• Introduction to lead scoring
• Basics of lead scoring
• Example scoring criteria
• Automate lead scoring
• Nurture campaigns
• Summary

Introduction to lead scoring

Attracting leads is akin to the art of wine tasting — enticing potential customers with a flavourful preview before committing to a full-bodied purchase. Just as wine enthusiasts indulge in complimentary tastings, businesses can captivate prospects with lead magnets, offering a tantalising glimpse of the value they bring. However, the real challenge lies in distinguishing promising leads from the rest. This is where lead scoring becomes a game-changer.

Implement lead scoring to overcome the challenge of weak leads. Businesses often grapple with unqualified leads consuming valuable sales resources. Research$^1$ indicates that only a quarter of leads turn out to be qualified, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between promising and weak leads early on.

Basics of lead scoring

Lead scoring is the process of quantifying and ranking prospects based on various attributes. This approach helps sales and marketing teams prioritise leads effectively, responding with targeted strategies that enhance conversion rates by focusing on the most sales-ready prospects. Two broad dimensions for assigning scores are,

1. Lead property - This refers to the job title of the contact, and company information such as industry type, and geographical location.
2. Lead activity - This category addresses the prospect’s response to emails that you sent (opened, clicked on email body etc.), the actions that were performed on your website or mobile application and activity on the website such as clicks on the pricing page, the home page, etc.

For each property or activity, you could assign a positive or negative score. Based on the cumulative score you will be able to rank your prospects as ‘Hot’, ‘Warm’ or ‘Cold’ leads.

Example scoring criteria

Automate lead scoring

Automating lead scoring has proven to save precious time and make the process efficient as it allows for real-time tracking. Lead scoring can automated via tools such as Freshsales or HubSpot which also allows you to track a percentile score of leads over a period of time. As with any tool, the use case depends on the user’s expectations and budget. Hubspot Sales/Marketing is considered market standard. Fresh Marketer/Sales offers the basic features and uses multiple attributes to score leads.

You could also leverage comprehensive CRM tools (HubSpot and Salesforce are good examples) that analyse current customer data to identify lead characteristics conducive to conversion. Most existing lead scoring or sales and marketing tools allow you to do this.

Nurture campaigns

If resources permit, implement nurture campaigns for less qualified leads, keeping them engaged until they are sales-ready. You will send a blog, let’s say it talks about a certain use case of your product. If the person opens the email, he will find a link to your website. He clicks the link and accesses the website. Then in two weeks, you should send another content that matches the customer profile and keeps the interest alive. Follow this up with a whitepaper in one or two weeks. This process of sharing content only happens to those that access content and engage with it. It is a bit like buying on Amazon - the suggestions are “If you liked this you might also like this.” or “Buyers of X also bought Y.” The idea is to see how warm a contact can be. Therefore if they are interested then you send more and more content. Typically you need a workflow set up to do this process. The workflow can be simple, which also helps with lead scoring. HubSpot does this for you. There are other tools too. Somebody who is part of the nurture campaign and who has engaged with the content will see their scores shoot up.

However, what is more important is that you can do basic lead scoring. If you can’t even do the basic lead scoring don’t even think about nurture campaigns.

Summary

Mastering lead scoring is the linchpin for optimising the B2B software sales process. By strategically evaluating and prioritising leads, businesses can allocate resources efficiently, enhance conversion rates, and propel prospects seamlessly through the sales funnel. As technology continues to evolve, embracing sophisticated lead-scoring tools that fit one’s budget and requirements will be integral to staying ahead in the competitive B2B software landscape.