By David Tomas, on 10 February 2020
Lead scoring is not a one-size-fits-all system: Each company has its own uniquely designed scoring strategy that fits to their particular objectives and targets. But even with the inherent individual nature of predictive lead scoring, it is beneficial to have a few examples in order to figure out how to best calculate a lead score.
Well, don't worry - you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. In this article, we have gathered 5 different examples of lead scoring models to help you strengthen your lead nurturing strategy. Let’s take a look!
What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring is the process of assigning a numerical value to each lead that you receive in order to asses how you should treat them. It is important to know how to calculate a lead score because not all leads are created equal. You would not treat someone at the top of the funnel with the same type of content and attention as someone at the bottom of the funnel.
A few lead scoring best practices include assessing how often a lead has interacted with your business, noting how many times they have visited your website, and evaluating how ready they are to receiving sales materials.
The following models serve as a good reference point to begin building your own lead scoring strategy.
5 Examples of Lead Scoring Models
1. Lead Pilot
Lead Pilot is an inbound marketing tool for financial advisors that has its own integrated lead scoring tool.
It works very simply: each lead is assigned a score between 1 to 100, and the score is changed and updated in real-time with each action they take. The higher the score, the more qualified the lead is.
The algorithm takes into account how the lead has interacted with content, actions they’ve taken on the website, the amount of time they’ve spent, and other factors. Lead Pilot uses artificial intelligence to quantify the leads, but users can also adjust the scores if needed.
For example, suppose you have a financial product website and a user takes the following actions:
- Downloaded an ebook and left their data: +5 points
- Searched within the website: +2 points
- Watched a webinar: +10 points
- Opened an email: +3 points
- Visited the prices page on the website: +20 points
In this case, the lead would have a total score of 40 points.
2. Juan Merodio
Merodio’s lead scoring matrix is based on two different scores: the PAIN score and the FIT score.
The PAIN score represents the intensity of the problem that the client is facing (pain point). You can assign a score from 0 (the lead does not have a problem) to 10 (the problem is very pressing for the lead and he needs a solution soon).
The FIT score represents how close the user is to your company’s buyer persona or ideal client. For example, if the lead has the economic and material resources to hire your solution and apply it effectively.
The final lead score should be a sum of the PAIN score and FIT score combined.
Using the assigned score, Merodio categorizes the lead into different groups (cold, warm, hot) or if they are ready for more marketing (MQL) or sales activity (SQL).
3. Cyberclick
At Cyberclick we have designed our own lead scoring matrix based on two parameters:
- The demographic profile of the lead, obtained from the data the lead has left through a download form or other area. We then classify the lead into different categories: stranger (we don’t have enough data), unsuitable, suitable, and highly suitable.
- The behavior of the lead, including the interactions they had with our website and our content. A lead can be considered inactive, less active, active, or very active.
If we cross the two parameters together, we can have up to 16 different possible lead combinations. We then assign different “temperatures” to each category to get a better idea of how to handle each case:
- Cold Leads: We don’t know much information about them or they are inactive
- Warm Leads: They are more active and fit than cold leads, but they are not yet at the optimal combination of both parameters.
- Hot Leads: These leads are both very fit and very active. These leads are the ones we are most interested in and who we should be acting on.
4. Silverpop
Sliverpop’s system is similar to what we use above, featuring a template with 16 different possible combinations of interest and suitability. The difference is that their final classification system have four categories, from lowest to highest temperatures.
- Dead Leads: Those who have little interest and do not need attention
- Marketing Qualified Leads
- Leads Qualified for Demand Generation Actions
- Sales Qualified Leads
5. Business2Community
Business2Community has a very simple example of lead scoring for B2B businesses. The matrix is based on the answers that the users give for 4 questions: job position, department, company size, and type of company. With each answer, you can assign 4 possible scores:
- Best answer: Maximum points
- 2nd Best Answer: 2nd Level of Points
- 3rd Best Answer: 3rd Level of Points
- Negative Answer: Negative points
Once you’ve assigned the points, you only have to combine the different factors to obtain the final score for each lead. For example, following the above table, a Director of Human Resources of an NGO with 600 workers would receive 23 points (8 + 15 + 5 - 5).
I hope these 5 examples of lead scoring models can help you build your own lead scoring best practices and achieve new levels in your sales goals.
