Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is a method of rating leads with points so marketing and sales can see which contacts are most likely to buy. Instead of treating every lead the same, the most promising ones get a call first.

How a scoring model works

A simple model assigns points for two kinds of attributes:

Above a set threshold, say 50 points, the lead counts as an MQL and goes to sales.

Example

A B2B software company gets 200 leads per month. Without scoring, sales calls them all in the order they come in. With scoring, the 40 leads above 50 points are contacted first. If their close rate is 15% and that of the other 160 is 2%, sales spends its time far more effectively.

Lead scoring and ad campaigns

Lead scoring doesn't just help sales, it helps marketing too: if you know which campaigns bring in high-scoring leads, you can shift budget accordingly. For that, the score or the resulting stage has to be connected to the original campaign.

The scoring itself usually happens in the CRM. LeadMetrics doesn't calculate a lead score, but it attributes every lead to its campaign and ad and pulls in deals from HubSpot or Close through the CRM integration. You can send qualification stages like MQL as a custom metric and analyze them per campaign.

Common mistakes

• Never validating the model: Regularly check whether high-scoring leads actually buy more often.
• Too many criteria: Nobody understands a model with 30 factors. Start with 5 to 8.
• Scoring behavior only: A very active lead who doesn't fit your target audience still won't buy.