Lead Scoring

In the world of business, leads are very important. Leads prove that someone is interested in a product or service and they may convert soon. Given their importance, lead software and technology has greatly improved over the years. From software solely aimed at lead generation to programs that manage every fine detail of each and every lead, leads serve a huge purpose in the world of sales and marketing. However, getting a lead is one thing, giving it a score is another story. That’s where lead scoring comes into play.

What is Lead Scoring?

Lead scoring is used to rank prospects on a scale that represents their value to an organization. Once a lead comes in, that lead is then given value in order to rank them on their priority. Lead scoring may also give insights on how the business should approach these prospects. Lead scoring has grown in popularity over the years, and there are best practices that are constantly changing. But lead scoring isn’t going away any time soon. Here are some key benefits of lead scoring:

Increased Sales Efficiency

Increased Revenue If your leads have value and you prioritize those leads based on values, then you can close more sales, which can lead to more revenue. Many businesses will choose to rank their leads based on closing probability. If this is done effectively, then you crush through sales quickly and see the cash roll in.

B2B Lead Scoring

When it comes to lead scoring, you have to think about the behaviors of your audience. You must think about how your audience behaves on a daily basis and how their minds work, especially as it relates to your industry or product. But a very important factor relates to whether you’re dealing with a business or customer. There are some clear differences between B2B and B2C, so you must understand these before proceeded with your lead scoring efforts. Keep reading to learn about the key differences when it comes to behavior.

Rational and Irrational Purchasing

During B2B transactions, a business wants to buy products based on many different factors. That being said, these transactions take a great deal of thought, have a lot of planning, and take longer to finalize. This involves rational analysis. For B2C transactions, the customer may purchase something out of impulse, and the timing is typically a lot faster. They may see a product they don’t really need, but their impulses might tell them to purchase it anyway.

Different Marketing Strategies

Another important distinction to make involves marketing. For B2B, sales people typically reach out to companies to pitch products and make sales. Whereas for B2C, this typically involves marketing via mass media outlets such as the internet, print ads, and social media. As you’re crafting your B2B lead scoring checklist and building a model, it’s important to focus on what these prospects mean to you and how close they are to making a purchase decision.

CRM Lead Scoring

Lead scoring means nothing without your CRM. Your CRM is your data warehouse where you can find all of the critical data about your customers, prospects, and your marketing efforts. Without an effective CRM in place, it is almost impossible to create a lead scoring model that works.

The Hunt for More Information

Lead scoring is most effective when you have tons of information about a lead. But unfortunately, many leads don’t have an abundance of information. That’s why a sales team member will do their best to find out as much as they can about a lead. The more information gathered, the more accurate score you can give to your lead. As this vital info is processed in your CRM, the CRM is your lifeline to providing accurate lead scoring.

Data Everywhere

Your CRM lead scoring data is vital to your business as a whole. Without the right data housed in the right locations, many issues can go wrong from many different angles. But this data isn’t only useful for lead scoring, it can be extremely beneficial for other systems within your business. This data can be passed around from system to system to produce some pretty remarkable results. For example, this data could be used for digital marketing efforts, website updates, or even updates to your sales process. So while this key data can help you produce marketing automation lead scoring processes, it can also help with many areas of overall business strategy. For more information about CRM and lead scoring, be sure to research predictive lead scoring project and predictive lead scoring tools.

Lead Scoring Models

Lead scoring is something that many product-led growth software companies should implement right away. It can save you tons of time and lead to a huge revenue boost. But in order to start the right lead scoring process that is suited to your needs, you need to first understand the different lead scoring models that exist on the market today. Be sure to do research on the models that your competitors use or similar companies in your industry; this can give you insights on how to approach your target audience with lead scoring. Take a look at some of the more popular lead customer scoring models today:

Demographic Info

One of the more popular lead scoring model example options is demographic information. As you’re talking to your prospects, you need to find out what demographic they are and how they compare to your target audience. For a product-led growth software company, focusing on this model should be very beneficial. That’s because your software may target a specific audience, so it’s vital that the demographics of your leads line up with your target market.

Online Behavior

If you want dynamic lead scoring, then focusing on online behavior is a very smart method. After establishing a lead, pay attention to how they interact on your website. Additionally, take a look at your current customers and take note on how they behaved online. What pages did they visit most? How many pages did they look at before becoming a customer? Using these insights can give you valuable information needed for effective lead scoring efforts.

How To Create A Scoring Model

While there are many lead scoring models out there that can be very beneficial for your company, you can actually learn how to create a scoring model for yourself. This can lead to a personalized model that is solely focused on your goals and needs as a business, instead of models that were built with other companies in mind. However, learning how to create one of these models can be very difficult, so it’s important to know what to include and what to consider. If done correctly, you can even create lead scoring model machine learning solutions. Take a look at what’s involved when trying to create a scoring model for yourself:

Make a Detailed Plan

It’s pretty difficult to build a scoring model when you don’t create a detailed plan. Be sure to spend some time building this plan, and talk to sales members and other employees to make a plan that includes all of the necessary pieces.

Create a Matrix

The next step is to create a matrix that allows you to see how the scoring rules will work. Be sure to write out two sections; one for what qualifies for a point decrease and one area that accounts for a point increase. After that, you’ll then want to add value for everything you have written on this list. For many activities, it’s smart to assign a point value somewhere between 5 and 20 on a 100-point scale. You want to keep the points low in order to not confuse anyone and to keep things simple.

Finalize and Test

Next, you’ll want to write which scores correspond to certain stages in the buying cycle. After that, be sure to test your model before using it in the real-world.

Lead Scoring Dataset

Many people believe that they can make their own lead scoring model whenever they want. However, without data, this is nearly impossible. Data is what drives the meaning behind a lead scoring model, and data is what makes these models make sense. Building a model based on theory and even best practices might sound like a good idea, but it will be very hard to succeed. You must use valuable data and go through a detailed process to understand what the data means and how it all fits in your lead scoring process. Not sure on what lead scoring dataset you need? Now sure how to get started? Read below for more insight on the topic:

Social Engagement

One useful dataset is social media engagement. If you have data on your audiences’ such as likes, followers, and recent activity, then you can appropriately give value to leads based on this data.

Online Behavior

Online behavior can provide us with tons of useful data. By keeping track of your prospects’ online activity, you can clearly determine if they are likely to convert into a sale. Another tip is to look over this data from current customers to see their behavior before closing the deal.

Look at Case Studies

To gain more insight on this topic, we recommend checking out case studies. This can be very useful to gain inspiration, and you can see what worked for businesses similar to yours. Be sure to do research on a lead scoring case study Github and a lead scoring case study in Python for help involving these topics.

Lead Scoring Tools

Since lead scoring has been around for a while, there are many lead scoring tools available that can help to create a lead scoring process that works effectively. However, choosing the wrong tools can cause you to waste a lot of time and energy. That being said, you must do thorough research to find tools that are built for your needs and goals. And with the variety of tools available on the market today, many things are possible.

What Are Your Goals?

If you’re trying to decide on which lead scoring tools are right for you, then you should take the time to think about your goals as an organization. Think about what you want to achieve and the timeframe for doing so.

What Do You Find Valuable?

As one of the key aspects of your lead scoring model is the value you give to certain factors of a lead, you must consider what is most valuable for your business. Knowing this data and having clarity on your value points can really help you choose the right tools for your needs.

Talk to Your Sales Team

If you really want to find out the best lead scoring tools, then a great resource is your sales team. They are in the middle of sales on a daily basis and they understand the behaviors and tendencies of your target audience. That being said, they may understand the right tools that can effectively tackle the problem.

Many Lead Scoring Options

When it comes to lead scoring platforms, you have many options. Some of the more popular platforms include:

• Hubspot lead scoring
• Marketo lead scoring
• Lead scoring Salesforce
• Pardot lead scoring
• Lead scoring Kaggle

Now that you understand more about lead scoring, it’s time to put a model in place to start closing those sales more efficiently!