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You’ve got hundreds of leads making their way through your pipeline…
Your team is following up with every single one…
Your sales reps are trained professionals and your offer is great…
Yet, your conversion to paid is still low.
What’s going wrong?
Well, in most cases, the answer is that you’re following up (and wasting time) with poor-quality leads – the people who submit an inquiry but have no real motivation to purchase from you.
There’s only one antidote in this situation – a lead scoring model.
Lead scoring is the process of giving your leads a score (usually out of 100), with those towards the higher end being your highest-quality leads.
Businesses typically develop a list of criteria, with each box ticked increasing their score.
In this report, we’ll help you better understand what lead scoring is and how it works, what kind of criteria you can assign, and how to develop a lead scoring strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Lead scoring is a technique that sales and marketing teams use to rank potential customers (leads) based on their likelihood of becoming customers.
The goal of lead scoring is to know which leads have the highest chance to convert, which allows you to focus your resources on them.
In the process of lead scoring, we assign numerical values or scores to leads based on various criteria that indicate their level of interest with our product.
Here’s what that might look like:
…Which lead should you prioritize?
Naturally, it’s Lead A – the one with a higher score and the contact who seems more keen on purchasing from you.
Predictive lead scoring is a more advanced form of lead scoring that leverages machine learning and predictive analytics to assess the likelihood of a lead converting into a customer.
Instead of relying only on manually defined criteria, predictive lead scoring uses these algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns that correlate with conversions.
Here’s how predictive lead scoring typically works:
Predictive lead scoring models often improve over time as more data becomes available and as the organization gains more insights into the performance of the model.
However, it’s important to note that predictive lead scoring is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
The effectiveness of a predictive model depends on the quality and relevance of the data it’s trained on, and you need to regularly refine the model to ensure ongoing accuracy.
Lead scoring is important for several reasons and implementing it can significantly benefit both your sales and marketing teams.
Here are some key reasons why lead scoring is considered crucial:
Now that you know what lead scoring is and just how important it can be, let’s check out the exact step-by-step process you can follow to create your own lead-scoring strategy.
Start by analyzing your existing customer base.
You should look for common characteristics such as industry, company size, geographical location, and other relevant factors. And don’t forget to consider psychographic factors like common values and challenges.
This detailed profile will serve as the basis for scoring leads based on their similarity to your most valuable customers.
Conduct thorough research to pinpoint the actions that indicate a lead is progressing through the buying journey.
This could include visiting specific product pages, engaging with pricing information, signing up for a trial, or attending events.
You should collaborate with both sales and marketing teams to gather insights into the behaviors that historically correlate with successful conversions.
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Assign a numeric value to each buying signal based on its relative importance (we’ll dive deeper into this later).
For instance, a direct product inquiry might be worth more points than a standalone webinar attendance.
You need to make sure that your point system reflects the varying levels of interest that the lead exhibits throughout the sales funnel.
Don’t forget to incorporate negative scoring.
You need it to account for behaviors that may indicate a lack of fit or interest.
Assign negative points for actions such as repeated visits to the careers page, unsubscribing from emails, or prolonged periods of inactivity. This prevents wasting resources on leads unlikely to convert.
Expert Insight: Tracking your unsubscribes is just one of the metrics you need to pay attention to when it comes to email marketing. Open rates, CTR, and conversion rate… these are just some of the additional metrics you need to keep an eye on. And with our free Mailchimp Campaign Performance Dashboard, you can do it in real time, in one place. If you use another ESP, don’t worry – we have 100+ integrations you can choose from.
Have you integrated your lead scoring system with your CRM platform?
This integration ensures that both sales and marketing teams have access to real-time lead scores and can use this information to prioritize their outreach efforts.
CRM automation helps streamline the entire lead scoring process and keeps the data up-to-date.
Expert Insight: Do you use Pipedrive for your CRM needs? If so, you might’ve had some trouble with navigating through the various dashboards and finding the data you need. Not anymore. Download our free Pipedrive CRM Account Overview and connect your most relevant metrics in one place – no need to juggle through dozens of reports just to get the insight you need.
Regularly review and analyze the performance of your lead scoring model.
As a best practice, compare the lead scores of converted leads against those that didn’t convert to identify new patterns and trends.
Use this data to fine-tune your scoring criteria. For starters, you can do this by adjusting point values and adding/removing behaviors as necessary to improve the accuracy of your predictions.
In this step, it’s also crucial that you start A/B testing your process.
You can compare the outcomes of leads scored with the new model against those scored with the previous method.
Also, remember to regularly revisit your lead scoring strategy in light of evolving market conditions, changes in customer behavior, and shifts in your product or service offerings.
All that’s left to do now is create comprehensive documentation for your lead scoring strategy, including the rationale behind point assignments and the criteria for positive and negative scoring.
This, alongside training sessions, is what your sales and marketing teams need so they can better understand your company’s lead scoring model and how it fits into the overall strategy.
If you’re just starting to build your lead scoring system, one of the biggest headaches is usually deciding which criteria you’ll use for evaluation.
That’s why we asked industry experts to chime in and give us their insight.
Here are the 5 lead scoring criteria they recommend for evaluating your leads:
Are your leads coming primarily from your social media channels? Did you generate them through paid advertising? Maybe organic search?
Where your lead comes from provides a lot of insight into its potential.
For example, a lead that originates from a targeted webinar registration may be more valuable than a randomly acquired one.
When you understand the source, you can tailor your approach to capitalize on the most productive channels.
Joe Arko of G2 argues that “the most important thing about a lead is where it came from.”
“The close rate for different lead sources varies from 2%-50%. Word of mouth closes at an insanely high rate, whereas a one-click web form isn’t going to be in the same ballpark. All other variables are interesting, but there’s no better indicator of ‘likely to buy’ than how they reached out to begin with.”
Srish Agrawal of A1 Future Technologies agrees with this approach:
“Always check the source of your leads and have a tracking system in place like a lead generation dashboard to know where the best leads are coming from. This way, you can remove the lower quality traffic/lead sources, and focus on the ones working best.”
Pushkar Gaikwad of AeroLeads also added that “a user searching for our software name from Google should have a high score as compared to someone who is coming from different sources.”
And according to our research, content visited through a search engine is reported to be the best source of high-quality leads.
Expert Insight: If you have multiple traffic sources to keep an eye on, things can easily get complicated in Google Analytics. But not if you download the Website Acquisition Overview Dashboard. Track where your leads are coming from, their demographic data, and much more – all in one place.
Next up, you should be looking at what role within an organization your lead holds.
Different job roles have varying levels of decision-making power and influence.
For instance, a lead in a managerial or executive position usually has a more significant impact on the purchasing decision compared to someone who just started working for the company.
Eric Melillo of COFORGE explains that, as with most sales processes, a deal “is best influenced by decision-makers.”
“I’ve found that by segmenting our leads by job roles that fit our buyer personas best, we can have better conversations with the right people. This also helps sales efficiency as I’ll stop chasing poor-fit leads that have lower lead scores. This allows me to be much more effective while nurturing prospects.”
How often do you analyze your lead’s responses to emails?
Metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and response times can help you assess the lead’s responsiveness and enthusiasm.
Positive responses, such as requesting more information or expressing interest in a product, are strong indicators of a hot lead.
On the other hand, consistent disengagement typically suggests that you need to re-evaluate your lead nurturing strategy for that particular segment.
As Tom Buchok of Mailchart explains, “smart email marketers have a process for sending their emails. The first may merely build anticipation, working up to the actual introduction of the product or service.”
Buchok thinks the responses to these emails are a great way to score your leads:
“When you begin to see hits to your website from these emails, or even responses to the email, those customers are ready to make a purchase. They should be contacted immediately, so you can answer any questions and finalize the deal.”
“Most email service providers report which page the person was on when they filled out a form, so you can use that to put your leads into different categories based on which product may be the best fit for them.”
Measuring a lead’s interaction with various types of content, such as blog posts, whitepapers, or videos, gives you a comprehensive understanding of what they’re interested in.
And naturally, a lead that consistently engages with in-depth content relevant to your offerings demonstrates a higher likelihood of conversion.
James Pollard of The Advisor Coach says that using content engagement for scoring leads “isn’t only one of the most effective ways to do it, but it’s also the simplest”.
“In fact, the whole concept of remarketing and retargeting is based on this. If someone has already interacted with your content, that person is more likely to convert.
For that reason, a good lead scoring system will assign points based on how many times someone has downloaded your content, watched your webinars, liked your pages, and so on. The rule of thumb is that the higher the score, the better the prospect.”
And it’s not just the pages they’re visiting. The frequency of each engagement is the most popular criteria our experts consider when scoring a lead:
HealthMarkets‘ David Peterson also recommends an interesting strategy:
“Incorporate content-based scoring that segment based on where the lead is in the marketing funnel.
There is an important difference when scoring digital behaviors related to informational content versus transactional content.
For instance, a lead viewing an article titled “What is Medicare?” should be engaged differently than someone who is looking at an article about “How to buy Medicare Advantage in Texas”.
Expert Insight: Do you use Facebook as a part of your content marketing strategy? While your Facebook page is a great way to get more users in your funnel and boost engagement, the reports you can find in the main interface can often be too confusing. But you can simplify it with our free Facebook Page Insights Dashboard. Download it for free and start tracking your most relevant metrics like reach, visits, and likes in just a few minutes (all in one dashboard).
Aside from explicit actions, you should also analyze a lead’s overall attitude during interactions with your company.
Factors such as responsiveness, communication style, and receptiveness to outreach efforts can tell you how open they may be to your offers.
Depending on what channels you use, the strategies you incorporate will differ.
Heather Baker of TopLine Explainers shared her method:
“This might be a little unconventional, but as a service business, our leads need to be qualified over the phone. If the person is rude or unpleasant to deal with, we immediately (and politely) qualify out, no questions asked. That’s because we know from experience that no amount of budget can compensate for a client that makes your team miserable.”
Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. Which sources generate the most traffic and leads? Creating a comprehensive report takes time and a lot of data combining, but with our free dashboard, you can have it ready in just a few clicks.
Our HubSpot Leads by Source Dashboard includes data from HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:
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You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
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Ok – so now you have lead scoring criteria and you developed a proper scoring model.
As a cherry on top, start using these 8 lead scoring tips to find (and convert) your highest quality contacts:
For accurate and up-to-date information about your potential customers, you need to clean and verify your leads.
First, you need a robust data cleansing tool to regularly scrub your lead database. Most of these tools can identify and rectify inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and duplications, which gives you with a more accurate foundation for lead scoring.
Also, make audits a routine in your organization. This involves verifying contact details, company information, and other relevant data points.
Jonathan Greene of Scribe suggests “using an outside vendor to clean and verify your leads.”
“There are tons of companies out there, some of which can verify that your lead is a real person, with a working email, and a LinkedIn profile, for as little as $.50 per record. Then, have them output the leads into buckets and score them according to how accurate the information is and how workable the lead is.”
Sean Dudayev of Frootful Marketing advises doing this with qualifying questions:
“When you ask for a name and email address, especially in something like a Facebook ad, it’s very easy for people to fall into the funnel that has no intention of taking action. Qualifying questions make it so that the potential lead is forced to assess their own situation and provide that information.
This does two things: on one end it filters out the “tire kickers” and on the other end it helps the salespeople do their job better. The marketers can use the questions as a way to score those leads from top to low priority based on the answer.”
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a contact that a sales rep thinks has a good chance of converting.
They usually differ from Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), which can sometimes be of poorer quality as many marketing departments don’t usually vet them before passing them through to sales.
That’s why defining what constitutes a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) for your offer is another pivotal aspect.
This way, you make sure that your sales team is focusing their efforts on the leads that are most likely to convert.
One of the ways you can do this is by leveraging the criteria we talked about in our previous subheading.
Steve Cross of iSynergy adds that it’s also important to “work directly with the sales staff because they are the hardest graders of sales qualified vs. marketing qualified leads. They can provide the best insight into the type of lead they want.”
You need to understand the distinct characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of your target audience, so you can tailor your lead scoring criteria to align with the needs of potential customers.
One way you can build your buyer personas is through surveys and interviews, where you’ll collect direct insight into their pain points and goals.
Another good strategy is to analyze your current lead database for common characteristics.
Group leads with similar attributes into segments to identify trends that can make a difference in your model.
But whatever method you use to build your buyer persona, you need to keep in mind that “most leads don’t buy” as David Green of LeadCrunch says.
Green continues: “For that reason, you need to see which leads look like your best customers. What are the most important attributes? What correlations can you find between types of engagement and closed-won deals?”
Andrea Moxham of Horseshoe+co adds that “if you know who is currently using your products/services and understand the process in which they search for solutions, the types of content that resonate with them, the channels they use, the terms they use, and the keywords they search, you can better segment your database into good-fit leads, prospects that need more nurturing, and contacts you can refer to another vendor.”
There’s a reason your top-converting pages are doing so well – have you found it?
One of the first things you should do is see the traffic source for your page – is organic, social media, email, or something else?
Then, analyze the types and formats of content on your pages. Identify whether specific content formats (e.g., videos, infographics, and case studies) or topics consistently drive conversions.
Another best practice is to map the user journey throughout your website, focusing on the sequence of pages leading to conversions.
You should be able to recognize the common paths your high-converting leads take and adjust your scoring criteria to prioritize following similar journeys.
Dan Moyle of Impulse Creative adds that “when marketing and sales communicate and look at data from current clients (do they visit the website, which pages, how often, do they watch videos, how often do they open/click emails), and sales can tell you exactly what you’re looking for, you can find what qualifies YOUR leads the best.”
“One business may say it’s critical to know when a lead visits the “about” page. Another may say the most important factor is when someone visits a pricing page. It’s different for everyone. But when sales and marketing collaborate and look through the data, finding the most important lead score factors will happen.”
Expert Insight: Semrush is one of the best tools you can use to assess your web content efforts – but navigating through the reports can be confusing, especially if you’re a beginner. That’s why we have the free Semrush Site Audit Dashboard. Connect your Semrush account, add your most relevant content metrics, and visualize them in just a few clicks of a button. In a few minutes, you can have your dashboard up and running and ready for proper analysis.
To refine your lead scoring strategy properly, you also need to understand the attribution of your conversions.
You should analyze how leads interact with various touchpoints before converting, so you can assign appropriate scores based on the most influential actions.
For this purpose, it’s a good idea to include multi-touch attribution models to analyze the entire customer journey.
Models like linear, time decay, or U-shaped attribution provide insights into the touchpoints that contribute most to conversions. Then, adjust lead scoring based on the importance of each touchpoint.
If you followed the previous step and found the pages your leads are enquiring through, Kris Gunnars of Search Facts says that “if the page they landed on pre-conversion is about something that your product is an excellent fit for, then that indicates that the individual is more likely to convert.”
However, Persist Communications‘ Grace Montealegre takes this a step further and advises to “run an attribution report to find out where they convert in the funnel.”
“Hopefully, you’ve been segmenting your marketing to see which type converts best (video is known to convert well, same with whitepapers via best practices). Is it a trial period, is it the e-book, etc.?”
The BANT approach—Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline—is a classic method for qualifying leads and a great way to guide your team in focusing on prospects with the highest chances of conversion.
Using the BANT approach in your scoring strategy allows you to get more precise when evaluating the key criteria that are essential for successful sales engagement.
Samuel Wheeler of Inseev Interactive explains that “the BANT system is perfect for understanding if someone is a good lead, but the quality of good leads can change depending on the service or the products involved.”
“Creating a simple “probability” calculation based on budget and timeline will not only help score leads but will also give your pipeline a more accurate valuation.”
Andy Hoek’s team at Invalshoek also uses the same framework:
“So basically, does the lead have the budget to buy your solution, decision-making authority to buy it, does the company the lead works for a need for the product you’re selling and is there a timeframe for selling it? If three out of four criteria are met, then it’s a good lead.”
When scoring leads, it’s not unusual to get a bit ahead of ourselves.
But for a scoring system to work, we must understand our limitations and approach qualification with a more realistic and nuanced strategy.
Mark Hughes of Inspired B2B Marketing says this is one of the biggest tips he can give on scoring leads.
He also adds that “the score of a lead shouldn’t be determined solely by the value it can bring to your business, but also by the value that you can provide to the prospect.”
“When scoring a lead, you need to consider whether you can provide them with the same quality of service that you provide to all of your clients. Although ambition is important when it comes to business, it should never result in a compromise on the quality of your product or service.
Biting off more than you can chew when it comes to the size of an opportunity, can result in damage to your business’ professional reputation and integrity. If you are unsure as to what your limits are, analyze your business’ resources and your processes.
These analyses should be used to make a judgment as to whether, at your current size, you have enough resources to take on the opportunity, e.g. staff and hardware, enough time to take on the opportunity, and the right level of expertise and capability that will be needed to provide a quality product or service to the client.”
While lead scoring is one of the most powerful tools for identifying and prioritizing potential customers, it’s important to view it within the broader context of your overall business strategy.
As a best practice, you should make sure that your lead scoring efforts are in line with the overarching goals of your business and that they can contribute to long-term success.
Jeff Stanislow of Chief Internet Marketer puts it like this – “Don’t just score for the sale or transaction.”
Stanislow thinks that the “lifetime value of that customer needs to be considered and applied against the cost per acquisition.”
Andrew McLoughlin of Colibri Digital Marketing says that the “most important leads have some sort of a personal connection. Many are referrals, for example.”
That’s why McLoughlin thinks that “when it comes to scoring leads, our best advice is to consider the personal element and imagine whether your business would be a good fit. If the partnership feels like C+ compatibility, then the lead itself is probably going to score similarly.”
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here.
In general, a good lead score is typically one that aligns with your organization’s specific criteria for identifying potential customers.
And what constitutes a good lead score depends on your business, industry, and the factors you’ve identified as important for predicting customer conversion.
That said, our survey found the majority fall somewhere between a score of 41-60, with less than 10% of a company’s overall leads reaching the 81 score mark.
However, Jay Atcheson of R2i says that they “only see approximately 20% of our leads in the B2B space with a/any score, however, the ones that do attain a combined engagement and profile score, almost 50% lead to a CRM opportunity.”
It’s tricky (and time-consuming) to run through each lead in your CRM manually and give them an individual lead score, which is why we use tools to help us out.
Here are some of the best lead-scoring tools you can implement in your business:
HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform and its lead scoring is based on a combination of explicit and implicit factors.
Explicit factors include information provided by leads (e.g., job title, company size), while implicit factors include behavioral data (e.g., website visits, email opens).
HubSpot’s scoring system assigns values to these factors, allowing users to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert.
One of its strengths lies in its seamless integration of marketing and sales tools. Plus, it provides a comprehensive view of lead interactions, making it easier to create accurate lead scoring models.
The platform also allows for lead nurturing based on the score, ensuring that sales teams focus on the most promising leads.
Expert Insight: HubSpot is undoubtedly one of the best CRM tools you can use for lead scoring – but with so many different features and capabilities available, you can easily get lost during data extraction and analysis. But with our free HubSpot CRM Overview Performance Dashboard, that’s not an issue anymore. Simply connect your HubSpot account and drag and drop the metrics you want to keep an eye on. You can have your dashboard ready in just several minutes.
Salesforce is another leading CRM platform that offers a range of cloud-based applications for sales, service, marketing, and more.
Salesforce uses a rules-based lead scoring system that allows users to define criteria for assigning scores to leads.
This can include demographic information, lead source, and engagement history. Users can customize and adjust scoring rules based on their specific business requirements.
Furthermore, lead scoring is highly customizable, making it suitable for businesses with unique lead evaluation criteria.
The platform has recently introduced AI features as well which can provide more insight into lead behavior and preferences.
Expert Insight: Similar to HubSpot, Salesforce also has a variety of reports that can make data tracking confusing even for seasoned users. If that’s an issue for you as well, you can simplify things by tracking your data through our free Salesforce Leads Overview Dashboard. With all of your key metrics in one place, you can monitor your performance in real-time and see what needs to be optimized immediately.
Pardot’s lead scoring can incorporate a wide range of data and you can use it to track engagement with marketing assets, website interactions, and email responses.
Pardot is tailored for B2B marketing, making it well-suited for businesses with complex sales cycles. The platform’s lead scoring features enable marketers to prioritize high-value leads and align marketing efforts with sales goals effectively.
Expert Insight: Want to make lead data tracking easier in Pardot? You can do that by downloading our free Pardot Opportunities and Prospects Overview Dashboard. Get a holistic view of your growth by connecting all of your key lead data insights into one place. With your entire performance overview on one screen, analysis becomes that much easier.
Marketo’s lead scoring system combines behavioral and demographic data.
It tracks interactions across various channels, such as emails, social media, and webinars, assigning scores based on predefined criteria. Users can fine-tune scoring models to reflect the unique characteristics of their target audience.
The platform’s integration with CRM systems, including Salesforce, facilitates seamless data flow between marketing and sales teams, enhancing collaboration and improving the overall lead management process.
Expert Insight: Using Marketo for your email marketing and tired of having to juggle around multiple reports each time you want to check on performance? Here’s a free Marketo Email Marketing Dashboard you can download for free to simplify things. Track everything from your open rates to conversion rates on a single screen and in real-time.
Overall, lead scoring is one of the best ways a business can assess and qualify the leads in its pipeline and determine which ones to prioritize.
But to build your lead scoring system, your data tracking and analysis have to be on point.
Depending on your specific criteria, you’re likely going to monitor traffic sources, email metrics, previous interactions, and content engagement… and you’ll do it manually, in separate spreadsheets, making the entire process that much harder.
Fortunately, there’s a much easier way you can do this – using Databox.
With Databox Dashboards, you can streamline your tracking and analysis process by compiling all of your key metrics and KPIs in a single dashboard, where you can monitor performance in real-time.
We even have dozens of Sales Leads Dashboards you can download for free and build in just a few minutes – all you need to do is choose a template, connect your data, and add the metrics you want to include. And with 100+ integrations available, you’ll have no problem finding your specific data source.
Once you wrap up the analysis, you can use Databox Reports to report your insights to other teams involved with the lead scoring process.
There’s one more cherry on top – Benchmark Groups.
The data you’re tracking and using to build your lead scoring model… how will you know whether the numbers you see are objectively good?
Unfortunately, relying on industry reports can only get you so far.
But with Benchmark Groups, you can instantly see how you compare against similar-sized businesses in your industry when it comes to performance.
And like all of our products – you can join Benchmark Groups free of charge.
Sign up for a free trial and take advantage of all of these things so you can build the perfect lead scoring model for your business.
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Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.
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