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Suppose you have two leads, A & B.
A lead scoring system helps you identify and prioritize the most promising leads.
In this article, Ive covered the benefits, types, and best lead scoring practices.
Ive also provided a step-by-step guide on creating a lead scoring system from scratch.
Here is a quick overview of what youll learn in this article.
What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring is a method to rank or score leads based on their readiness to buy.
Ideally, leads are scored using two approaches: Explicit and Implicit scoring.
Why is Lead Scoring Important?
Why is it important?
Find your target audienceto focus on the right prospects.
If your audience is region-specific, build a model using relevant attributes to filter out outliers.
Most B2B companies rely on firmographic data.
This is exactly why firmographic data is essential.
Heres an example of how firmographic scoring works
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Behavioral signalsconsist of how a lead behaves across your website.
For example:
Each of these signals is scored based on their relevance.
For example, visitors to a product page exhibit better buying behavior than visitors to your careers page.
Engagement signals, as the name says, refer to solid actions performed by the lead.
A combination of behavioral and engagement data creates Implicit data.
Heres an example of lead scoring based on implicit data:
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Traditional Lead Scoring
The traditional scoring model uses predefined rules and criteria to score leads.
Its an old-school method that requires manual calculations.
However, traditional lead scoring is time-consuming and falls short of capturing complex relationships between different lead attributes.
For example,CRM softwarelike Freshsales, Zendesk Service, and Salesforce delivers rich predictive scoring models.
However, technologys reliance on humans seems inevitable.
You still need to feed these systems with your scoring criteria.
For the rest, they do all the heavy lifting, including capturing, analyzing, and scoring leads.
Predictive scoring has some key advantages over traditional scoring:
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By combining these approaches, you’re able to ensure all-around, accurate lead predictions.
Popular Lead Scoring Metrics
Below are the 10 most popular lead-scoring metrics.
How To Create a Lead Scoring Model?
You might have already gone down the rabbit hole of figuring out how to calculate a lead score.
And lets face it, it is no rocket science.
At the same time, its confusing to choose from different attributes and models.
Lets see how you’re able to create a lead scoring model step-by-step with an example.
Youll need to decide which attributes make a prospect more or less valuable for your business.
For this example, I defined seven key attributes that signal the likeness to convert.
After discussing this with the team, you assign points -6 and -10, respectively.
And for that, todays CRMs usemarketing automationand artificial intelligence to generate predictive lead scores.
Larger businesses typically run on enterprise software like Salesforce or HubSpot.
A typical ICP includes demographic and firmographic attributes of an account.
Are they from the industry you want to sell in?
Key Takeaway:I understand defining your ICP can be overwhelming at first.
Identify Key Engagement Criteria
Focus on the touchpoints and activities that push the lead ahead in the sale cycle.
Key Takeaway:There can be multiple touchpoints in todays digitized selling process.
Id suggest using CRM software to process and analyze knee-deep historical data and predict perfect lead scores within minutes.
Develop a Scoring System
Once youve identified the key criteria, develop a clear and consistent scoring system.
Search for common patterns and touchpoints in your conversion cycle.
Key Takeaway:Ensure your scoring system is flexible enough to accommodate changes in strategy and market conditions.
TryHubSpots free Lead Scoring Template.
Set Clear Thresholds
A threshold ensures that only high-value leads are passed to the sales team.
Key Takeaway:Yet again, investing in lead scoring software is your best bet to automate this process.
It helps to set up clear thresholds for handoffs between marketing and sales.
Bitter but brighten the flavor!
Negative scoring helps account for disinterest or disengagement.
For example, a lead unsubscribing from your emails signals a low interest.
By penalizing negative actions, you keep your team focused on active leads with the highest potential to convert.
Regularly Review and Refine
Lead scoring is not a once and for all system.
Traditional or manual scoring, especially, requires continuous adjustments and iterations.
Analyze the performance of past leads and adjust scoring parameters accordingly to improve accuracy and efficiency.
Align Sales and Marketing
Lead scoring is effective when the sales and marketing teams collaborate.
Once youve done that, your sales team can review and approve your information and buyer personas.
Key Takeaway:Set up weekly or monthly marketing and sales team meetings.
Brainstorm and discuss lead quality.
Focus on the most relevant and common findings.
Establish truthful sources for your data:
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Ultimately, dont ignore leads that dont fit the predictive model but show strong engagement.
Unconventional leads may convert at a higher rate.
