead genuinely fits the ideal customer profile (ICP) before it consumes a discovery call's worth of time. The lean connection is master-plan §4.2's framing of ICP as "specify value — lean's step one; standard work for qualification": without a repeatable technique, a rep either advances everyone (burning downstream time on deals that were never going to close) or advances inconsistently (losing real fits to a bad day's judgement call) — the same failure any work instruction exists to prevent.

2 · When to use it

When to use it — and when not to

Use it when

Lead volume is high enough that qualification quality varies visibly by rep or by day, not because anyone is careless but because there's no shared technique to fall back on.
You have a real ICP canvas and anti-ICP already defined — this standard work is what turns those definitions into a repeatable check, not a substitute for having them.
You want to see honestly which qualification steps still rely on individual judgement rather than a real technique, not a checklist that looks complete but isn't.

Not when

You don't have a defined ICP or anti-ICP yet — build those first; a qualification checklist with nothing real to check against just adds process without adding signal.
Lead volume is low enough that every lead already gets a real, consistent conversation from an experienced rep — the standard work earns its keep at volume, not as ceremony.
The 'key point' would just restate the step ('check if they're a good fit') — a real key point adds a specific technique a step alone doesn't convey.

3 · How to fill it in

How to fill it in

Purpose: What does qualification need to establish before a lead advances, and what does advancing an unqualified lead actually cost downstream?
Steps, key points & reasons: Drafted from your description of the qualification process — major steps, each with zero or more key points and, for every key point, the reason it matters. A step with no real technique yet is flagged, not hidden.
Narrative: Drafted from the steps actually built.

4 · What good looks like

What good looks like

The example below is a mid-market inbound qualification process — four of five steps carry a real technique and reason, and the final routing step is honestly left flagged rather than padded with a generic 'route appropriately' instruction.

Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.

Download .xlsx

Work instruction

Lead qualification standard work — mid-market inbound

Sales — mid-market lead qualification

Priya Anand, Sales Enablement · 2026-03-16

Purpose

A repeatable technique for deciding whether an inbound or outbound lead genuinely fits the ICP before it consumes a discovery call's worth of time — so qualification depends on the same checks regardless of which rep or SDR is running it, not individual judgement that varies call to call.

Steps, key points & reasons

5 steps · 4 key points

1. Confirm firmographic fit against the ICP canvas before doing anything else

Check company size, industry, and segment against the ICP canvas's defined ranges, not against a general sense of 'seems like our kind of customer' — A lead that fails firmographic fit outright rarely becomes a good account regardless of how the rest of the conversation goes — checking this first avoids investing a full discovery call in a deal the firmographics already ruled out.

2. Confirm a real trigger or pain signal exists, not just inbound interest

Ask for one specific, recent event or symptom — not a general statement of interest ('we're always looking to improve') — A lead with no real trigger is early-stage curiosity, not a qualified opportunity — advancing it anyway is what fills a pipeline with deals that stall at 'no decision' later.

3. Check the lead against the anti-ICP disqualifiers before investing further time

Run the specific disqualifying patterns (not a vague gut check) — known churn-prone segments, company-size floors, missing implementation resources — Anti-ICP disqualifiers exist because past deals with this exact pattern already failed — skipping this check means repeating a known-bad outcome instead of learning from it.

4. Identify who holds budget authority, even if they're not on this call

Ask directly who would need to approve spend, and whether the current contact has spoken to them about this yet — A lead with real pain but no path to an actual budget holder isn't disqualified, but it changes what 'qualified' means — it needs a multi-threading plan, not a straight advance to discovery.

5. Log the qualification outcome and route accordinglyNo key point yet

Narrative

Four of five steps carry a real technique grounding the check in something concrete — firmographic ranges, a named trigger, the specific anti-ICP patterns, a real budget-authority question — rather than a general instruction to 'use judgement.' The final routing step is honestly left without a key point yet: what happens to a lead that passes three checks but fails one is a real decision this standard work doesn't resolve, not an oversight to paper over.

5 · Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Checking firmographic fit last, after a full discovery call has already happened.
Firmographic fit is the cheapest check to run and the one most likely to disqualify outright — running it last means the expensive parts of the process happen before the one check that could have ended it early.
Treating 'they filled out a form' as evidence of a real trigger.
Form fills are interest, not urgency — advancing on interest alone is how a pipeline fills with deals that stall at 'no decision' three months later, the same failure a deal A3 usually traces back to a discovery-stage gap.
Running the anti-ICP check from memory instead of the actual defined disqualifiers.
Anti-ICP patterns exist because specific past deals already failed this way — a rep's general sense of 'red flags' isn't the same as the disqualifiers that were actually derived from churn data.

6 · What it connects to

What it connects to

upstream

ICP canvas
This standard work only works if the firmographic ranges and trigger signals it checks against are the real, current ICP definition — not a rep's mental model of it.
Anti-ICP
The disqualifier check is only as good as the anti-ICP list it's checking against — a stale or missing anti-ICP means this step has nothing real to run.

downstream

Discovery call standard work
A lead that passes qualification is exactly what advances into a discovery call — qualification decides who gets there, discovery decides what happens once they do.

7 · Where AI helps

Where AI helps

Judgement — stays yours

Deciding whether a step genuinely needs a technique or is simple enough not to
Deciding whether a drafted key point reflects a real, usable technique or is worth sharpening

Analysis — AI helps

Drafting major steps, key points, and reasons from a rough description of the qualification process
Drafting the narrative from the steps actually built

Drudgery — automated

Counting steps and key points
Identifying which steps still have no technique
Exporting to xlsx in the house format

9 · Rate this kata