One of the biggest time drains for consultancy founders isn't delivery; it's false positives - the prospects who sound promising, take up headspace, and never move forward.

You know the pattern:

• A warm inbound that "definitely wants to explore options"

• A referral who "loves what you do" but keeps delaying

• A leader who gets excited on the call but disappears after you send next steps

• A DMU where internal alignment keeps slipping into the future

Most of these dead ends aren't about fit - they're about readiness.

And this is where consultants lose days, weeks, even months of momentum - because they treat every conversation as if it were a real opportunity.

Today's newsletter gives you a simple 3-minute qualifier to avoid wasting hours on prospects who aren't ready and to move real buyers forward faster.

First, understand buyer readiness

Before you qualify interest, qualify readiness, using the Consultancy Buyer Readiness Pyramid:

• 3% are ready to buy now

• 7% are preparing to buy

• 15% are considering buying

• The rest are somewhere between focusing on other priorities, unaware, or convinced they don't need you

Your qualifier helps you identify which tier they're in, because each tier requires a different approach.

But your real danger of wasting time lies in one specific behaviour pattern, which we’ll explore next.

Where consultants waste the most time

Most consultants unintentionally sink their sales time into the not-ready prospects - the 15–30% who love picking your brain but aren't anywhere close to buying.

These prospects are dangerous because they feel like opportunities. They:

• Ask enthusiastic questions

• Engage deeply with your thinking

• Respond quickly to emails

• Express a genuine interest in the problem

• Enjoy exploring possibilities with you

They feel like momentum, give you a sense of progress, and feel just like "a great lead."

But they're not moving. Because they're not in a buying window, which means you'll waste your most valuable time and probably lose them altogether:

When you educate a not-ready prospect too much, you risk giving them just enough clarity to think they can do it themselves - or hand the work to a cheaper provider.

This is one of the most expensive mistakes consultants make.

You get excited about the potential, you want to demonstrate your expertise, so you share frameworks, insights, structure, process…

And the prospect walks away thinking:

"This makes sense now - we can probably handle it internally."

Meanwhile, the real buyers - the top 10% - behave very differently.

Ready-to-buy prospects don't want to be educated into readiness. They're already buying. They just need to find the right partner.

They:

• Ask sharper, fewer questions

• Want clarity, not detail

• Move decisively

• Shut down tangents

• Aim for fit, not theory

They're not cold - they're focused. They don't want to learn how to do what you do; they want you to do it.

This is why qualification matters.

Without it, you leak value to people who were never going to buy, while the real buyers move on.

The 3 qualifier questions

These questions help you understand two things in under three minutes:

Are they a fit for what you do? Where are they in the Buyer Readiness Pyramid?

Here are the three questions:

1. "What triggered you to explore this now?"

This reveals urgency, timing, internal drivers, and buying window alignment.

Ready-to-buy answers look like:

• "We have Q1 budget to allocate."

• "We're shortlisting now."

• "Leadership needs this solved before year-end."

Not-ready answers look like:

• "I'm curious."

• "I wanted to get a sense of options."

• "We might look at this next year."

2. "What does success look like 6–12 months from now?"

This reveals strategic intent and commercial seriousness.

Ready-to-buy answers are concrete and outcome-focused. Not-ready answers are vague or hypothetical.

3. "Who else will be involved in the decision?"

This tells you whether they understand their own decision-making unit (DMU) - a major readiness signal.

Ready-to-buy:

• "My COO and I are making the decision together."

• "We have a project team already, and we need to involve key members in the decision."

• "Budgets and the team are being finalised this quarter."

Not-ready:

• "It's just me."

• "I'm not sure."

• "I'll need to check internally."

This question alone can save you 10 hours.

The 3-minute qualifier script

Here's how to introduce it:

"Before we dive in, can I ask three quick questions? They help me understand where you are in your planning cycle and what information will be most valuable for you right now."

Then ask the questions and listen. Your goal is diagnosis - not persuasion.

Example: Clarity in under 180 seconds

Ready-to-buy example:

"We need this in place by January, and we're assessing partners this week."

They're in the 3–7% zone. Move quickly with direct sales conversations and resources.

Not-ready example:

"We're figuring out whether this is something we should prioritise."

They're in the 15–30% zone. Don't try to sell - provide marketing resources and nurture instead. Give just enough to keep them engaged, but not so much that they think they can do it themselves.

Danger zone example:

"I'm exploring ideas before we take anything to leadership."

This is the classic over-education trap. Set boundaries and protect your expertise - there is a serious danger they'll use the information you give them to look good to their boss.

The takeaway

Your biggest sales gains won't come from improving your pitch; they'll come from knowing who to pitch to in the first place and not trying to sell prospects who just aren’t ready.

A 3-minute qualifier:

• Protects your time

• Prevents value leakage

• Stops you over-educating non-buyers

• Clarifies your real pipeline

• Moves genuine buyers forward faster

Strategic sales require strategic focus - and it starts with knowing exactly where each prospect sits in the readiness pyramid.

Want the step-by-step system? My Ready-To-Buy Playbook shows exactly how to build predictable client acquisition for solo and boutique consultancy owners.

👉 Get it here (I'm launching a fully revised version in early 2026. Grab this one and you'll be first to know when the new version lands.)