Notes for owners · Sales management
How to qualify a lead on the first call: six questions for a small team
Six plain-spoken questions on need, decision-maker, budget range, timing, alternatives and next step, with what to listen for and when to end the call politely.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
- Why six, and why plain words?
- What are the six questions, and what do you listen for?
- How do you ask about money without scaring them?
- What is question five for?
- For example: a corporate gifting supplier in Chennai
- What does a good first minute sound like?
- When do you end the call or hand it on?
- How do you record it so the next person can use it?
Six questions qualify a lead on a first call: what is needed, who decides, roughly what it should cost, when it must happen, what the buyer would do instead, and what happens next. Ask them as part of helping, in the buyer's words, and stop once you know whether the lead is worth a quote. The order below puts the easiest questions first and the one that sounds hardest, money, in the middle.
Why six, and why plain words?
The usual letters, BANT, come from larger sales teams. They work, but in a small firm they can get recited like a form. Buyers can hear it. Plain questions get plain answers. We cover the framework itself in a qualifying framework for a small team; here is the version for the phone.
Six is the number that fits in your head while talking. Add more and you stop listening.
What are the six questions, and what do you listen for?
| # | Ask | Listen for | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "What are you trying to get done?" | A job, a place, a quantity | "Just exploring" |
| 2 | "Who else will be involved in choosing?" | A name or a role | "Only me" when the job is plainly large |
| 3 | "What range did you have in mind?" | A figure or a comparison | Refusal to say anything, ever |
| 4 | "When do you need it by?" | A date tied to something | "Whenever" |
| 5 | "What would you do if you did not buy this?" | A real alternative, or none | They already have the thing and are happy |
| 6 | "What should we do next?" | A step with a date | Vagueness |
The questions are short on purpose. Wait after each one. Many people fill a silence with the detail you wanted.
How do you ask about money without scaring them?
Offer a range before you ask for one. Say: "Jobs like this run from small to large depending on the specification. Where would you like to be?" Or anchor on what they already spend: "Is this replacing something you buy now? What did that cost?"
If the buyer gives a figure far below anything you can do, say so kindly and early. Saving them time earns respect, and you save yours.
For services that you price by scope, see our post on pricing a service when every customer asks for a discount, which shows how to answer once the budget is known.
What is question five for?
Standard scripts often leave it out, and it tells you how much the need matters. "What would you do if you did not buy this?" gets three kinds of answer.
- "Carry on with what we have." The need is mild. Expect a long cycle or a no.
- "Get it from our usual supplier." You are the comparison, not the first choice. Ask what they like about the usual supplier.
- "We cannot work without it." This is real urgency. Move fast.
You are not trying to trap anyone. You are learning how much it hurts them to wait.
For example: a corporate gifting supplier in Chennai
Take an invented supplier of festival gift hampers to offices, who took calls from HR and admin staff. The old process was to say yes to everything and send a catalogue. The calls that went nowhere shared a pattern: no date, no budget and nobody else involved, because the caller was gathering ideas for a boss who had not asked.
The supplier started asking the six. One caller answered the first four vaguely but was clear on question five: "We buy from the same shop every year." The supplier asked what that shop did well. It delivered to branches in three cities, and the supplier's own strength was one city. A polite note went back and no quote was built. Until then every researching caller had been treated as a buyer. Now effort follows the answers: a lead with a date, a decider and a range gets a quote the same day, and the rest get a short reply. One caller who would have placed a small order felt brushed off by the short reply, and the supplier accepted that cost.
What does a good first minute sound like?
Open with who you are and how long you need, then hand the buyer the floor. For example: "I have about five minutes. Tell me the job. Then I will ask a few things so I quote the right thing." It sets the frame, signals that questions are coming and stops the buyer from reading you a long history. If they ramble, that is useful too: note what they come back to, because it is what they care about.
When do you end the call or hand it on?
End the call kindly when the job is outside what you do, the quantity is below your minimum, or the date cannot be met. Say so and, if you can, name someone who might help.
Hand the call to the owner when the order is large by your own measure, or when the buyer names a decision-maker who wants to talk to someone senior. A junior should have this rule written down, not left to judgement on the day.
How do you record it so the next person can use it?
One line per lead, filled in during the call: need, decider, range, date, alternative, next step. Rate each lead A, B or C. A: all six are clear. B: two or three are missing. C: mostly unknown. Look through the C leads at your regular sales meeting and drop those with no change. After a few weeks, check which letter turned into orders.
Tonight, copy the six questions onto the card beside the phone and use them on the next call you take. If a team needs training on them, lead qualification is the service for that, and the sales section holds the related posts. To put the six questions into the words your own buyers use, tell us what you need.
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