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Lead scoring — a game changer for anyone looking to identify and hone in on their most promising prospects. Whether you’re new to the concept or need a quick refresher, lead scoring is a simple way to manage and prioritize your leads to drive more conversions and maximize ROI.
Ready to take your lead-gen game to the next level? Read on to break down lead scoring, see why it’s a must-have in your marketing toolkit, and learn how to set up an effective lead scoring system in just a few easy steps.
What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring is a methodology that ranks the perceived value that prospects hold for your business. Based on demographic information, previous engagement levels, and other behavioral data points, marketing and sales teams can work to assign points or levels to understand how likely it is that a lead will convert. The scoring system can be numerical or, simply, “hot,” “medium,” or “cold.”
Why is Lead Scoring So Critical?
The higher the number (or, the “hotter” or more qualified the lead), the more effort and resources you should spend on converting them. And that’s what makes lead scoring so valuable: the insights it brings on where, when, and on whom it’s best to invest company time and money.
When you zero in on the right leads, you’ll see more of them turn into actual customers.
With a smart lead-scoring system in place, qualified leads can quickly become the top priority of your sales team’s engagement efforts while “colder” ones still need to be nurtured. And with everyone on the same page regarding what makes a lead valuable, a point system can help marketers make better decisions moving forward, revealing ways to tweak targeting strategies and improve overall campaigns.
Lead scoring lets you know exactly where your leads are in their customer journey, so you can send the right message at the right time — to each and every one.
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A solid lead scoring system can make your marketing efforts way more efficient and drive better results. Follow these five steps to create a dynamic scoring model that will help you focus on the leads most likely to convert.
Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Customer
Before you can start scoring, you need to know what your ideal customer looks like. Dig into your current customer base to find patterns and common characteristics like industry, company size, job role, and geographic location. This will help you establish a baseline for what makes a high-quality lead.
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Step 2: Pinpoint Their Key Attributes + Behaviors
Begin to figure out which traits make for a truly valuable lead based on age, gender, and employment info as well as behavioral data like:
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Website visits
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Newsletter subscriptions
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Email opens / Email clicks
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Content downloads
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Social media interactions
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Step 3: Create a Threshold and Assign Point Values
Now it’s time to devise your scoring system.
Create a Threshold
Let’s say you determine that in order for someone to be considered a high-intent, sales-ready lead, they must rack up a total of 50 points. 50 points is a good place to start, but you’ll want to tweak your own threshold as you go based on performance. Sales not closing deals and reporting leads weren’t ready for a conversation? You’ll want to up your points threshold so leads aren’t sent over too soon.
Assign Point Values
Now, you’ll want to give each of the attributes and behaviors discussed in the previous section a points value. Folks from your target industry with the perfect job title? They get an automatic bump in points right off the bat. Whereas someone with a more junior title in comparison to your ideal buyer would be awarded lower points.
Smartly apply this same thinking to lead behaviors and increase your point values to match the progression of the funnel. For instance, top-funnel activities like viewing your blog articles and liking your social media posts might be worth 5 points. Whereas bottom-funnel activities like downloading a buyer’s guide or downloading case studies would be more like 25 points.
Pass Qualified Leads to Sales
A lead from your target industry racked up 50 points by reading your blog articles, signing up for your newsletter, downloading a buyer’s guide, and going to multiple events.
Congrats! Because you can officially pass that lead off to Sales, resting easy because they’ll have a much higher chance of sealing the deal.
Pro tip: If you’re just starting out, double check each score to make sure you’re not letting any highly qualified leads slip through the cracks.
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Step 4: Automate and Monitor Your System
Get your lead scoring model up and running in your CRM or marketing automation tool. It’s not something you can set and forget, so make sure the system updates automatically as new data comes in to keep scores fresh and accurate. Check in regularly to see how it’s performing and pay attention to which leads are converting and which aren’t, adjusting criteria as needed.
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Step 5: Get Sales On Board
For maximum impact, it’s crucial to have your sales team fully involved. Provide training and documentation to help them understand how leads are scored and how to use this information to prioritize their outreach.
As you monitor your lead scoring system’s performance, use metrics like conversion rates, lead-to-opportunity ratios, and sales cycle length to see how well it’s working. Then, make data-driven adjustments as needed to optimize and improve its accuracy over time. And remember: when it comes to fine-tuning, sales insights and feedback is gold.
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Your sales team has leads. Now what? View the infographic to give your sales team the best chance to seal the deal.
