B2B lead qualification process we use for our clients’ campaigns

On initial calls, approximately 85% of our prospects express frustration over low-quality leads that divert their sales teams to unproductive pursuits instead of focusing on genuine client engagement and securing new clients.

Having encountered this challenge firsthand, Belkins’ research team developed a robust framework to ensure the leads we deliver are all qualified. As part of this approach, we apply a 3-level lead screening system that rigorously validates each contact.

Here’s how we do it.

Step 1: Defining the ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer persona

Verifying that our client's ICP matches the current market conditions and selecting buyer personas is the very first step required for reliable lead qualification. This foundation helps avoid spending their budget on “dead” segments and focuses immediately on truly profitable leads.

Usually, each client already has a defined ICP, and our process involves in-depth research to evaluate all criteria and implement strategic enhancements.

Some basic questions the research team asks are: 

• Are any of the ICP criteria outdated?
• Are there any legal or geopolitical restrictions preventing contact with this audience?
• Does the selected ICP align with the client’s current stage of business growth? (For example, if a startup is targeting large corporations, this might be ambitious, but practically it will lead to 0 conversions.)

Defining buyer personas parallels the ICP process but zooms in on the specific decision-makers within target companies. Instead of just saying “head of marketing,” we try to figure out who that person really is. What are their daily headaches? What makes them tick? What are their secret goals? We call this digging into “micro-personas” or creating a super-detailed profile of your ideal contact.

At this stage, it is important not only to define the relevant job titles but also to consider:

• In which departments do these people usually work?
• Which market segments are prioritized? (For example, in SaaS companies, this could be CMO or RevOps, whereas in manufacturing, it could be Operations or Procurement.)
• What is the role of this person in the buying process (initiator, influencer, final decision maker)?

Key criteria for building a buyer persona include:

• Demographic and firmographic data: position, department, company level, company type and size, and geography
• Behavioral characteristics: how they make decisions, what problems they solve, and what metrics are important to them
• Psychographics/motivation: key pain points, communication style
• Preferred communication channels: LinkedIn, email, conferences
• Preferred communication style: detailed, data-driven info or real-world examples and success stories

The Belkins team conducts manual research, leveraging tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, Crunchbase, and AI applications. The output of this research is illustrated below (names and specific details have been modified for confidentiality).

Step 2: Conducting preliminary research and prequalification

At this stage, the research team screens the campaign database to ensure there’s a robust pool of qualified leads to proceed. The analysis combines quantitative metrics and qualitative insights to answer key questions:

• How many relevant companies exist within the targeted segment?
• To what extent do they align with the ICP?
• Is it feasible to engage the intended buyer personas effectively?

The research team presents these findings to the project team to prioritize campaigns, identifying which should launch immediately and which require further refinement or a broader scope. This ensures campaigns commence with a focused, well-defined audience rather than an insufficient or overly broad dataset.

Once priorities are set, the research team assembles a test lead sample. This curated subset demonstrates the database’s quality and enables gauging the target audience’s response before initiating the full campaign.

During this process, we integrate manual evaluations — assessing websites, company activity, and team structure — with automated tools like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, BuiltWith, ZoomInfo, and proprietary databases. This combined approach enables us to identify contacts with the greatest potential for engagement and conversion.

Step 3: Running through a lead qualification checklist (3-level screening)

Once the initial prescreening is done, the research team uses a multilevel qualification system to secure high-quality leads. This involves verifying both the company and the contact using publicly available data, technical analysis, and previous experience.

Each lead goes through 1 to 3 levels of verification, depending on the campaign complexity and database size.

1st level: Basic qualification

1. Company’s activity level: Verify the company truly exists and is operational by checking an official website, an active domain, basic public information, visible LinkedIn activity, news mentions, or trade show presence. Also, double-check that the company is not in liquidation or under suspension.
2. ICP compliance: Ensure the company matches the predetermined criteria by verifying its industry or subindustry, business size (number of employees, revenue), geographic regions where outreach can be legally and effectively conducted, and business model (B2B, B2C, DTC, etc.).

2nd level: In-depth verification

1. Technical compatibility: Assess whether the company’s technical environment aligns with the client’s service. This includes checking if the technology stack, integrations, partners, and tools match the client’s service (e.g., using HubSpot as a marketing platform) and whether the platform is compatible with the product/service we are promoting.
2. Any signs of need or pain point relevance: A key criterion is the presence of potential buying signals. These may include relevant open job positions, news about funding rounds or market expansion, recent website updates or product launches, or visible issues such as poor UI, outdated content, or lack of analytics.

3rd level: Buyer persona selection

At this step, the research team reviews each buyer persona to choose the ones that meet the following criteria: 

• Buyer persona matches the campaign hypothesis (e.g., head of talent for HR solutions).
• Buyer persona holds a decision-making role (decision-maker, budget holder, or influencer).
• The position belongs to a relevant department (marketing, HR, finance, operations, etc.).
• The contact is valid (verified email, active LinkedIn profile with photo, description, and visible connections).
• The contact’s location matches the company’s location. For offline businesses, this means the person works in the same country or region as the company. For remote companies, we consider the country of operational activity — e.g., if the CTO is in Poland but the company sells in the U.S., we focus on the U.S. market.
• The role is appropriate for the company's size. In startups, the CEO may perform head of sales duties; in corporations, each function is separate.

💡 Note: The research team avoids junior or support roles, even if formally in the relevant department, as they lack influence on the purchasing process.

🛠️ Tools used for this step:

• LinkedIn — to evaluate team structure, activity, and content
• Crunchbase — to verify investments, company size, and development stage
• BuiltWith/Wappalyzer — to identify the technology stack
• ZoomInfo/Apollo — to gather firmographic data and contacts
• Proprietary databases and capabilities — for filtering, tagging, and comparing with historical data.

Step 4: Creating a lead database

Belkins’ research team structures the database so that other teams and the client can immediately and easily analyze, sort, and use it to achieve the campaign’s goals. The table format is adapted for each project but typically includes key fields that clarify both the “who” in the database and the “why” this lead was selected.

The database includes:

• Company name
• Company website
• Geography (country/region of operation)
• Industry name and company size (number of employees or revenue)
• Contact name, position, email, and link to LinkedIn or company profile
• Link to the company’s LinkedIn profile
• Qualification reason (e.g., matches ICP, uses a specific technology, relevant size or stage)
• Lead priority (marked as A/B/C, score, or LinkedIn score depending on the model)
• Researcher’s comment (optional — to explain nonstandard cases or exceptions)
• Other parameters as requested by the client or project team (e.g., competitor relation, audience type, tags by needs)

Step 5: Continuous review and refinement of criteria

For us, lead qualification is not a one-time checklist but an ongoing decision-making process that evolves dynamically with the campaign. Belkins’ team doesn’t stick to a fixed set of criteria; instead, we regularly test, refine, and adapt them based on market behavior, sales team feedback, and results analysis.

How the team handles criteria refinement:

1. Continuously collects feedback from clients and SDRs on who opens emails, responds, engages in conversations, and which meetings were successful or unsuccessful
2. Tracks which types of companies and roles actually convert versus those that remain inactive
3. Analyzes whether all ICP and buyer persona criteria remain relevant, or if narrowing or changing the approach is necessary

When any new patterns appear, the research team promptly updates the qualification logic without delaying the campaign.

Lastly, a key role usually following lead qualification is lead scoring, and both processes are closely connected.

While lead qualification identifies if a lead fits the ICP and basic criteria, lead scoring assigns numerical values based on factors like contact activity, technology fit, role, and conversion potential. This helps avoid relying on intuition alone and allows for continuous refinement. For example, if high-scoring leads don’t convert, it signals a need to reevaluate the criteria. If low-scoring leads engage, their traits are analyzed to expand qualification parameters. Lead scoring strengthens lead qualification by revealing patterns that are hard to spot manually.

📚 Related article: Using B2B lead scoring to identify sales-ready leads