*This is a continuation of this post.
If properly set up and successfully implemented, lead scoring can yield many benefits for your sales team and your entire organization. A primary benefit is the creation of a more efficient sales pipeline which can mean higher win rates and a faster, smoother selling process.
So you’ve decided that you will create a lead scoring model for your business. How do you go about it?
Who Will Use Your Lead Scoring System?
First you have to understand who will use the lead scoring system.
Sales qualifying usually follows this basic setup:
Marketing receives a lead (say, an inquiry) —> Marketing qualifies it (Marketing Qualified Lead) —> Marketing passes it on to Sales —> Sales accepts (Sales Accepted Lead) —> Sales qualifies it (Sales Qualified Lead)
Sales and Marketing will use the lead scoring system. And it’s important that they use the same model or system for consistency and efficiency. This is one of the things they will need to align on.
Building Your Lead Scoring Model
Lead scoring is used to rank leads through a scoring system wherein leads or prospects are assigned values (essentially points or scores). The values or scores are determined by the organization or business and are based on a lead scoring model with set criteria.
1. Set the criteria for qualifying leads
The lead scoring model usually has these two main criteria:
- Demographics
- Engagement / Activity
If you’re a B2B company selling a marketing automation software, a high-ranking executive of a mid-size marketing company is most likely a high-quality lead. If this executive goes on your site and sends an inquiry, his score goes higher. If he returns and asks for a demo, that’s another reason for a score increase.
It is now up to you to decide what demographic details and engagement activities are important to your business. These will be your criteria. To develop your set of criteria, you need to discuss this with key people from relevant departments (Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Product Development, etc.).
How do you get the data you need? Some of these data will be provided to you by the lead himself. An example is when he fills up the sign-up form when downloading a lead magnet (white paper, ebook, case study, etc.) and provides his name, title, company, company size, and industry. The data you get in this example are explicit criteria.
Some data or criteria can only be extracted from analyzing explicit data. These are your implicit data or criteria.
2. Assign the values
Assign values or points for each criterion (demographic details and engagement activities). Set the scale at 100 and assign points for a criterion.
It is up to a business on how they will score. You need to identify which demographics and engagement variables will raise a lead’s score, and which will lower it.
As a general rule:
- If the lead’s demographic details are close to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or buyer persona, the higher his score will be.
- The more engagement he initiates with your brand, the more points he racks up.
- The further down the funnel their engagement activity is, the higher the score will be.
Here’s a visual sample of criteria with values (or scores) assigned:
A score can also be negative, which would essentially deduct from the score. For example: a lead who suddenly cancels a demo or unsubscribes shortly after subscribing to the company newsletter can get a -10. These actions are considered negative criteria.
3. Set a thresholdWhat score makes a lead a Marketing Qualified Lead and ready for handing over to Sales for them to qualify it? Set a minimum lead score. But remember: You also don’t want to dismiss leads just because they don’t meet your preferred lead score.
In fact, don’t be quick to judge and dismiss leads based on their initial scores. Those scores could still change because the lead’s engagement activities can still change. And even a lead with a so-so score of 40 can still be nurtured for conversion.
What Next?
The next thing you want to do is roll out your lead scoring system. It should be implemented within the Marketing and Sales departments.
You also need to identify a hand-off process. How will each qualified lead be handed to Sales? How should Sales handle each lead?
It also wouldn’t hurt to set the KPIs or have an agreement in place between Sales and Marketing. How many leads should Marketing be handing to Sales in a given period? What percentage of these leads must Sales be converting to deals? This ensures that both departments are held accountable for their agreed-upon deliverables.
Test your lead scoring system and review the results. Does the final score on a lead validate his conversion or non-conversion? Did the high-scoring lead actually purchase? Did the low-scoring lead surprise you by making a purchase?
The first model won’t be perfect; expect some fine-tuning in the process. You will also need to analyze historical data to see the efficiency of your model. This is where your CRM comes in handy as it will provide the reports and insights you’ll need and automate some of the processes.
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