What Is Lead Scoring?

Marketo’s third installment of definitive guides is The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring. Over the course of the next few weeks we will be doing a series of posts on lead scoring. Not only will these posts introduce you to the concept of lead scoring but will also provide the top tips, techniques, tactics and case studies that will transform your practices.

So, what is lead scoring?

Lead scoring is a shared sales and marketing methodology for ranking leads in order to determine their sales-readiness. You score leads based on the interest they show in your business, their current place in the buying cycle and their fit in regards to your business.

Companies can score leads by assigning points, implementing rankings like A, B, C, D, or using terms like ‘hot’, ‘warm’ or ‘cold’. The key point is that marketing and sales increase their combined efficiency and productivity based on the clarity of a sales-ready lead.

Lead scoring helps companies know whether prospects need to be fast-tracked to sales or developed with lead nurturing. The best lead scoring systems use demographic and firmographic attributes, such as company size, industry, and job title; as well as behavioral scoring such as clicks, keywords, and web visits.

What lead scoring isn’t – pitfalls to avoid.

The goal of lead scoring is to identify which leads are ready to move to sales and which leads require further nurturing. No lead should be left behind.

Lead scoring is not:

• A stand-alone marketing process because sales’ input is essential to identify a “qualified” lead
• Cherry-picking hot leads while ignoring the rest of the database

To learn more, download the free guide to lead scoring today. For a quick overview of the basics, download the lead scoring cheat sheet.