How to Qualify a Carpet & Tile Cleaning Opportunity in 10 Minutes

Not every signal deserves a phone call. Before you spend time on an account, run it through this checklist — it takes about ten minutes and it works whether or not you’re using a tool to surface the signal in the first place.

1. Confirm the signal is recent

A job posting or permit filing from six months ago tells you very little about what’s true today. Check the date on whatever prompted your interest. If it’s stale, treat the account as a cold lead, not a warm one — the urgency the signal implied has probably passed.

2. Separate “fit” from “intent”

Fit is whether the account matches what you’re equipped to serve: industry, size, geography. Intent is whether there’s a real reason to believe this account needs something right now. A account can have great fit and weak intent (a good target with no current trigger) or strong intent and poor fit (an urgent need outside what you actually do). Score both, separately, before you decide to reach out.

3. Check for an obvious disqualifier first

Before you research anything else, rule out the account types you already know don’t work for you — wrong service type, outside your radius, below your minimum size. Spend zero time qualifying an account you’d turn down anyway.

4. Write down why, in one sentence

If you can’t explain in a single sentence why this account is worth a message today, it probably isn’t ready yet. “They posted a job that implies more square footage to cover” is a reason. “They’re a medical office and I do medical offices” is not — that’s fit, not a reason for now.

5. Decide the next action before you open your inbox

Know whether you’re sending a short intro, asking a specific question tied to the signal, or just adding the account to a watchlist for later. Deciding this first keeps your outreach short and specific instead of generic.

What this looks like in practice

This is the same checklist behind every record in the Apex Flow Revenue queue — source and date, fit score, a plain-language reason, and a suggested next action. You can see the shape of it on the interactive example page, using sample data.