In partnership with
Smart starts here.
You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.
Let’s talk about a problem that is quiet but expensive.
You’re getting leads. Some of them are fantastic. Some of them are tire-kickers, dreamers, or people who will negotiate your price into the ground and then ghost you. The problem is you’re spending roughly the same amount of time and energy on both groups.
An AI-powered lead qualification system fixes this. And if you’ve got the free tools from Tuesday’s edition set up, you can build a functional version of this today. In one afternoon.
Here’s the architecture.
What You’re Actually Building
You’re building a system that takes incoming leads, scores them based on criteria you define, surfaces the high-quality ones automatically, and routes the lower-quality ones into a nurture sequence without you lifting a finger.
The core components are a lead intake form, an AI scoring layer, an automation router, and two distinct follow-up sequences.
None of this requires code. None of it requires a developer. You just need Make.com, Claude via API, and your existing email or CRM system.
Step 1: Build Your Lead Intake Form (30 minutes)
Start by getting clear on what questions actually predict a good client. Not generic stuff like “how did you hear about us.” Qualifying questions.
For a service business, those typically include: What’s your current annual revenue? What’s your primary challenge right now? What have you already tried? What’s your timeline for solving this? What’s your rough budget range?
You want 4 to 6 questions maximum. More than that and completion rates tank.
Build this in Typeform, Google Forms, or directly in your website. Make sure the form data routes into a Google Sheet or your CRM.
Step 2: Define Your Scoring Criteria (20 minutes)
Before you touch any AI, write down what a “great” lead looks like for your business. Be specific. Revenue threshold, urgency level, decision-making authority, budget range, problem alignment.
Then define what a “not yet” lead looks like. Usually: pre-revenue, no budget, just exploring, or looking for something you don’t offer.
You’ll use these criteria to write your AI scoring prompt in the next step.
Step 3: Write Your AI Scoring Prompt (20 minutes)
This is the core of the system. Here is a template you can adapt:
“You are a sales qualification specialist. Based on the following lead intake response, score this lead on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is a perfect fit prospect and 1 is completely unqualified. Use these criteria to score: [paste your criteria]. After the score, write a 2 to 3 sentence summary of why you scored them this way, and flag any specific objections or red flags you noticed. Format your response as: SCORE: X | SUMMARY: [summary] | FLAGS: [flags or none]”
This gives you a structured output that your automation can read and route on.
Step 4: Connect Everything in Make.com (45 minutes)
Here’s the Make.com scenario you’re building:
Trigger: New row added to your Google Sheet where form responses land.
Step 1: HTTP module calls Claude API with your scoring prompt and the lead’s form responses as the input.
Step 2: Parse the response to extract the score.
Step 3: Router module. If score is 7 or above, route to High Priority sequence. If score is below 7, route to Nurture sequence.
Step 4a (High Priority): Create a task in Notion or your CRM tagged Hot Lead, send yourself a notification with the lead summary and score, trigger a personalized high-touch email to the lead.
Step 4b (Nurture): Add the lead to a nurture email sequence, tag them in your CRM, schedule a follow-up reminder for 30 days out.
Make.com‘s built-in Anthropic module handles the API connection without any code on your end.
Step 5: Write Your Two Follow-Up Sequences (30 minutes)
High-touch sequence (for 7+): Immediate personalized email written by Claude using the lead’s intake answers. Followed by a calendar link to book a discovery call. Followed by a day-3 check-in if no booking occurs.
Nurture sequence (for below 7): Educational email sequence, one email per week, positioning you as the authority on their problem. No hard pitch for 3 to 4 weeks. Soft CTA to book a call at week 4.
Write these once. Claude can help you draft all of them in under an hour using the intake criteria and your business context.
What This Actually Produces
Once this is running, here is what changes in your business:
You stop spending 45 minutes on discovery calls with people who were never going to buy. You know within minutes of a lead coming in whether they’re worth your time. Your follow-up is immediate and personalized, which dramatically improves close rates. Your pipeline is organized and visible.
One business owner I coached added this system to a service business doing $600K per year. Within 60 days, her close rate on discovery calls went from 28% to 47% because she stopped taking calls with the wrong people. Same number of leads. Better filtering. More revenue.
The Time Investment
Building this: one afternoon, roughly 2.5 to 3 hours.
Maintaining this: essentially zero. Maybe 30 minutes a month to review and refine the scoring criteria.
This is the kind of infrastructure that makes a business scalable. You’re not just saving time. You’re building a system that can handle 10x the lead volume without 10x the labor.
Want the Full Blueprint?
If you want the exact Make.com scenario template, the scoring prompt I use, and the 5-email nurture sequence that converts at a 12% reply rate, it’s all in the AI Workflow Blueprint.
Reply with BLUEPRINT and I’ll get you the details. $47 gets you access to all of it, including the lead qualification module.
And if you want to go bigger and build this into a full business accelerator, reply with ACCELERATOR to learn about the AI Business Accelerator program.
Jordan Hale | The AI Newsroom