Improve your Metrics with Lead Scoring
Updated: Oct 31, 2022
How to use Lead Scoring
How to use Lead Scoring to optimise results and get to a positive ROI?
This is a good question. The whole thing is not only to obtain leads, they also have to be of quality. This implies prospects who are both interested in your service and/or product and, icing on the cake, who are likely to become long-term customers.
From experience, you know that PPC campaigns do not guarantee the quality of leads. Nor are the affiliates' partnerships, which is often the source of conflicts between the different parties.
What if we looked deeper into Lead Scoring to improve our performances and to focus our sales efforts on real opportunities?
Lead Scoring, what is it?
Lead Scoring is a method for assigning points to your leads. The more points there are, the better the lead should perform and likely to convert to your service.
Different aspects help to establish the rating scale. Did the lead connect to your website, how many times, for how long?... Did he interact through the chat, request a quote or a demo? In short, has he shown a real interest in the type of services you offer, or is he just passive?
However, there’s a distinction between behavioural scoring and demographic scoring. The two won’t have the same impact depending on your business.
The demographic scoring - Is the lead corresponding to your target type?
In the context of B2B negotiation for example, are we talking about a decision-maker or not? Is the organisation corresponding to your sales objectives, in terms of budget, size, needs. Most of the time, the demographic scoring can be defined thanks to the forms you have asked the prospect to fill before they become proven leads.
The behavioural scoring - This one is essentially obtained through your prospect’s behaviour on your website. This scoring is “transparent”, but still, it is important. As soon as the prospect has filled the form, he will be identified and can be tracked during his interactions with your website. From an automation platform, you can define the typical actions that reveal interest in your product: request for a demo, download of documentation / white paper, access to the price page… His actions define whether the lead is worth being transferred in priority or not to the sales force.
Lead Maturity - Rating scale
To define the maturity of a lead, it is important to establish a rating scale. Not all prospect behaviours have the same value, nor do they define the same level of maturity.
In collaboration with your sales team, it is important to understand and to define what are the different steps that lead to the purchase action.
1 - Discovering a service
It is common for a prospect to discover his weak or pain points and/or the existence of a particular need through the different marketing funnels. Otherwise, he has identified a specific lack in his organisation, and will be looking for a solution, without really knowing which type of service to go to. This is the discovery stage.
He realises that a specific service can respond to an identified problem to which he needs a solution.
2 - Evaluation and comparison
The need has been defined, now the prospect is looking for the most appropriate solution. He is in the phase of precise research of information, in order to understand as best as possible what are the alternatives. He will try to train himself in the different methods, to better understand the advantages of each of them and to define the one that best suits his needs and internal resources, whether they are budgetary, technical or human.
3 - The purchase phase
At this stage, we are able to define that the prospect is very interested in the type of service we offer. This is a crucial step, because it involves the buying action, and also because it is very short. During this time, the potential buyer chooses his supplier and it is important to show him that your service is the most efficient and best suited to his particular needs.
We understand that each interaction with the prospect is a source of valuable information, which is why it is important to take care and to analyse all aspects. This rating scale will help you on several levels.
First, the scoring defines whether or not a lead is of quality and whether it is worth being sent first place to the sales force.
Then, depending on the different phases that we just saw, the sales team will be able to best adapt its discourse and its priority, and will be in a better position to negotiate a deal.
Performance improvement
Lead scoring can significantly improve the performances of your teams, on several levels.
Improved Marketing performance
Without going into the details of the marketing objectives, let’s agree that one of the important tasks of the marketing is to provide sales opportunities which have to be converted by the sales team. And this, within a defined budget.
The Lead scoring definition, prior to marketing campaigns, should make it possible to improve this objective.
Lead scoring is only possible if clear and defined tools have been put in place: a quality site with proper values / a message adapted to the target and the product / brochures, white paper… all compliant and understandable
Lead scoring monitoring displays an accurate result on the quality of the lead generation, allowing you to adjust the tools or communication channels if necessary
Lead performance allows to better calculate the CPA, in order to balance the ROI of your campaigns
And finally, if the lead scoring is not the guarantee of a high LTV, it greatly contributes to its performance since all the stages of acquisition have been well prepared, evaluated and analysed, resulting in a customer promise in adequacy with the final product.
Improved sales performance
According to a Gartner study* 70% of leads are dead ends and don’t get anywhere. Implying that only 30% of leads are likely to result in a negotiation.
Stil according to the same study, more than 60% of sales will tend to work on the basis of MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), based on the criteria that they had previously established with the marketing department. From these figures, we can assume that
Collaboration between sales and marketing is necessary and important to improve joint performance
The sales team is constantly looking for solutions to prioritise their focus on the leads that will transform the best
Considering these elements, the point scale provided by lead scoring appears to be a valuable tool for improving different criteria. It is an opportunity to create an effective collaboration between the different departments and define consistent KPIs for a performing expansion strategy.
In conclusion, lead scoring is an efficient way to:
Improve your internal performance tools and increase visibility on marketing
It’s a basis for effective collaboration between teams
It’s an effective and proven way to improve the quality of your leads and to ensure better conversion
In the end, there are more performing metrics, whether it is your ROI, KPIs or conversion rate
Finally, it is important to note that companies that have implemented a lead scoring system, have seen their overall turnover increase by 18%.
For more information on how to adapt and better consider your marketing strategy, contact us.