Digestible information is everything in the B2B marketing world. Not only do you need data, you need data that you can use immediately and effectively. You may already be a data collecting extraordinaire, but if you’re not using lead scoring, you’re missing a key component of concise lead qualification. A lead score is the most direct way of gauging how interested your prospect is in you, and if you have a scoring model in place, you’ve already saved yourself hours of work identifying which leads are most sales-ready.
Whether you’ve dabbled with scoring in the past, or you’re a beginner implementing lead scoring as part of rolling out your new marketing automation platform, this guide will give you five steps to putting a basic scoring model in place. From there, you can get as creative as you want!
1. Gather Your Resources
You wouldn’t build a house without first purchasing the supplies would you? To have a successful scoring model, you’ll first need to understand how your various assets are impacting sales, so your sales team should be your first stop. Choose your most dependable, savvy salesperson and ask them what types of content they find most helpful when reaching out to prospects. For example, if a client needs more information, do they send them to your blog? Is there a whitepaper they always recommend? Interview your sales leaders to get an idea when and how your sales team is collectively using marketing content in their deals. Is it stratified by team? By deal size? What kinds of content are your reps being encouraged to use?
Once you know that, the next stop is your customer. Look through customer reviews and testimonials – what are they telling you? Is there anything that converted prospects are mentioning as being particularly helpful? Maybe they liked your informational webinar or learned something helpful from your recent ebook. And don’t stop there, take a look at your most recently converted prospects and dig deeper into their conversion. What made them decide to buy? Did they download your demo right before talking with their sales representative?
Finally, look at the performance of the content itself – are there specific pieces that have a higher download rate than others? What is your most successful piece of content to date?
2. Make a List, Check it Twice
Chances are, you’ve already noticed a pattern. Some of your marketing assets are making more of a difference than others, and that’s a good thing. Now make a list of all of these top performers, arranging from most effective to least effective. We’ll come back to this later.
3. Decide Your Threshold Score
A lot of companies wonder what the “right” threshold score should be, is it 100? 200? 500? The truth is, there is no “right” answer—it depends entirely on you. The number itself does not matter, it is the meaning behind it that does. This threshold signifies that your prospect has gotten sufficiently familiar with you and your product and is now ready for more targeted, hands-on contact. For most companies a score of 100 is a happy, familiar signifier of success, so feel free to start there.
4. Assign Scores to Your Assets
Now let’s get back to that list of assets you made in Step 2. You have your threshold score figured out, now, with that in mind, break down what each asset is “worth” accordingly. For example, if you are using a threshold of 100, your top performing asset may be worth 50 points, while further down the list you might go down to 25, then 10, then 5. If your prospects are hitting those most valuable assets, they’ll get sales ready quicker and now your score will reflect that.
5. Design Your Flow
You’ve made it this far and your prospects will be steadily increasing their score with each engagement. Now what? That’s up to you to decide. What happens when they reach that Threshold score? Will they get a call from your sales team? Will they get an email with a special promotional offer? Create a clear and consistent plan for your most highly engaged prospects and watch them pass that finish line with pride.
There you have it, a baseline scoring model that captures all of your most important marketing assets and helps you envision your prospects’ journey with precision. Put your marketing automation tools to work!