4 Steps to Successful Lead Scoring

2 min read
May 13, 2015 2:38:15 PM

Your different buyer personas are going to say and do different things that ultimately tell you how qualified and engaged they are. So, using the same scoring system for all leads may limit its potential impact. If your business has strong leads and well-defined personas but struggles to qualify and prioritize leads through lead scoring, the following 4 steps to successful lead scoring will prove beneficial. Let’s dive in!

  1. Classification

What can a lead do on your site that will definitively classify them as a specific buyer persona? Classify leads, based on their actions, by persona. Limit this classification trigger to one per persona. It's important to remember to write for your buyer's persona.

  1. Qualification 

For each buyer persona, what are the absolute essential qualities they must have to work with you? Focus only on the characteristics a prospect must possess to be a fit for your product or service. Try to keep qualification factors to as few as possible, and use no more than nine.

  1. Prioritization

What actions can each buyer persona take to show how engaged and sales-ready they are? Observe things like repeat visits, content downloads, demo requests, specific page visits (especially your pricing page), social interactions, etc. Priority triggers will help to identify engaged, educated leads.

  1. Assigning a Score

Classification = 1,000 points 

Assign a different 1,000s point value to each buyer persona trigger. Put each on a completely different scoring plane from the other. This way, qualification and prioritization points can mean different things to different personas even if the values are the same. 

Qualification = 100 points

Assign 100 points to each of your sales-qualified triggers. This score, plus the buyer persona score, creates the threshold a lead must pass before they are deemed sales-worthy. 

Prioritization = 1-99 points

Assign a single or double-digit point value to different priority triggers and weigh each trigger by importance. The last two digits of the lead’s score becomes a priority grade; the higher the grade, the more engaged and sales-ready the lead may be. Make sure the combination of these points does not exceed 100. 

By categorizing, qualifying, and prioritizing leads this way, you will be able to better assign leads to the most appropriate sales rep, prioritize follow-ups so the leads with the greatest conversion potential are contacted first, and set up lead nurturing to target specific, non-sales qualified buyer personas and educate them. Score your leads and you’ll better engage them – the way they prefer!

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