A qualified prospect is an organization which has expressed the need for the products or services of the seller.
There is much debate in the sales profession as to what constitutes an actual "qualified" prospect. Most sales professionals apply their own unique set of variables in order to determine whether a prospect is actually "qualified."
In general terms, sales professionals need to know a set of discrete data in order to determine whether or not the "prospect" will become qualified. These variables may include: business needs, authorization to transact business (financial or operational), money or budget and an "economic buyer" or in other words, who would stand to benefit the most (or lose the most) if the good or service were to be acquired (or not acquired).
Another subject in the buying process is usually referred to as either an "influencer" or a "saboteur", someone who, although not the financial or operational authority, exercises a significant level of internal control or leverage in the buying process.
Famous quotes containing the words qualified and/or prospect:
“Let’s face it. With the singular exception of breast-feeding, there is nothing about infant care that a mother is innately better qualified to do than a father. Yet we continue to unconsciously perpetuate the myth that men just don’t have what it takes to be true partners in the process.”
—Michael K. Meyerhoff (20th century)
“The man, or the boy, in his development is psychologically deterred from incorporating serving characteristics by an easily observable fact: there are already people around who are clearly meant to serve and they are girls and women. To perform the activities these people are doing is to risk being, and being thought of, and thinking of oneself, as a woman. This has been made a terrifying prospect and has been made to constitute a major threat to masculine identity.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)