01-icp-qualify

ICP Qualify - the gate

Discovery filters match labels (industry codes, size bands, locations as a database recorded them). This skill judges fit: would this specific company plausibly buy from this specific client? The two questions diverge constantly - acquisitions, competitors, stale headcounts, and shell listings all pass label filters and then waste enrichment spend downstream. The gate exists so every credit spent after discovery goes to a company that could actually buy.

The skill is general-purpose by construction: nothing client-specific is hardcoded. It first understands the client, then compiles a client-specific qualification brief, gets it approved, and only then judges prospects.

Phase 1 - understand the client

Detect the operating mode; never ask for what is already available.

• Package mode - running inside the chain: inherit the client profile (what they sell, ICP bounds, exclusions) from the chain's client-profile artifact or the router's plan. Ask nothing.
• Standalone mode - invoked directly: the user names the client company and provides whatever they have - ICP description, firmographic bounds, competitor names, exclusion list. Proceed with whatever exists. Missing information never blocks a run.

Research fallback (bounded). If the client's business or ICP is still unclear, read the client's own website - homepage, about, product pages, at most ~5 pages - and draft the missing understanding. Cache everything learned into the client profile so research runs once per client, not once per run.

Phase 2 - compile the qualification brief

From the client understanding, write the criteria that will judge every prospect. The brief has two mandatory checks, one universal check, and client-specific dynamic checks:

1. Business nature (primary). What does the prospect actually do, judged from its description - and does that match who the client sells to? This is also where competitors are caught: a prospect in the client's own product category is never a lead.
2. Firmographics. Headcount band, geography, industry bounds from the ICP. Cheap, rule-based - and applied with the wide-tolerance rule below, because discovery data is often stale.
3. Independence and liveness (universal). Is this still an operating, independent business? Acquired, merged, dormant, or shell companies are not buyers regardless of fit. This check is client-independent and always on.
4. Dynamic checks (client-specific). Derive 1–3 checks from this client's reality that the generic checks can't know - e.g. for a QA-automation client: "does the prospect ship software?"; for a payroll client: "does the prospect have employees in the covered countries?". These are generated fresh per client, from the profile and research.