Non-Qualified Leads

You may more commonly hear of these referred to as “unqualified.” Google results show a strong preference for “unqualified leads” over “non-qualified” or “nonqualified,” but “unqualified” is a misnomer.

“Unqualified” implies a dead lead. An unqualified baseball player is the opposite of a qualified baseball player; the unqualified one had his or her chance and blew it. You may take a chance on the non-qualified player, though; he or she hasn’t had a chance to prove themselves but may show potential.

A non-qualified lead has not been evaluated. It’s a name and some contact information in a database. You may not even know how it got there; three generations of marketing teams may have passed it on, rendering the reliability of the lead questionable.

But perhaps that lead will be the Rosetta Stone to your firm’s future fortunes. If, however, you attempted to qualify it and it is not qualified to be a lead, you can deem it unqualified.