Lead scoring does not have to be complicated!

PART 2

Lead scoring does not have to be complicated:

As previously discussed lead scoring should be the Holy Grail for sales people!  Lead scoring is when sales and marketing defining what a ‘sales ready’ lead is and the lead being handed to Sales on a plate with key information about that prospect’s behaviour. 

Scoring can range from 1-20 dependent on the actions of the lead, and should be enough to give your sales rep a good idea of what their leads have been doing. Once the lead builds up their score they pass through thresholds taking them from a cold lead, to a medium lead and eventually a hot lead – effectively the lead is moving from an MQL to an SQL. As an MQL, nurturing campaigns encourage the prospect along the sales cycle by offering tailored information in the hope of resonating with the individual.  A prospect enjoys being sold to when it is relevant to them! 

When the Lead hits the Hot Lead threshold this is when it’s time for your sales team to pick up the phone!  Research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first and lead scoring can help you become a front runner.  Alerting your sales team when prospects reach a certain score will mean your organisation really can be in the right place, at the right time talking about the right product!

Here are some top tips to help with your Lead Scoring:

1 – Keep it Simple

People can get very carried away with lead scoring, but the scoring really needs to focus on the main calls to action that will help increase your sales team’s productivity.

2 – Understand your Leads

Who are you targeting?  Which decision makers do you want to chat to? For example if you are an IT company you would want your sales team talking to IT Directors as these people have the best profile for making IT purchases. You can then assign points based on the leads job title and this will give all the IT Directors a head start on the rest of your database.

3 – Automate your Marketing

Once leads are qualified and start to move up through your lead scoring you want your sales reps to know that their leads are active. When leads hit scoring thresholds, alerts can be sent to sales reps and the lead can be added to a specific nurture campaign or added to a specific data list. The email alerts will be sent straight to the sales rep who can then follow up immediately. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at a 33% lower cost.

4 – Cold today but Hot tomorrow

Not all leads will be active immediately. 79% of marketing leads do not convert into sales. Lack of lead follow up is the common cause of this poor performance. Most leads will need to be nurtured as they will not be ‘ready to buy’ immediately. Their lead score may be low and their activity limited to a few opens and clicks in emails, but instead of ignoring or disqualifying these leads - they need to be monitored. Never jump the gun by dismissing low scoring leads. Follow up marketing will keep the lead interested until you can hit the right note with them, or when they are ready to engage with you - alerts will be sent to your sales reps.

Enjoy setting up your lead scoring but remember you need sales and marketing input and expect to make some changes so that it can become automated.  Invest time now and reap the rewards soon!  And remember why you are doing this - a good lead scoring strategy will increase conversion rates!

 

References –

www.salesforce.com

www.b2bmarketingzone.com

Lead Scoring - Is it Worth it?

Is Lead Scoring worth the effort??

I have worked with a number of companies; from those who have an abundance of leads who wade through lead after lead to find the cream, to other companies that are scrapping away to get their hands on any lead!  Each company differs with their approach in handling leads i.e.  Do your sales team generate their own leads, do you buy them in or do you have dedicated internal sales team?  Given that there are so many options when dealing with lead gen, the golden question is how to make the most from your leads without burning them?

Ultimately leads come in a variety of forms and just a small increase in lead quality can result in a huge increase in sales productivity.  These changes are what I’ve found salespeople spending hours and hours looking for by hoping their leads will tell them something!  The beauty of using lead scoring is this information is provided to your sales team on a plate!  They can then focus their time on converting these high quality leads into revenue.

But what is Lead Scoring?

Lead scoring is the process of ascribing a value (points) to the behaviour of your prospects.  This behaviour may be website activity, demographic profiling, email campaign interaction or a form completion and a volunteering of their information.  Different businesses will assign different values to these actions depending on the importance of one or more of the above actions.  The joy of lead scoring is that it is tailored to your business.  This sounds simple enough but many organisations just want to know what others have done and replicate that…you can’t!  For lead scoring to work for your products and your sales team you need to consult with those involved.  Assigning scores to leads moves your leads from being Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) therefore communication between these departments is vital.  History will show there has been friction between these departments with marketing throwing quantities of unqualified leads at sales and sales wasting potential leads looking for the ‘quality’!  Lead scoring can solve this!  But first you need to find out what the ideal lead looks like from both a sales and marketing perspective and define these boundaries.  The scoring profiles will evolve and next generation marketing requires flexibility, adaptability and quick changes – adopt this philosophy and you’ll see your business grow.   

Lead scoring doesn’t have to be complicated and next time some tips coming your way…

References –

www.salesforce.com