The goal of qualification is not to filter people out. It is to get the right person to the right next step, fast. Here is the framework we recommend to teams that want to stop guessing.
Score on three dimensions
- Fit. Does this lead look like your ideal customer? (Company size, industry, role.)
- Intent. How ready are they to act? (Use case clarity, timeline, budget.)
- Effort. How engaged are they? (Form completion time, optional fields filled, return visits.)
Each dimension scores 0–10. The total tells you what to do.
Simple routing rules
- 24+ : Hot lead. Notify a rep within 60 seconds. Book straight to a calendar.
- 15–23 : Warm lead. Trigger a personalised email sequence. Add to weekly call list.
- Below 15 : Nurture. Add to a low-frequency newsletter and a retargeting audience.
Ask the scoring questions in the form, score downstream
The framework only works if the inputs are captured cleanly. That part belongs in the form: ask fit and intent as structured questions (dropdowns, scales, budget bands) not as a free-text “tell us about your project” box somebody has to interpret later.
The scoring and routing themselves happen after submit. In Questionful, point the form at a webhook, or at Zapier or Make, and do the arithmetic and the routing there, where you can change the weights without touching the form.
A note on where we are: Questionful does not compute a lead score for you today. Branching lets you send low-fit respondents down a shorter path inside the form, but the number itself is something you calculate on the receiving end.
Example: a 7-question demo form
- What’s your role? (Fit)
- How big is your team? (Fit)
- What problem are you trying to solve? (Intent)
- When do you want to have a solution in place? (Intent)
- Have you tried other tools? (Intent)
- What’s your work email? (contact)
- Anything we should know before we meet? (optional. Counts as Effort)
That’s it. Seven questions. A complete qualification picture. A routing decision in real time.