Lead Scoring Best Practices: How to Identify and Prioritize Your Best-Fit Leads

When they’re getting started, most marketers have one question on their minds: “how do I pack my funnel with fresh leads?” Once they’re lucky enough to have a full pipeline, the focus turns to quality over quantity. The new question becomes: “what makes a lead worth pursuing?”

Lead scoring is a methodological framework that leverages data to organize and qualify leads. By attributing point values to leads based on traits such as demographics and behavioral patterns, you can pinpoint who’s prepared for a sales conversation and streamline your marketing efforts.

So, how does lead scoring work, and how can you optimize it for your business?

How Does Lead Scoring Work?

Generally, lead scoring is built on two key pillars: firmographic and behavioral information. Firmographic information comprises all the professional data that leads voluntarily provide—think job titles, company size, and industry. Behavioral information, on the other hand, is a lead's digital body language, such as their website activity, email engagement, content downloads, and other interactions with your brand.

Lead scoring models work best when these two qualities are combined. For example, if your target audience is primarily CTOs, you might assign that job title 10 points. If a lead downloaded your whitepaper, that might be worth 5 points. It's about balancing the “who are they?” with the “what are they up to?”

Developing Your Lead Scoring Strategy

Your lead scoring strategy will take some time to build. But with the right game plan, you’ll be well on your way. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Team Strategy and Revenue Review

Before developing a strategy, sales and marketing teams need to get aligned on some key questions, such as what constitutes a 'qualified' lead. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page as scoring criteria are developed. But don’t forget about a valuable resource you already have—your closed won revenue.

Take a close look at your revenue history. Which leads have progressed smoothly through your pipeline and ended up closing? What traits do they share? Use the insights from this analysis to guide your lead scoring strategy. And remember, alignment meetings shouldn't be a one-time event. Regular team huddles to exchange ideas and ensure everyone stays on the same page are crucial to foster unity.

Create a Feedback Loop

If there’s one thing the past several years have taught us, it’s that the only constant is change. Lead scoring is a dynamic process. As assumptions change and you learn more about your audience, periodic tweaks will be necessary to make sure your strategy is aligned with the current environment.

Leverage the Right Tech

Today's tech tools can be a real game-changer for lead scoring. A robust CRM or marketing automation tool can take care of a basic lead scoring strategy. However, more accurate and effective strategies leverage predictive lead scoring tools like MadKudu, which uses machine learning (ML) to predict and prioritize all your revenue generating signals to surface only your best leads.

Focus on the Bigger Picture

When assessing leads, remember to step back and see the forest for the trees. It's not just about whether a lead fits into your target market (though that's certainly important), but also about their engagement and likelihood to buy. A casual browser may suddenly turn into a hot lead if they start downloading whitepapers or signing up for webinars. So keep an eye on both fit and behavior.

Timing is Everything

When it comes to leads, ‘when’ is just as important as ‘where’. A promising lead today might not have been a few weeks ago, and won’t be a few weeks from now. It can feel like a juggling act, but putting the right tools and processes in place can make all the difference.

Best Practices for Lead Scoring

Once you’ve laid the groundwork for your lead scoring strategy, follow these best practices to keep it humming.

1. Identify the most impactful factors: Start by identifying the most influential variables. Combine your unique business knowledge with comprehensive data analysis to pinpoint these factors.
2. Create a lead scoring MVP: Develop a basic model and test it by running some leads through the system. Check whether the output aligns directionally with your expectations, and adjust as necessary.
3. Establish expectations with sales: At a certain point, it’s time for marketing to pass the baton to sales. Define a clear score threshold that indicates when a lead is ready for the transition. Set boundaries on lead volume and quality, and ensure both teams are familiar with these parameters for a seamless handoff.
4. Pilot it and create a feedback loop: Your lead scoring model isn't set in stone—as your business evolves, so should the model. Once it’s ready, launch a pilot and make regular tune-ups to create a feedback loop that ensures your model stays in line with the reality of your marketplace.
5. Explore predictive lead scoring: If you're committed to delivering high-quality leads to your sales team, consider adopting predictive lead scoring solutions. This level of sophistication can significantly enhance your lead scoring strategy and ensure you're focusing your efforts on the most promising leads.

Creating a Lead Scoring Matrix

Visuals make it easier to navigate your lead scores. Creating a lead scoring matrix is a vital part of developing your strategy, allowing you and stakeholders to easily see the values you’ve assigned to each of your identified lead indicators.

First of all, it’s prudent to list all the actions and attributes that hint at a lead's interest. Did they attend a webinar? Download a whitepaper? Spend time on specific webpages? Each of these actions should have a weight, with the more promising activities packing more punch.

Remember those negative scores? This is where they come into play. Incorporate them into your matrix to weed out the less promising leads. From there, create scoring tiers to sort your leads, making it easier for your team to figure out who needs nurturing and who's ready to convert. Just like your lead scoring model, your matrix isn't a static document. Regular reviews and updates will ensure it stays reflective of your market conditions, customer behavior, and business objectives.

MadKudu: Your Lead Scoring Analysis Sidekick

At MadKudu, we're committed to taking your sales efforts to the next level. Through our predictive lead scoring model, we get up close and personal with your customer data, which enables you to zero in on the leads that are most likely to convert. After all, the aim of the game isn't just to score all leads, but to score the ones that truly matter.

With the right lead scoring model in place, you'll be well-equipped to successfully navigate the maze of lead qualification.

‍Get a demo today and see how our platform can help you prioritize your best-fit inbound leads.