lead scoring

Only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. *

Lead scoring is a shared sales and marketing methodology for ranking leads in order to determine their sales-readiness. The theory behind lead scoring is straightforward: Leads start at zero and accumulate points toward their sales readiness score by having certain characteristics, taking certain actions, and demonstrating certain behaviors that lead to a sale. They lose points when their actions take them farther away from sales readiness.

When scoring leads, it’s useful to break scoring into three sections: demographic, behavioral, and contextual scores. Behavioral and contextual scores are counted together, but it’s useful to see how behaviors placed in context give a more accurate image of a lead’s sales readiness.

Demographic scores, as their name suggests, include all the demographic and firmographic information you’ve amassed. These scores are derived from knowing who your audience is. If you sell medical equipment, for instance, leads whose job titles and industries place them within the healthcare sector will have higher scores than those in other fields as will a CMO versus a Research Analyst.

Behavioral scores depend directly on the actions leads take when interacting with you. Clicking through on an email, downloading a white paper, visitng a pricing page, and attending a webinar are some behaviors that might award different lead scores to prospects.

Contextual scoring is based on their category of interest. Most companies sell multiple products and understanding which product your lead is most interested in is critical to your ability to maintain relevance. Your lead will tell you everything you need to know, but if you aren’t observing and cataloging their behaviors, you will probably miss your golden opportunity to close the deal.

Lead scoring is cumulative, and this cumulative score comes from all three lead scoring elements. Maintaining a profile on each lead is necessary to establish their distinct footprint and position in the buyer’s journey. This cumulatively scored profile will serve instrumental in your marketing automation platform’s ability to heighten relevance and improve velocity from early stage to happy new customer.

*(Source: Gleanster Research)

© Reach Marketing LLC 2018 All Rights Reserved.

Attribution