Lead Scoring

ServicesImageLead scoring propels the sales funnel by qualifying leads and measuring interest and engagement; all while ensuring sales and marketing alignment. Though rooted in numbers, lead scoring is part art, part science. A continuous tweaking and iteration is needed, so that sales and marketing stakeholders feel that the system is receiving acceptable leads that can be potentially converted into sales.

GrowthFusion takes the guesswork out of developing a lead scoring system. We have a proven 10×10 matrix with demographic and behavioral parameters that takes lead scoring to another level. We can help you implement an accurate lead scoring model that is comprised of both explicit data (static data): company size, industry segment, job title, geographic location and implicit data (behavioral aspects) online body language: type of whitepapers downloaded, e-mail activity, number of website visits, as well as webinars, blogs, articles, etc.).

With a well-defined lead scoring methodology put into place, one can:

  • Score leads using explicit and implicit data and budget, authority, need, and timeframe parameters as well as prospect behaviors
  • Automate lead qualification processes so you can act on “hot” leads faster
  • Track online activity to measure buying interest and sales-readiness, moving it down the funnel. Using a sliding scale to increase or decrease scores over time
  • Improve sales urgency follow-up by pushing only sales qualified leads to your sales staff

Simply put: lead scoring augments the sales process by providing you with better quality leads. Many B2B marketers cite lead quality, not quantity as their #1 challenge. All leads are not created equal.

What is Lead Scoring?

Lead Scoring is a process or methodology for determining and rankings how sales-ready a prospect may be. You can score the leads based on multiple interest points and touches they make with your company, may it be through meetings and emails, or online assets and webpages. It gives the marketing department a good indication on which leads are ready to buy and which leads require more nurturing before pushing the sales on them. Rankings can occur based on how the company chooses to place them, but in general companies like to use the “hot”, “warm”, “cold” model. The major points allow the marketing department to efficiently offer their leads the materials and information that suit where they are in the buying process.

Why do I need Lead Scoring?

According to a report by RainToday.com, less than 25% of new leads are sales-ready. This tells us that if you go straight to the sales approach on new leads, you can find yourself losing potential conversions quickly. In order to determine when the right time it is to approach the leads with a sale, you need to be able to rank them and understand where they are in the buying process. Lead Scoring gives you the opportunity to properly fit them into a business process system and improve your efficiency and productivity of the sales teams by only handing them sales-ready leads. If sales are only focused on sales-ready leads, they can spend less time and less effort on each individual sale and work on improving overall productivity and efficiency. Thus Lead Scoring will help drive improved lead quality and overall CPL (Cost per Lead) thus driving increased revenue.

What are the different types of Lead Scoring?

Explicit Lead Scoring

Explicit Lead Scoring is based on information that the prospect tells you or information that is directly identifiable. The two subsections of explicit Lead Scoring are Demographic and Firmographic Lead Scoring and BANT.

Demographic and Firmographic Scoring

Demographics and Firmographic scoring involves information provided from the prospect like job titles, industries, company sizes, and revenue streams. This tells us a lot about the prospect and how they fit in with the solutions that you can offer them.

B(udget) A(uthority) N(eeds) T(imeline)

Budget

  • Does the prospect have the budget for buying our product or services?
  • At what stage in the buying process do we need to address this question? Right upfront in the first form that the prospect fills out or much later in the buying cycle?

Authority

  • Does the prospect have the authority to sign-off on buying our products?
  • Do all my forms incorporate the Job Title?
  • Is my Lead Routing taking the job title of the prospect into account

Needs

  • Does this customer need our product?
  • What aspects of the product would appeal to prospects from different verticals

Timeline

  • What is the prospects timeline?
  • Does my lead scoring strategy take into account prospects readiness to buy?
  • Am I doing the lead hand-off to sales at the appropriate time?

Implicit Lead Scoring

Implicit Lead Scoring is information that you observe or infer about the prospect. The two subsections of Lead Scoring are Behavioral and Active vs. Latent Scoring.

Behavioral Scoring

Behavioral Scoring is based on a prospects interactions with different aspects of the company. Leads who make multiple touches on the website, download white papers, watch webinars, and read case studies all gain points for their different behaviors. However it is also possible to lose points for actions that take away from making the sale, like unsubscribing from a mailing list. You can compound a one dimensional behavioral scoring program with an importance section to compare how specific the prospects touches are and scoring based on that. Together, the two dimensional behavioral scoring program can offer a lot about how ready the prospect may be to buying.

Active vs. Latent Scoring

By distinguishing between active and latent leads, you can identify which leads are “hot” due to the nature of active scoring. Active scoring involves activities like watching webinars, demos, and visiting a trade show booth. These require more effort and are thus placed in a separate category. Latent Behaviors are less effort intensive and include activities like reading white papers and case studies and clicking links on emails. While these are important, they are significantly different from the active behaviors and are scored independently.