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A rep who packages every file that answers the phone is spending their week on submissions that were never going to fund. Qualification is not gatekeeping — it is deciding where the next two hours go.
The five questions
| Ask | What you are actually establishing |
|---|---|
| Monthly revenue, roughly? | Whether the deal size justifies the work |
| How long have you been trading? | Whether they clear the funder floors at all |
| Any advances currently open? | How much of the receipts is already committed |
| Any negative days in the last few months? | The single fastest route to a decline |
| What is the money for? | Urgency, deal size, and whether an advance even fits |
Five questions, two minutes. They will not tell you whether a file funds, but they reliably tell you which files cannot.
How to ask about positions
This is the one that gets fumbled, because it sounds like an accusation and merchants often understate it. Ask it as a structuring question rather than a screening one — you are establishing what you can arrange, not checking whether they qualify.
It also matters because the statements will reveal it anyway. A position you knew about is a pricing input; one the underwriter finds costs you the submission and some standing with that funder.
The question everyone skips
What the money is for. It sounds like small talk and it is the most informative answer on the call.
- A specific, dated need — payroll, an invoice, an inventory buy with a deadline — means real urgency and a real close.
- "Just exploring options" usually means no deadline and a long cycle, which is fine to know before you invest a morning in it.
- Paying off another advance is worth hearing early. It changes the structure and it tells you about the position they may not have mentioned.
- An amount that does not match the stated purpose is worth probing. It often surfaces something the first three questions did not.
When the answers rule it out
Say so on the call rather than submitting a file you expect to fail. A merchant told plainly that they are three months short on time in business, with a note to call back, is a better outcome than a decline three days later — and they remember which broker was straight with them.
Diary those. A merchant who misses on time in business becomes fundable on a known date, and almost nobody follows up on them.
Questions brokers ask
What questions should you ask on a first MCA call?
Monthly revenue, how long they have been trading, how many advances are currently open, whether there have been negative days recently, and what the money is for. Five questions in about two minutes, and they reliably identify the files that cannot fund.
How do you ask a merchant about existing positions?
Frame it as structuring rather than screening: carrying something changes what you can arrange, and you would rather build around it than have it come back from the funder. That is true and it gets a straighter answer than anything that sounds like a test — and the statements will reveal it regardless.
Why does it matter what the money is for?
It is the most informative answer on the call. A specific dated need signals real urgency and a real close; "exploring options" signals a long cycle worth knowing about before you invest a morning. And an amount that does not match the stated purpose usually surfaces something the other questions missed.
Should you tell a merchant on the call that they will not qualify?
Yes. A merchant told plainly they are three months short on time in business, with a date to call back, is a better outcome than a decline three days later — for both of you. Diary those, because they become fundable on a known date and almost nobody follows up.
How long should qualification take?
A couple of minutes. The five questions are not the sales conversation, they are the decision about whether to have one — and a rep who packages every file that answers the phone spends the week on submissions that were never going to fund.
Alex Makowski
Founder, Infinite Bookings
Runs the lead generation operation behind Infinite Bookings — paid traffic, the funding application, and the delivery pipeline that puts records into brokers’ CRMs.
Reachable directly at alex@infinitebookings.com or 732-609-7182.