It is a term from sales. For a particular seller of something (say, talent) there are a pool of potential buyers. They're called leads. You learn about them or they come to you. Some of them are better fits than others. Lead qualification is the process of sorting out leads who are worth your effort in selling from those who are not, who you either a) don't attempt to sell or b) use less time-intensive ways of selling.

For example, I consult, and while in principle I could attempt to sell anyone with authority to write a check on consulting engagements, I don't. If I meet someone at a party and he says "I don't have a website but..." there is no possible end to that sentence whatsoever under which he is a good prospect for business in the near term. If you want a Rails programmer? Nope, sorry, I'm probably not your guy. If you're a software company with $10k in the bank, you can't afford a formal engagement with me. Strongly qualified leads for me tend to, e.g., have over 10 employees, profitable software businesses with revenue in the millions to tens of millions, multiple opportunities for things I can do for them, a business model which suggests ample opportunity for positive ROI at the rates I charge, and some reason to have personal trust for me.

To the extent that I do active sales work (e.g. flying out to a city to meet with your CEO, creating proposals, etc), I focus my active sales work on qualified leads, rather than "any business I could possibly think of."

Applying this to a job search: he's sending resumes to places which are not hiring. That isn't a strongly qualified lead. That's like me soliciting five figure checks off every passerby in Ogaki Station. Total waste of time.

Your resume is like a sales lead. As someone who made a living selling these to mortgage brokers, they'd routinely ditch the low credit leads before making contact - they knew it'd be too hard to "close" that lead.

So I think Patrick is arguing that more qualification is necessary - it sounds like employers are seeing this resume as a low quality lead. Meet some people who can help you, do something that tells an employer "this person might make me more money!", etc.

I suppose from the employer's POV a resume is a lead, but from the job seeker's POV, the notion that there exists a possible target for a resume/cover letter is a lead. There is a time and focus cost to sending out a resume/cover letter (or doing stuff that actually works, like trying to get a coffee date with a decisionmaker there). You should not spend your limited time on opportunities which are unlikely to convert into mutually rewarding relationships. Getting your resume circular-filed is the least mutually rewarding relationship I can think of in the employment space.

Evaluating whether the position, company, culture, and long-term prospects are mutually relevant to both parties.

Operationally, answering the question: "Are you selling what they are looking to buy?"

The more sense it makes for both parties, the higher the probability for the deal to get into more advanced stages.