Implementation of a Robust Lead Scoring System for Better Sales Alignment

Introduction

We all know that sales depend upon leads and leads depend upon good lead scoring. This is because good lead scoring enhances the lead quality. As per recent research, companies with good lead-scoring models witness a higher lead qualification rate.

However, lead scoring isn’t only limited to assigning numbers or points to the leads. Rather it is about building a complete understanding of your potential customers, including a blend of demographic insights, behavioral analysis, and continuous optimization. Let’s see how implementing a robust lead-scoring system within an organization helps with aligning sales and getting better leads.

What is Lead Scoring?

Lead scoring is an approach used by companies to rank leads/prospects as per their predetermined scale. The rank or score represents the perceived value each lead has for the organization.

These scores are calculated based on leads’ demographic details and how well they engage with your brand. These scores further help sales teams identify all the leads that are worth pursuing and sieve out those that might require more nurturing.

You can assign scores to your leads based on different parameters:

• Implicit Data: Based on the existing lead information.
• Explicit Data: Factual information that your lead has confirmed over a phone call or via form.
• Behaviour Data: Data captured through the lead’s actions like filling out a form or downloading a whitepaper.
• Demographic Data: Includes information like industry, company size, geographic location, etc.

How Can You Benefit from Scoring Leads?

Lead scoring helps identify potential customers who are most likely to buy from you. This means you can focus more on the leads that matter the most to you. Let’s explore why lead scoring is important for your business.

• Helps You Understand Your Customers Better: Lead scoring gives you more information about your potential customers. This helps you see if they are a good match for what you’re selling.
• Improves Communication with Prospects: When you know how interested someone is in your product or service, you can talk to them accordingly.
• Supports Lead Nurturing: Lead scoring helps you understand the customer’s buying journey. This way, you can send them information that is relevant to their interests and needs, helping them get closer to making a purchase.
• Increases Sales Conversions: When your sales team knows more about each lead, they can personalize their selling approach to turn potential customers into actual buyers.
• Boosts Productivity and Revenue: By focusing on the most promising leads, your sales team can close more deals and bring in more money.
• Improves Teamwork Between Sales and Marketing: Lead scoring helps your sales and marketing teams work together better. They can agree on what makes a good lead, making sure everyone is on the same page.

In short, lead scoring helps turn your warmer leads into actual customers while boosting your revenue and creating a better experience for your leads.

How to Score Leads in 4 Steps

Here’s a simple guide to scoring leads in just 4 steps. Let’s see them in detail below:

• Find Out the Conversion Rate of All Leads: First, you need to know how many of your leads actually become customers. To do this, divide the number of new customers by the number of leads you get. For example, if you gained 50 customers from 350 leads, your conversion rate is 14%.
• Identify Key Attributes from High-Quality Customers: Next, look at the characteristics of your best customers. These could be things like their industry, company size, or actions they took, such as attending a webinar or downloading a whitepaper. Use data and insights from your sales team to pick the most important attributes. Keep refining these attributes over time to get a clearer picture of what makes a high-quality customer.
• Calculate the Score of Each Attribute: Now, give each attribute a score based on how likely it is to lead to a conversion. Many marketers use a mix of behavior (like actions taken on your website) and demographics (like industry or company size) to score leads. The more an attribute or action leads to a sale, the higher its score should be.
• Compare Values and Add Points: Finally, compare the scores of different attributes with your actual conversion rates. If an attribute has a higher conversion rate than your baseline, include it in your lead scoring formula. For instance, if completing a web form has a 25% conversion rate and your average is 1%, you could give 25 points for that action.

By following these steps, you can make a better lead scoring system to focus on the leads that are most likely to become customers.

Defining Attributes for Lead Scoring

Effective scoring can improve lead quality, boost conversion rates, and enhance team productivity. However, you must know some important metrics to do so. For this, you can:

• Use Analytics: Analytics can help you figure out crucial parameters to include in the lead-scoring process. You can also analyze your existing data to identify lead activity.
• Seek Feedback from Your Team: Next, you can simply take input from your sales representatives as they understand what makes a lead well-qualified. Therefore, their insights can help you figure out high-value prospects.
• Focus on Your Existing Customers: Apart from that, you can also analyze your current clients to understand which attributes made them a good fit. Also, check those leads that didn’t qualify.
• Interact with Customers: You can also collect feedback from your existing customers to understand the motivation behind their purchase. This will help you refine your lead scoring by identifying the buyer’s potential objections.

Lead Scoring Models

Lead scoring helps businesses figure out which potential customers are most likely to buy. The most common types are demographic scoring, behavioral scoring, and predictive scoring. Each model scores leads based on different criteria. Let’s look at different models:

Demographic and Company Data

This model scores leads based on who they are and where they are from. For example, if your customers are usually men around 40 years old from the United States, anyone who doesn’t fit this profile might get a lower score. If you only sell in certain locations, you can give negative scores to leads from outside those areas. You can ask questions about zip codes, industries, company sizes, and revenues on your forms to help identify leads that fit your target audience.

Email and Social Engagement

This model scores leads based on how they interact with your emails and social media. Just because someone subscribes to your emails doesn’t mean they’re interested. Pay attention to open and click rates. For example, someone who clicks on a demo email might get a higher score than someone who just opens a newsletter. On social media, if a lead follows your channels, likes, or shares your content, they might get more points. LinkedIn is especially useful for B2B lead generation.

Website User Behavior

This model scores leads based on their actions on your website. For example, they can look for certain questions like:

• Did they download any materials? How many?
• How many pages did they visit, and how long did they stay?
• Did they visit important pages like pricing or demo pages?
• Did they fill out a form completely?
• Have they stopped visiting your website? For how long?

For example, someone who requests a demo or fills out a form is more interested than someone who visits your site for a while and leaves.

Detecting Spam Contacts

Your sales team wouldn’t want to waste time on spam. Therefore, lead scoring can help identify and filter out spam contacts. For instance, if someone uses a fake name like “Angel Priya” or a generic email like Gmail when you’re targeting companies, they should get a negative score. This ensures your sales team focuses on real leads.

Final Thoughts

Implementing a strong lead scoring system is crucial for identifying high-quality leads and driving business growth. By focusing on key metrics, leveraging analytics, and seeking team feedback, you can create an effective lead-scoring strategy. Thereby, utilizing a CRM tool and scalable software with automation capabilities will enhance efficiency, allowing your sales team to concentrate on the most promising leads and improve conversion rates.