Qualification rules that actually filter

How a lead is judged, the order it happens in, and why the message you write is the product.

A qualification rule is a condition on one intake answer. When a lead fails it, the conversation ends politely instead of reaching your team.

The qualification page: six rules, each with a switch to turn it off, the condition written out in words, and the internal reason code it records — above a panel for testing the rules against a real lead's answers.

The order it runs in

This order explains most surprises.

Required answers first. If anything required is still missing, the lead is not disqualified — the bot keeps asking. Rules do not run against an incomplete conversation.
Then value rules, on answers that exist. A rule on a field the lead left blank does not fail; there is nothing to judge. Only REQUIRED cares about emptiness.
The first failure decides the message. A lead can fail several rules at once; the one your customer hears is the first in your order. Put your clearest rule first — order is not cosmetic here.

The rule types

Type	Use it for	Value you give
`REQUIRED`	An answer must exist	—
`MIN_VALUE`	Numbers and currency	The floor
`MAX_VALUE`	Numbers and currency	The ceiling
`MIN_LENGTH`	Text with enough detail to act on	A character count
`REGEX`	A format you can express as a pattern	The pattern
`IN_LIST`	An answer within an allowed set	The allowed values

IN_LIST on a multi-select requires every value the lead chose to be in your list, not just one. A lead who picks two services where you only offer one is out — which is usually what you want, and occasionally a surprise.

Currency values are in cents. A minimum budget of 50,000 is written as 5000000. The editor says so beside the field; it matters most if you ever set rules through the API or copy values between workspaces. (Field and rule types.)

The two things you write per rule

A reason, which is internal. It is what appears in your analytics as a disqualification reason, so write it as a category you would want counted: "Budget below minimum" tells you something across fifty leads; "too cheap" does not.

A message, which the customer receives. This one is the product. It goes out in your business's name, and it is the last thing a person hears from you.

Write it as you would say it. Leave the door open — the lead who is under budget in March may not be in September:

Thanks for getting in touch. Projects at that budget aren't something we can take on well, so I'd rather say so now than waste your time. Do come back if it changes.

If you leave the message empty, a neutral default is sent. It is fine. It is not yours.

Turning a rule off

Rules can be deactivated rather than deleted. An inactive rule stops being evaluated and keeps its wording, which is what you want for a rule you suspend during a quiet quarter.

Check them in the playground

Play a lead you would reject and read what comes back. It is the only way to see the message in the context the customer sees it in, and it takes a minute (the playground).

What a disqualified lead is

Recorded, kept, and visible on your leads list with its reason. Nothing is deleted. If your rules turn out to be too tight, the leads you turned away are still there to prove it — and your analytics will show them grouped by reason.

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