Lead

⚠️ Scope Notice
This skill is for sales lead qualification only.
It is not for music, medicine, journalism, recruiting, or generic team-role uses of the word "lead".

Lead is a decision skill for handling commercial prospects with speed, clarity, and discipline.

Use this skill when you need to:

• evaluate whether a sales lead is worth active pursuit
• identify what information is still missing
• determine the next best action
• write follow-up that moves the conversation forward
• prevent good leads from dying due to weak process

Lead vs Prospect

Use Prospect before contact.
Use Lead after engagement begins.

If there has been no reply, no meeting, and no active interaction yet, the contact may still be better handled by Prospect.

What this skill does

Lead helps transform raw prospect information into clear action.

It can:

• assess lead quality based on fit, intent, urgency, and authority
• distinguish real opportunities from vague interest
• identify blockers, risks, and missing qualification data
• recommend the next best action for each lead
• draft follow-up messages that have a reason to exist
• separate active pursuit, nurture, and deprioritize decisions

Best use cases

• inbound lead triage
• outbound reply handling
• founder-led sales
• SDR qualification
• stalled lead diagnosis
• re-engagement planning
• next-step planning after discovery calls

What to provide

Useful input includes:

• who the lead is
• company and role
• source of the lead
• what they asked for or responded to
• current pain point
• timeline, budget, or buying signals
• last interaction and current status

What this skill should return

A strong response should usually include:

1. Lead assessment

   • hot / warm / cold
   • strong fit / unclear fit / weak fit

2. Missing information

   • what must be clarified before investing more time

3. Risks or friction

   • weak authority
   • weak urgency
   • weak problem clarity
   • weak timing
   • weak follow-through

4. Next best action

   • pursue now
   • qualify further
   • nurture
   • deprioritize

5. Optional follow-up draft

   • short
   • relevant
   • specific
   • non-annoying

Decision principles

• Do not confuse activity with opportunity.
• Do not treat every lead as pipeline.
• Do not push unclear leads into active pursuit too early.
• Preserve momentum when signal is strong.
• Reduce wasted effort when fit or timing is weak.
• Always prefer a clear next step over vague optimism.

Execution Protocol (for AI agents)

When user provides lead information, follow this sequence.

Step 1: Extract context

Parse input for:

• prospect identity
• company and role
• source
• pain signal
• engagement level
• buying context
• timeline, budget, authority, or competitors if mentioned

Step 2: Score only from visible evidence

Assign 0-10 for each dimension using only evidence present in the input.

Fit Score

• ICP match
• problem-product alignment
• role relevance

Intent Score

• explicit ask vs passive interest
• specificity of questions
• effort already shown

Urgency Score

• timeline mentioned
• pain severity
• trigger event or active problem

Authority Score

• decision-maker vs influencer
• budget control
• internal champion strength

If evidence is missing, do not guess. Score conservatively.

Step 3: Identify gaps

List unknowns that block sound judgment, such as:

• budget not confirmed
• authority unclear
• timeline unknown
• current solution unknown
• success criteria unclear

Step 4: Recommend action

Use the score as guidance, not certainty.

• 32-40: Hot → pursue now
• 24-31: Warm → qualify further
• 16-23: Nurture → stay in touch without active pursuit
• 0-15: Deprioritize → do not invest heavily

Step 5: Draft follow-up if needed

If pursue now or qualify further is recommended:

• reference something specific they said or did
• provide new value
• include one clear next step
• keep it concise
• never use empty phrases like "just checking in" or "touching base"

Upstream Check (for AI agents)

If user provides only:

• names
• companies
• roles
• static firmographic information
• broad target signals

and there is no sign of reply, meeting, active conversation, or engagement, then respond:

"This may still be a prospect rather than an active lead. Use /prospect when the goal is to filter and prioritize targets before outreach. Use Lead only once engagement has begun."

Activation Rules (for AI agents)

Use this skill when the user is asking about:

• evaluating a sales lead
• qualifying a prospect after engagement
• deciding whether to pursue a business opportunity already in motion
• handling a stalled commercial conversation
• writing follow-up for a potential customer

Do NOT use this skill for:

• music contexts
• medical or toxicology contexts
• journalism contexts
• job-hunting contexts
• generic project lead or team lead contexts unless clearly about sales

If context is ambiguous

Ask: "Are you asking about evaluating a sales lead or commercial prospect?"

When NOT to use Lead

Do not use this skill when:

• full CRM architecture design is needed
• detailed financial forecasting is needed
• legal review is needed
• broad sales theory is needed instead of lead-level judgment

Works Well With

• /prospect for filtering and prioritizing targets before outreach
• /pipeline for reviewing the health of the whole active opportunity system

Output style

Responses should be:

• concise
• commercial
• diagnostic
• actionable
• honest about uncertainty

Never inflate lead quality without evidence.
Never recommend aggressive follow-up without a reason.
Never fabricate authority, urgency, budget, or buying intent.