Who Should Develop Your Lead Scoring Matrix?

Is your lead scoring matrix for your lead management system built solely by the marketing department? Is your sales department responsible for providing the parameters that will be used in your lead scoring model? Who should be included when your company is developing a lead scoring matrix? Industry leaders will tell you: the best way to develop accurate criteria for a lead scoring matrix is to bring sales and marketing teams together.

Lead intelligence doesn’t reside in a bubble – there are online actions and offline engagements that contribute to a lead’s overall profile. Each department contributes intelligence to the revenue generation cycle, and revenue generation is more effective when the two departments are connected. By operating independently, each team is relying on lesser intelligence. By including both departments, customer intelligence is combined with lead intelligence to form a holistic approach to lead scoring.

Therefore, both marketing and sales should be involved in developing a lead scoring matrix.

Gathering input from both departments is often done best by meeting with both sides together. Requirements for the scoring matrix can be gathered independently, but the number and depth of contributions is enhanced through discussion with each other.

Sales managers can explain, for example, what type of research customers use to learn about a product, based on feedback gathered during  sales engagements. This can be important in applying weights to certain marketing activities. For example, if a sales agent learns from a prospect that watching product videos is a primary research tool in his position, that information can be applied to a scoring matrix by giving video views a relatively high score compared to other online behaviors for that position.

Sales agents can provide insight as to the level of product intelligence a lead should possess in order to be considered a high priority lead. The more time a prospect spends engaged in marketing engagements, the more likely she will be interested in speaking with a sales agent, which can affect the close ratio. This can translate to greater weight being placed on the score associated with total number of activities a lead engages in.

The marketing department can explain how certain behavioral characteristics can reveal the quality of a lead. For example, a lead that maintains a sustained but sporadic relationship throughout marketing engagements can indicate an indecisive prospect with a longer buying cycle. This type of information can help determine how recency should be weighed within the scoring matrix.

Marketing can also provide input about how certain marketing responses should affect a lead’s score. For instance, a lead captured through a Facebook “like” indicates that the prospect enjoys sharing his opinion through social networking, which can translate to a higher quality lead because the prospect could become a brand advocate.

Both sales and marketing have monthly goals to hit. So it’s critical to gather input from both departments while developing a lead scoring matrix. After all, the goal is increasing lead flow and improving conversions, right?