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tags: A2, Discovery
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# Layers of qualification
Now that you're familiar with the most common qualification frameworks, we want to give you a tool to understand **how well you have qualified a lead**, regardless of the framework or criteria you use.

Qulification is not binary. It's not a yes or no, qualified or unqualified. There are levels (or layers) of qualification.

- **At the most basic level are what we call *fit* criteria.** These are your basic things like making sure they are the right company size for you, the right industry etc. If a lead doesn't fit the fit criteria, they're probably not worth jumping on a call with as there is no chance they will become a client.
- **Once you've qualified basic fit criteria, we focus on the *need***. Does the lead have a need or problem we can help with?
- **If the answer is yes, it's time to quantify the *impact***. What are the repercussions of not solving that need on the company or person?

Easy right? You can use this mental model to approach qualification and understand how well qualified a lead is and therefore how big a chance of them turning into a client.

**We call the mental model: Onion Layers! 🧅**


Let's break them down in-depth 👇
 
## Layer 1: Fit
You can think of Fit Criteria as the basic criteria of your company's ideal customer profile. These are criteria that determine whether the lead is the right fit specifically for your company or solution, and whether it's worth even starting a conversation.

As an outbound SDR, you should ideally always only target and close discovery calls with leads that correspond to your company's ICP. This way, you then don't have to actively qualify for these factors at qualification stage.

So what criteria do we include here? Most often, those that describe your ICP. The most common ones include:

- Industry
- Size of organization
- Toolset they use
- Language
- Geography

## Layer 2: Need
Once you're sure basic fit criteria are met, Layer 2 is all about answering the question: does the lead have a problem and need we can help with or solve?

The trick here is to dig deep. Most often, prospects will mention problems and needs that are mere symptoms. Your job will be to help them get to the core of the problem, and deeply explore their various needs, drivers and motivations.

We will show you specific questioning techniques you can use to do this later on.

## Layer 3: Impact
Once you have identified the problem and need, you want to diagnose and make them understand the current and future implications it has for them and the company. In other words, you want to understand what the identified need means in terms of resources (time, effort and costs it causes) and what it would mean if you solved it in the future (gain of time or money, less effort).

Understanding impact of inaction and action is where the magic happens. It's the meat and bones of need discovery.

 
## Why layers?
As you progress through qualification, think of the different criteria as an onion that you want to peel to get to the core of a problem. The initial criteria are easy, but **the most qualified leads are the ones we know have a need we can solve which would generate a huge impact for the company.**

Don't stop at the first layer, keep peeling! The better you become at peeling the onion, the better you will be as SDR and AE. An SDR needs to nail layers 1 and 2. Great salespeople, SDRs / AEs / full cycle sales managers, are relentless in nailing layer 3.

**Once a prospect understands the impact an unsolved need has for them in terms of time or money, buying your product will become a no brainer 🧠**

 
## How to peel the onion
So you're probably thinking "ok, that makes a lot of sense, but how do I actually do that?"

Later in the course we will give you a step by step guide of how to structure a discovery call to effectively qualify a lead. But before we do that, there are two crucial skills that you need to master to effectively run a discovery call. These are simple skills you use every day, but maybe not as effectively as you thought!

1. Asking good questions and
1. Active listening

Simple right?

Let's learn how to take these skills to the next level to effectively qualify and engage your sales leads!

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