Qualification

Deciding, early and honestly, whether a deal can close: need, budget, authority, timing, and a reason to act now.

Frameworks (BANT, MEDDIC and their cousins) are checklists for the same questions: is there a real problem, can they pay, can this person decide, is there a deadline. A deal missing two of them is not a deal yet.

Qualifying out is the skill. Every unqualified deal in the pipeline costs AE hours and inflates coverage, and the rep who removes it from the forecast is doing the team a favour.