What is Lead Scoring and Why Is it Important?

Through the following article, you will find multiple benefits using a lead scoring strategy to improve your efficiency: better alignment between sales and marketing, more qualified leads, shorter sales cycles (among other tips).

Lead scoring has become an essential business methodology. Having a large prospect base is a good start, knowing where each prospect is in your buying cycle is even better.

Without any lead scoring strategy, there can be a lack of synergy in the company between marketing and sales. With more communication and precise data analysis, progress can be made and everyone takes credit for a better operational process.

The marketing team will have to focus on data analysis to strengthen the claim of the company. Marketing will need to rate and evaluate the behaviour of possible customers in the buying cycle.

Thanks to marketing’s work, sales will receive only qualified prospects in order to improve conversion, to have a better closing rate, meaning better results.

Before building the process, marketing & sales need to define the perfect audience and the ideal target. By giving grades (1,2,3,4…) or letters (A, B, C, D…) in the lead scoring model, they will be able together to structure the database. They can also classify the prospects as “cold”, “warm” and “hot”.

Lead scoring acts as a filter. Whoever is not ready to listen to the sales speech will not be brought to sales representatives.

You need to classify into categories your prospects through the buying cycle:

1) The ones who have never heard about your products and are starting to be more aware,
2) The ones who have more consideration,
3) The ones who are about to purchase.

There are different attributes marketing may work on to refine lead scoring strategy. They can be social attributes, demographic (years of experience, career interest…) firmographic (number of employees, industry…) or even online behaviour (opening an email, asking a question…). Don’t forget to have negative marks so you can also work on that and improve your global strategy (email unsubscribe, spam complaint, negative comment…).

There is one well-known method in lead scoring: BANT method (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe). A few questions you need to ask yourself might help you to change a prospect into a client:

• Budget: Does my lead have the money to afford my solution or is there a lack of means in his company?”
• Authority: Does my lead is involved in the decision-making procedure or does he have very little influence?
• Need: Does my lead need my solution or is he just curious without any intention to go any further?
• Timeframe: “Is my lead in a hurry, what are his delivery times? What are the chances I might lose him in the buying process?”

If all the answers are going in the right direction, you have a real opportunity to have one more client!

To sum up lead scoring in a few words, it helps to:

• Focus on your best chance to change a prospect into a client by giving him grades in the buying cycle.
• Identify and screen the best opportunities with a lower buying cycle experience.
• Create a team spirit between marketing & sales.
• Raise your turnover with all the optimisation in the company.