Do you ever feel as though your sales team is losing hours chasing down unqualified leads while “hot prospects” always seem to fall through the cracks?
If you don’t have a systematic approach to prioritizing leads, you’re likely losing both time and revenue to competitors who are identifying and acting on qualified leads faster.
But we act on all the leads we get – we just don’t know which are actually “valuable”. Does anyone?
They do – in fact, companies that implement a quality lead scoring system see up to 30% increases in conversion rates and a 20% boost in sales productivity. Why? Because when teams feel that they are set up to win with the right leads, they’re more likely to work harder and faster.
Let’s take a closer look at lead scoring and how setting up the right lead scoring strategy can overhaul how you approach your B2B marketing funnel.
Want to see how you can automatically score and qualify leads while delivering personalized value to your prospects? Schedule a demo with LeadSeed to see our Give-to-Get approach in action!
Lead scoring is a methodology that assigns numerical values to prospects based on their likelihood to convert.
In other words, you create a “filter” by which you can weed out prospects who may not be ready or willing to move ahead, and focus all your time on those who are just a click away from a purchase.
To score a lead, you need to combine both explicit and implicit data – information that gives you a better idea of the prospect from a holistic perspective.
Explicit data for B2B prospects can include…
While implicit data for a B2B prospect gets more technical:
When you collect this information and put it into a scoring system, you can better identify those prospects that fit your ideal client profile.
These top scorers should then become your sales team’s top priority, as they’re most likely to make a purchasing decision based on your service fitting their needs at this time.
Knowing what data to collect is only the first step in a lead scoring strategy. You’ll then need a process by which you filter, assign, and act on each one as you score them.
As mentioned above, your leads will score based on how closely they align with your ideal customer profile. If you don’t currently have an ICP, you’ll want to craft one (or several) to best define the client that fits your offering.
ICPs typically take the form of a person – such as “CFO John” – and will be described by those explicit and implicit data points that you’re collecting.
In essence, your ICP and data collection strategy will go hand in hand. If you feel that your top-scoring leads aren’t converting, you may want to reconsider your ICP.
Not all actions that a prospect takes will carry equal weight. That’s why you’ll want to give point values to each “action” to build a more accurate view of where a lead lands in your scoring system.
For instance, you can give high-intent behaviors higher scores:
You’ll also want to include negative scores for leads that take actions showing disinterest or don’t fit your overall ICP.
These can include unsubscribing from marketing emails (-20 points) or not engaging with your brand over a long period of time (-10 points per 30 days of inactivity).
Once you start giving points, set the minimum score that qualifies a lead as worthy of sales outreach. You’ll want to track data over time and experiment with this number, as it could change based on different metrics and conditions.
Typically, leads scoring 70+ on a 100-point scale will be considered “sales qualified” or SQL. Those scoring just under may need a bit more nurturing through personalized content or softer touchpoints.
As you can imagine, manual lead scoring can be a slog – and actually eat up the time that teams should spend on qualified leads! That’s why you’ll want to find a tech solution that combines your scoring system with a CRM and marketing automation solution to speed up the process.
Markets change, customers change – so too should your lead scoring system.
As you begin to notice shifts in buyer behaviors, don’t be afraid to revisit your lead scoring system and make adjustments. The more you fine-tune your lead scoring strategy, the more likely you are to make use of it.
Once you get an idea of how best to score your leads and prospects, you’ll want to make sure that you are offering the right content and engagement pieces to collect relevant and accurate data. Don’t just rely on an email from a prospect as a +30 prospect value.
When you can get granular and pull insights from your prospects consistently, you’ll start to get a much clearer picture of who that 70-100 point lead really is.
LeadSeed’s innovative “Give-to-Get” approach takes traditional lead scoring and upgrades it with value exchange. By creating personalized surveys and assessments for your prospects, you can offer valuable content tailored to them in exchange for valuable lead scoring data points.
With automation built in, you can start scoring leads based on multiple criteria:
LeadSeed integrates with existing CRM systems and can help you automatically route high-scoring leads to your sales teams with detailed context on each. This equips your teams with all the data they need to kick off conversations with a personal touch.
See a powerful lead scoring system in action and start building your own lead system with LeadSeed today. The power of personalized content-driven lead generation is in your hands – get started with LeadSeed today.
