Improve sales efficiency and focus on your most promising leads. Lead scoring helps you prioritize and personalize your sales outreach.
Lead scoring is a technique used by marketing and sales teams to rank prospects based on their perceived value to the company. This is done by assigning points to each lead based on their attributes and behaviors. A higher score indicates a more qualified lead, making it easier for sales teams to prioritize their efforts and focus on the most promising opportunities.
- Improved Sales Efficiency: Focus on the hottest leads, saving your sales team time and allowing them to focus on the highest priority opportunities.
- Increased Conversion Rates: Prioritize your leads according to which are most likely to convert into customers.
- Better Alignment Between Sales and Marketing: Keep your sales and marekting teams on the same page by creating a shared understanding of what constitutes a qualified lead.
- Enhanced ROI: Improve your return on marketing and sales investments.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Make more informed decisions based on objective lead scores.
Lead Scoring Process in a CRM
Most advanced CRMs offer built-in lead scoring capabilities. The specific steps will differ from system to system, but the general process will be the same:
- Identify Key Criteria: Determine the attributes and behaviors that indicate a qualified lead (e.g., job title, role type, company size, website visits, email opens, content downloads).
- Assign Point Values: Allocate points to each criterion based on its importance.
- Set Thresholds: Define score ranges that represent different lead qualification levels (e.g., Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)).
- Automate the Scoring: Configure your CRM to automatically update lead scores based on real-time activities.
- Segment and Prioritize: Create lists and reports based on lead scores to segment and prioritize leads for targeted outreach.
Prerequisites for Effective Lead Scoring
Before implementing lead scoring, you need to do the groundwork of identifying who your customers are, how they will proceed through the sales cycle, and what they need from you at each step in the sales journey. Be sure you have completed the following steps before setting up lead scores, or you'll end up with the equivalent of a stick of butter with nothing to spread it on.
- Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Clearly understand the characteristics of your best customers.
- Map your Buyer's Journey: Identify the typical stages a lead goes through before becoming a customer.
- Track Relevant Data: Ensure your CRM is capturing the necessary data points for scoring.
- Establish Clear Goals: Determine what you want to achieve with lead scoring (e.g., increase MQLs, shorten sales cycles).