Lead Scoring

How to get started with Lead Scoring?

Once you have a regular inflow of leads, you will realise that just having the traction isn’t enough. It is impossible to grow your business without quantifying which leads hold more conversion potential. This is where the concept of lead scoring comes into play.

As a business, only the most profitable chances need to be taken. Hence, it is important to realise that every lead is not a good lead!

What is Lead Scoring?

It refers to assigning a numeric value to specific actions performed by a lead and then summing up these values to get a single numeric score, which is the lead score.

This ‘score’ generally lies between a range of (1-10), or (1-100, etc). It keeps changing as per the progression of the lead through the marketing and sales funnels.

Generally, it is the business or organization in question which decides which of the lead’s ‘actions’ are deemed score-worthy. 

The parameters on the basis of which businesses assign scores depend on a variety of different factors, such as the  following:

  • The webpages visited
  • Social media posts engagement
  • Method of reaching out to the business etc.

Consider the following lead-scoring example.

Let’s say you set the following scoring criteria for your business:

  • Website interactions:
  1. Spends over 5 minutes on the website – 3 points
  2. Downloads a PDF from the site – 2 points
  3. Watches a video – 1 point
  • Contact methods:
  1. Lead walks into the office – 3 points
  2. Makes/attends a phone call – 2 points
  3. Fills out a website form – 1 point

So say a lead performs the following actions:

  • Spends 5 minutes on the website
  • Watches a video
  • Walks into the office the next day

Due to the above actions, the lead gets assigned a score of 7 (3+1+3).

On the other hand, if a lead performs these actions instead:

  • Watches a video on the website
  • Fills a form
  • Attends a sales call

The lead then gets assigned a score of 4 (1+1+2).

Now, certain actions can have a negative value which can lead to points being deducted from the prospect’s overall lead score.

For example, missing three scheduled calls in a row can lead to a deduction from the lead’s current lead score.

While each lead has an unbiased score, the sales and marketing teams have the ability to sort these leads based on the following parameters:

  • Closing chances
  • Order value
  • Quality

This process of segregation allows teams to prioritize their work and deliver optimal results with the available resources.

The Process of Lead Scoring

While every business can have its own model for lead scoring, we have created a lead scoring template in the sections below to give you a better understanding of the same. You can also utilize the template if you wish to. 

3 Blue elements with text showing the process of Lead Scoring

As you can see, each of the lead’s actions makes the sales team assign a value to the lead. When the cumulative value reaches a specific sum total, it indicates how interested, or valuable the lead is.

To get started with the process of lead scoring, you should perform the following actions:

  • List out the common denominators of your present customers
  • Filter out the ones that you consider ‘quality leads’
  • Study the attributes of the filtered leads
  • Analyze the most important attributes that contributed to the high score
  • Move on to the remaining leads
  • List out the attributes of leads that did not convert
  • List out the most important attributes along with the least important ones.
  • This tells you which attributes to pay a majority of attention to
  • Refer to this history to go ahead with the analysis. This should provide you
  • with enough information about how to score the leads

Lead evaluation factors represented by 6 elements

Importance of Lead Scoring for a B2B Business

While this is not a rule, B2C companies generally generate a higher volume of leads, whereas B2B companies, generate a relatively lesser volume of leads because their target audience comprises companies, which implies a smaller audience pool.

This equation makes each lead many times more valuable for B2B companies as the:

  • Cost of generating each lead is high
  • Work needed to close a prospect is more
  • Earning potential is also substantially higher

This means that a lot is at stake.

B2B businesses, therefore, need to have a more methodical and efficient sales process, which is something lead scoring can help them with.

This is because lead scoring gives them a way of judging how interested a lead is using precise formulas.

This, in turn, allows you to use the right:

  • Resources
  • People
  • Strategies to further nurture the prospect towards closure

How does lead scoring help in achieving your marketing goals?

Lead scoring is a valuable practice that helps your market team:

  • Segregate your TG/TA as per buyer personas
  • Channelize their resources better

Let’s look at this with an example.

Consider two leads, one of whom fills a website form and then breaks communication, while another fills a website form, attends a scheduled call, visits your office, and then breaks communication.

Naturally, the latter is going to have a higher lead score (because of more positive interactions) than the former.

Now, if you were going to run marketing campaigns to target both leads, do you think they would respond to the same message? Not at all.

So how would you go about it?

Since the first lead is clearly cold and needs reasons to trust the brand, you can organize brand awareness and social proof campaigns.

On the other hand, since the second lead definitely knows and understands the brand, you can opt for a well-timed campaign with an offer that could convince them to close.

This segregation thus allows your marketing team to create niche and targeted campaigns.

How to Calculate a Basic Lead Score?

Since different factors are important for different businesses, a one size fits all approach does not apply in lead scoring.

A lead scoring model is a system of evaluating leads according to your custom requirements.

In the sections below, we’ll be exploring some popular lead-scoring models created by businesses later in this article. You can utilize the methods below to create your own models as well, based on your preferences.

 

Some popular models of lead scoring are as follows.

1. Implicit Scoring

Implicit scoring refers to assigning values to a lead based on the activities conducted on your website, meaning no external factors are taken into consideration.

Some examples of the lead’s activities are:

  • Browsing through the product page
  • Going through your ‘About’ column
  • Adding something to their wishlist

An example of what such a model could appear like has been mentioned below:

  • Signing up for your newsletter – 10 points
  • Downloading an ebook – 15 points
  • Visiting a blog post – 5 points
  • Browsing through the pricing page – 12 points
  • Adding products to shopping cart – 20 points.

Product or service-based online businesses can benefit hugely from this model since they can enter the minds of their customers.

2. Explicit Scoring

As opposed to implicit scoring, explicit scoring refers to scoring the lead based on external factors. These factors can be any data about the lead that might prove to be useful in evaluation.

Here, we assign scores based on some objective observations. Some areas to consider in an explicit lead scoring model would be as follows.

  • Age
  • Marital Status
  • Demographic
  • Job Profile
  • Designation
  • Industry
  • Experience in the industry

This works best when you’re looking for niche clients. If you have a sales tool that you want executives to know of, an explicit lead scoring model can help filter out the target audience easily.

3. Email Engagement

Emails can tell you clearly whether your campaigns are working or not. While sending out mailers, there are a bunch of actions that, when examined, can point you toward a potential client.

Some of these actions are namely:

  • Opening the email
  • Click through on a link
  • Click through on a promotion

Apart from logging in these responses, you should also record the stagnation in each case, which can better advise you as to what’s working and what’s not.

4. Negative Scoring

This model of scoring involves eliminating leads based on their scores than selecting them. This is why you should be cautious about assigning negative points wherever required.

Some factors that may lead to negative scoring are as follows:

  • Visiting your ‘Careers’ page. This means that the lead is a job seeker, and not a service seeker
  • Job titles that say ‘Student’ or ‘Retired’
  • Unsubscribing from your mailing list
  • Being employees of rival companies, which means that the lead is
  • researching some common area of interest

5. Score degradation

Score degradation refers to down-scoring a lead when they become stagnant or unresponsive. We want leads that are active and are moving forward in the sales funnel. Hence, a lead that has shown no activity recently needs to be scored low.

Only when the lead scoring process is mobile at all times, can we ensure the pursuit of important leads.

6. Social Media Behaviour

If your business has an omnichannel presence, then analysing your leads’ behaviour on online channels can furnish you with a tonne of information that you can use for lead scoring.

Some aspects of your lead’s behaviour can be:

  • Posts engaged with
  • Likes
  • Videos watched
  • Average viewing duration, etc.

Since actions performed on social media are more specific as compared to website interactions, you can track a higher volume of interactions.

While this data can be overwhelming, you will be able to capture and track all activity precisely with the help of the right tools, giving you richer and more meaningful lead scores.

The Difference Between Lead Scoring and Lead Grading

While both scoring and grading aim to help teams rank leads so they can focus on the most valuable prospects, they differ in the criteria used to evaluate the leads.

Lead scores are calculated based on actions, whereas lead grades and calculated based on characteristics or demographics. Lead grades are often marked by letters, which can range from (A – F), for example).

The characteristics that are considered for grading are personal traits such as the lead’s:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Job title
  • Income bracket, etc.

Lead grading helps you identify potential customers based on predefined characteristics, and much earlier in the funnel.

You can look at it this way; while the lead score defines how interested the lead is in the business,  the lead grade defines how interested the business is in the lead.

For example, if you are in the real estate business and have a property worth 3Cr for sale, your target audience will probably be people living in tier 1 cities who have an annual CTC of 20L and above.

You will give a lead with an annual CTC of 30L grade A and a lead with an annual CTC of 15L grade C, and so on.

This does not mean you will ignore leads with lower grades; it just means you know which of them to prioritize.

3 Examples of Lead Scoring Models

As we mentioned, the criteria and method for lead scoring are not fixed and differ from business to business.

There are some tried and tested scoring models that companies adopt, and we have listed a few lead scoring model examples here:

Technology-Based

Platforms like HubSpot and Lead Pilot have internal scoring factors that you can use as default or tweak to suit your business.

You can use either of these platforms to:

Track all activities performed by the lead and calculates lead scores automatically
Improve your scoring methodology over time, since they are AI-enabled

For a company that isn’t looking to create a unique and distinct lead-scoring model, these platforms are excellent solutions that can be used out of the box.

Juan Merodio’s PAIN and FIT Model

Juan Merodio’s model for lead scoring is based on two values – the PAIN score and the FIT score.

The PAIN score defines how intensely the lead is experiencing pain (and is, therefore, in need of a solution), whereas the FIT score indicates how close the lead is to the ideal target demographic.

The sum of both scores defines the Lead Score, on the basis of which you can then proceed to engage the lead. 

The Cyberclick Model

The lead scoring model created by Cyberclick uses website behavior and demographics to score leads. They have defined lead combinations that stem from behavior and demographics:

The colors seen above correspond to the following types of leads, following which they are nurtured accordingly:

  • Cold
  • Warm
  • Hot

Conclusion

So, in a nutshell, lead scoring is one of those concepts that you have to incorporate in order to realize that you were in dire need of it all along!

However, it is not the only metric with the help of which you can track your website’s performance, as there are 17 other KPIs you can use to track the same.

So, why delay? Set up a scoring model and filter out your leads today!

With a foundational role at Saas Labs, Anand has been a key player in establishing the Product Management function and spearheading the launch of our Conversation Intelligence solution. His expertise in AI innovation guides both the strategic direction of the products and a team committed to excellence.

How useful was this post?

4.7/5

-

( 3 votes)

Learn from our videos