Lead Scoring
• Identifies where the lead are in buying process
• Helps with better resources alignment in your company
• Better aligned sales and marketing teams
• Allows better follow up of priority leads
Lead scoring is a shared sales and marketing methodology that helps sales people prioritize there focus on the lead database with more sales-ready leads. This makes better alignment so there is better followup and allows you to identify where each prospect is in the buying process. Usually the handoff happens after “Marketing Qualified Lead” (MQL). A MQL is at the lead score you define it to be at.
Why Lead Scoring is Important
Lead scoring is a proven way to boost effectiveness of marketing and sales in a company. Key performance indicators in your business are considerably higher when you use lead scoring. Studies like the one above show the great benefits of lead scoring
Without lead scoring sales has to manual disqualify and qualify prospects. Usually they have to reinvent the wheel and speed quite a bit time with prospects who are not ready to buy or who are to early in the buying life cycle.
How to Configure Lead Scoring or Adjust
How to Configure Eloqua E(10) Lead Scoring (PDF)
How to Configure Marketo Lead Scoring (Need to have Marketo Community Access)
Changing Old Marketo Scoring Model (Need to have Marketo Community Access)
Changing Marketo Lead Scoring Models (Need to have Marketo Community Access)
Identify where leads are in the buying process
Lead scoring occurs anytime a lead enters your database. Eloqua rescores leads every 24 hours. A lead is scored every time it takes a action, assuming that you setup. Interesting thing is there is large amount of companies that buy marketing automation but don’t setup lead scoring because they don’t know how to.
There is implicit and explicit lead score, where implicit lead score shows activities that are taken by your leads and explicit relies on the values in fields like job title, company, and demographics.
Some actions will lower a leads score. For example, going to a career or investor page. Inactivity lowers points to. If a lead was hot but has had no activity in the past 6 months it most likely should lose points
A decent lead scoring program has both implicit and explicit. Talk to your sales team to find out what they value you most so you are aligned. They will also provide better insight into what helps with conversion and what gives objections.
Lead Scoring Explicit Example
Possible attributes for Lead Scoring Explicit
• job title
• department
• industry
• budget
• demographic
| Attribute | Value | Scores |
| Critical (10-15 points) | ||
| Title | Director or VP | +12 |
| Industry | High Tech or Healthcare | +10 |
| Purchase Authority | Decision Maker | +15 |
| Company Revenue | Greater than | +10 |
| Product | Using Competitive Solution | +15 |
| Timeline | Identified, < 3 months | +12 |
| Important (5-9 points) | ||
| Location | US | +8 |
| Company Revenue | 100 Million to 500 Million | +8 |
| Title | Manager | +7 |
| Timeline | Identified, 3+months <8months | +5 |
| Influencing (1-4 points) | ||
| Location | English Speaking, Non US | +4 |
| Timeline | Identified, 8+months | +3 |
| Title | Analyst, Coordinator, Specialist | +4 |
| Company Revenue | Less than 100 million | +1 |
| Negative | ||
| Title | Student | -15 |
| Title | Consultant | -5 |
| Industry | Services | -6 |
| Industry | ecommerce | -10 |
| Location | Non English Speaking Countries | -10 |
Lead Scoring Implicit Example
Possible attributes for Lead Scoring Implicit
• content download
• email open/click-through (I recommend not to score these)
• website visit (Pricing Page, Product Page, Career Page)
• event attendance
• viewed webinar (informational or product demo)
| Behavior | Scores |
| Critical (10-15 points) | |
| Visits pricing pages | +10 |
| Downloads Reviews | +12 |
| Timeline < 3 months | +15 |
| Watches demos | +5 overview demo |
| +10 detailed overview | |
| Important (5-9 points) | |
| Downloads buyers guides | +8 |
| Downloads data sheets | +8 |
| Searches for “Company Name” | +8 |
| Heavy web activity | +5 |
| Influencing (1-4 points) | |
| Watches any webinar | +4 |
| Downloads any whitepaper | +2 |
| Watches any video | +2 |
| Visits any webpage | +1 |
| Bad Behavior (negative points) | |
| Email unsubscribe | -10 |
| No website activity for one month | -5 |
| Added to “Do Not Call” list | -5 |
| Negative Social Media Comment | -4 |
| Visits career page | -2 |
| Visits investor page | -2 |
Negative Actions in Lead Score
There are actions that give negative points if you decide to set them. Adding negative attributes is a key element to a successful lead scoring model. Try to your lead scoring model simple at first and do not reinvent the wheel if possible.
None product page Visit
• Career Pages (most common negative point page)
• Press Room
• Investor Page
• Leadership Page
——–
• Email Unsubscribe
• No website activity in longtime
• No progression in buying cycle
• Added to “Do Not Call” list
• Spam complaint
• Negative social media comment
• Declines contract/warranty
Once you put your lead scoring in place you need to wait for a full sales cycle to pass to see if your lead scoring is working. The most important part is in defining the lead score and tweaking the definition. It doesn’t matter how you implement a lead score system if your definition is wrong.
