What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring is the process of auto-assigning values based on interactions that you have with a lead or prospect. The lead score is an assessment of the quality of a lead and provides an indication of the likelihood of the lead becoming new business.
How many sales managers have asked the question? What leads are going to close this month? And then have the sales rep spout off about all of the leads that they’ve nearly got over the line and are going to close in the imminent future. This is called “The rose tinted glasses phenomenon” (RTGP).
Lead scoring gives you a tool to cut through the PROVERBIAL. When setup correctly inside of your CRM leads scores show an objective measure of the likelihood of the lead turning into real business.
Steps to Implementing Your Lead Scoring Pipeline?
Define a sales process that incorporates all of the phases that lead usually passes through to become a client
Define activities that are usually required to convert a lead
Work out the relationships that you need to build to convert a lead (who are the decision makers?)
Find a CRM that allows you to store lead values against all of the above objects
Recreate your pipeline in the CRM
Load the lead scores against the objects
What does the Score Tell you about a Lead?
When meeting your sales team the lead score of each prospect will provide an insight into whether the sales process has been carried out effectively.
A score close to the phase target indicates the process has been carried out according to plan and all of the necessary steps have been undertaken
A low score lower than the phase target probably indicates the rep has missed out some vital steps and the lead is vulnerable to not closing
An embedded lead scoring system and a clearly defined sales process will help you close more deals by improving your sales teams’ performance.