Every lead management strategy tackles lead scoring, like it or not. Thanks to the data and detail-oriented tracking involved, it sounds intimidating, but today, we’re showing you just how accessible and useful it really is.
Defined, lead scoring is gauging a prospect’s interest level by actions taken. The digital age has provided us with a wealth of insight into lead behavior, and not using it wastes a valuable pathway to increased revenue.
The first part of lead scoring matches a prospect to your ideal buyer profile based on fundamental facts, such as industry, company and job title. The second part – the part that helps propel sales – is measuring their level of interest. Track email clicks, product downloads, site visits and social interactions. When it comes to your website, no amount of information is too much. Your scoring system should tell you exactly what a prospect does on your site and what it means. Data analysis plays a heavy role in lead management, because taking a look at the hard facts – what links a particular prospect clicked in your e-newsletter, for example – will help convert them in the end.
With your product or service in mind, business rules should be developed to interpret lead scoring for your company. These rules distinguish what makes a high score and lead you to the most valuable prospects. If an executive from your industry spends time on your product pages or examines your case studies, for example, the score should rank much higher than a student reading your blog. If an attractive prospect’s behavior is showing red-hot levels of interest, sales knows it’s time to make a call.
Don’t worry, no one expects you to keep track of all this data by yourself. Marketing automation software and CRM tools do most of the work for you. You just have to meet them halfway – understand what data is there, and have a plan in place to help your company use it.
Your marketing and sales teams will be much more effective when they use lead scoring well – they’ll know exactly when to deliver educational content to one prospect, and when to make a direct sales call to another who actually wants to talk. Analyzing interest level behaviors is the best way to optimize your company’s time.
Image (via) Gerry Dincher
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