Lead Scoring Systems | What it is & How it Benefits

Recent studies highlight how lead scoring boosts sales success. It makes teams focus on top leads, leading to more wins.¹ Despite this, 99% of sales and marketing pros stick to old ways like the BANT method. But the BANT system is getting left behind by how buyers now make their choices.¹ We will explore the advantages of using lead scoring and some great ways to enhance your system.

• Lead scoring helps prioritise the most promising leads, improving sales productivity and efficiency.
• The traditional BANT approach is outdated, as buyer behaviour has evolved beyond just budget, authority, need, and timeline.
• Effective lead scoring combines prospect demographic and behavioural data to accurately determine lead quality.
• Lead scoring enables better alignment between sales and marketing teams, with a mutually agreed-upon definition of a “hot” lead.
• Simplifying the lead scoring criteria, regularly evaluating the model, and collaborating between teams are key best practices.

Lead scoring ranks one sales lead against another fairly. It matches the right follow-up with each inquiry.² Marketing and sales experts use it to see where each potential buyer stands.² Setting lead scores helps the marketing and sales teams work better together.² By agreeing on what makes a lead high-quality, they can share more useful feedback.² Also, it makes sure the top leads get quick attention. It does this by choosing leads with the most sales potential and readiness first.²

Lead scoring picks out and qualifies leads using data.²³ This method helps sales and marketing teams focus on the best chances. It makes their work more effective and boosts sales.²

Lead scoring shows where a lead is in the buyer’s journey. This makes sales and marketing follow up in the right way.² They send communication that fits the lead’s needs and timing. This makes the customer feel understood and more likely to buy.²

It looks at various data to figure out where a lead is in their buying process.³ This info helps sales and marketing meet the lead’s needs better. It guides them towards making a purchase.²³

Companies now aim to do more with less in every aspect of work. This means working smarter to make the most of what they have. For example, marketing teams are flooded with leads. They hand these leads over to sales without checking which ones are worth pursuing first. As a result, the sales team often wastes time on leads that go nowhere. This approach leads to blame games and wasted effort. It makes the whole process less effective.¹

Sales teams try to keep up with the flood of uncertain leads. But this just makes them less efficient. They aim to do more but end up achieving less.¹

Many valuable hot leads are lost among the cold leads. This is a big problem. Sales teams should focus on the leads most likely to bring success. Yet, they often can’t find these key leads in time. By prioritising the right leads, sales teams can spot the best chances and act faster than others. This one change can greatly boost their success.¹

To win more deals, the sales team needs to focus on the most promising leads. When they work with prioritised leads, they do much better. This strategy helps them find potential customers first, beating their competitors.¹⁴

Today, nearly all companies use the BANT method to classify leads. BANT stands for budget, authority, need, and timeline. If a lead meets these criteria, it’s seen as a good opportunity. This method has been the standard for over ten years. But over time, things have evolved.¹

Buyers now look for information early, before they decide on budget and timeframes. They read up on the latest tech and success stories. They also chat with others and check out social media. For most salespeople, it’s hard to see these steps.¹

It’s harder for brands to catch buyers early in this changed journey. So, advanced lead scoring tools are adapting. They use all sorts of data to gauge a lead’s quality. This includes not just a lead’s job title or company sales. What also matters is how keen they are to make a purchase.¹

While BANT used to be the go-to, it’s not enough. Modern systems now check out every move prospects make. They look at how people use websites, what they download, and how they react to ads. By doing this, they predict who’s really ready to buy.⁵

Lead scoring is not just about ranking leads. It’s a connection between sales and marketing. They create a shared way to judge lead quality, action needed in sales, and work together across teams.¹

Together, your marketing and sales can make a model for scoring leads. They decide what a top lead looks like. This makes sure your company values the best interactions or signs of keen interest.¹

When everyone knows what is a top priority lead, then they can talk about when to send these to sales. It also helps decide which leads need more nurturing.¹

Rating leads objectively for sales makes it clear how well they connect with customers and close deals.¹ Good lead scoring looks at both the kind of people interested and what they do. This helps know who to approach first.¹

Working together, sales and marketing can agree on the signs of a hot lead.¹ This usually involves giving different weights for how engaged a prospect is.¹ Using data to score leads helps sales focus on the right prospects and seal deals faster.¹

It also helps your company decide what lead actions show the most interest.¹ This approach boosts the team effort between marketing and sales. It also ensures only the best leads are followed up on.¹ Making the lead scoring rules simple and having the right sales and marketing folks help decide the rules make it work better.¹

Effective lead scoring combines two key types of data. This is prospect demographic data plus their behaviour.⁶ Prospect identity is one key dimension. It looks at who the prospect is based on their explicit data like title and industry.⁷

Prospect engagement is the other big part. This examines the prospect’s interest through actions like visiting your website.⁷

To define the prospect identity in a lead score, start by picking four or five key data categories. Next, decide how important each category is in relation to others. Give these a percentage ranking.⁶

Then, match each category with a set of criteria. Score them from A to D, with A being the best fit. This shows how well a lead matches the identity criteria.⁶

For engagement scoring, select key actions that show a lead is more interested. Weight these actions by importance and recency.⁶

Ensure you’ve defined the importance of these actions in relation to each other. Then, rank the leads from 1 to 4 based on their level of engagement.⁶

By blending fit (prospect identity) and engagement, a powerful scoring model emerges.⁷ This method helps pinpoint the most likely leads to convert. It maximises your marketing and sales ROI.⁷

With a solid scoring model, define when leads get specific actions. For example, high scores might need a quick sales follow-up.⁶ Lower scores could mean further marketing nurture or even disqualification.⁷

This system ensures every lead is handled right. It helps in managing them in the best possible way.⁷

When looking at lead scoring, less is more, particularly at the start. If you use too many factors, it’s hard to see what’s really making a lead count.⁸ It’s crucial to have a team from sales and marketing decide on these factors. They need to review and tweak them every quarter. Also, work out what to do with leads at every stage, from starting a connection right through to sales.⁹

Think about how scoring can change the way people are paid. If marketing is judged just on getting lots of new contacts, they might miss the real best leads. This could stop them from meeting other important targets.⁹ Focus on using clear criteria and values. This makes a lead scoring model that’s clear and easy to keep up.³

It’s key to have key team members from sales and marketing set the scoring system and rules. They should tweak these regularly.⁹ Make sure you know what to do with each lead at every stage. This goes from the first contact right up to when sales takes over.⁹

Working with clear criteria and values helps you make a lead scoring model that works well and is simple to understand.³

That’s it – we covered the main upsides of lead scoring and how to use it well. With lead scoring, I can focus on the most promising leads. This boosts sales productivity. It also helps get more from our marketing plans.¹ Automation tools like Toplyne free up my time to close more deals.¹⁰

So why delay? Start using lead scoring now and see your business take off. A good lead scoring system helps guess how much we’ll make. It also organises our sales process and uses our resources better.¹ By mixing details about potential customers and their behaviour, I can pick the best leads for our sales team to focus on first.¹ Keeping it simple and making sure sales and marketing work together is vital. Use clear, shared data for a lead scoring system that lasts.¹

Lead scoring does more than sort leads – it’s a deal between sales and marketing. It sets rules on what makes a good lead, how to follow up, and teamwork between departments.¹ Done right, I can make the most of our marketing and sales. This will help our business do really well.

1. https://www.oracle.com/uk/cx/marketing/what-is-lead-scoring/
2. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/lead-scoring
3. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-scoring-instructions
4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-scoring-what-why-matters-purpleplanet
5. https://www.dolead.com/growth-hub/lead-scoring-models-a-comprehensive-guide-to-boosting-sales
6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-insights/journeys/score-manage-leads
7. https://www.brevo.com/blog/lead-scoring-model/
8. https://leadsbridge.com/blog/lead-scoring-best-practices/
9. https://totalproductmarketing.com/blog/lead-scoring-best-practices/
10. https://www.cognism.com/blog/lead-scoring