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Lead Scoring vs. Lead Grading

January 24, 2013/0 Comments/in Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Within the B2B marketing niche, the term “lead score” often refers to the quantification of the behaviors and attributes of a marketing lead. But a lead’s score is typically just one component in a lead qualification matrix. A lead’s total rating (hot, warm or cold) is actually a combination of a lead grade and a lead score. In this post we will compare lead scoring vs. lead grading to help you understand the differences.

Lead Grade

Marketing leads are graded in most scoring models according to attributes which define the individual and associated business that has responded to a marketing contact. For example, company size – as measured by number of employees – is used to rank the lead’s physical presence within its industry. Grades for attributes are used to determine the lead’s fit within an optimal lead profile. The ranking system used by many automated marketing programs assigns letters such as A, B, C, etc. to leads, usually giving an A for the highest grade attainable.

Lead qualification matrices typically calculate an average of several attribute grades into a composite grade for a sales opportunity. Categories such as location, revenues, title and industry are often included in the calculation. It’s important to keep in mind that a lead can achieve a high grade but a low score due to low level of interest, as measured by its marketing engagement activities.

Lead Score

Marketing leads are scored according to specific activities that indicate interest in a certain solution. Scoring values are typically represented by numbers. Many lead scoring matrices calculate the average score for all activities, which can then be used to determine if the interest level meets the minimum ranking needed to pursue a prospect.

The lead scoring matrix should include both the type of interest and activity level exhibited by your prospect. Examples of scoring criteria include:

Interest Type

Product Demo Request
Video View
White Paper Download
Email Click-through

Activity Level

Number of Web Page Views
Duration of Webinar Attendance
Number of Emails Opened

Bear in mind that a level of interest in one solution may not translate to interest in other solutions offered by your company. To determine whether a lead would make a good cross-sell or up-sell customer may require a sales engagement or a separate marketing campaign.

Applying Weight and Default Values

Within a lead qualification matrix, some behaviors and attributes are weighted to account for the importance of certain factors. For instance, a prospect’s title may be weighted more heavily than company size. The weight for a certain behavior or attribute is typically represented by multiplying a grade or score by a factor of two through five.

Marketing automation users can assign default values that may differ from company to company. Determining appropriate default values for lead grading and lead scoring is a matter of preference. One company may use a default score of 10 for opening a marketing email, whereas another company may use a default score of 25. The key is to be consistent in assigning default values across all marketing campaigns.

Developing Behavioral and Demographic Lead Scoring (Part 2)

January 23, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

In a recent blog titled Developing Behavioral and Demographic Lead Scoring (Part 1) we talked about using behaviors to help score/qualify leads. In this blog post we’ll look at the other contributing factor to lead qualification, demographic lead scoring.

Demographic Lead Scoring

A demographic lead score is used to identify if a lead has the same characteristics as a typical customer. Using data collected in registration forms and surveys, it compares the leads likelihood to purchase against pre-determined criteria that defines the company’s existing customer base.

The following are common examples of demographic-based lead scoring:

Company name
Annual revenue of the visitor’s company
Industry of the visitor’s company
Address, city, and state or business
Available budget for your product or service
First name and last name of potential buyer
Address, city, and state
Job title
Purchasing authority
Years of experience with the company

It makes sense that not everyone or every business has the need and the budget to purchase a particular product or service. Leads could be displaying behavioral characteristics for a variety of reasons that won’t necessary result in a sale. For example, a student could be researching a product or service for a school assignment. They may download numerous reports and heavily frequent a good resource website, but that doesn’t mean they have any chance of being converted into a customer.

Combining a lead’s behavioral and demographic information gives the marketing department a clear picture of each individual lead’s attributes, as well as the potential of them becoming a sale. Once a lead can be accurately depicted, marketing can then prioritize which leads are ready to be passed on to the sales team, which leads are not worth pursuing, and which leads need further nurturing.

An alternative approach to demographic lead scoring is lead grading, also supported by Lead Liaison. Instead of a point system Lead Grading uses a letter/grade system from A through F based on how well the prospect fits your company’s ideal buyer persona.

Developing Behavioral and Demographic Lead Scoring (Part 1)

January 22, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

This is part 1 of a 2 part series on developing behavioral and demographic lead scoring. Lead scoring criteria can be categorized into two distinct types; behavioral and demographics. Every successful lead scoring campaign needs to weigh both sides of their lead’s profile to determine their individual potential for conversion. A lead could have all of the demographic characteristics of an ideal customer, but lack behavioral indicators that usually result in a sale. The same could be said for a lead that shows a genuine interest in a product or service, but doesn’t have the budget or authority to commit to a purchase. That is why both are necessary for effective lead scoring.

Developing Behavioral and Demographic Lead Scoring – Starting with Behavioral Lead Scoring

A behavioral lead score is when the lead is actively pursuing their purchase and researching their options. The more time a lead invests in researching a product or service, the higher the score for that particular activity. The following are common examples of behavioral-based lead scoring:

Used specific keywords in a search engine to find your site
Participated in a website or phone chat
Opened an email message about a certain product or service
Completed online company survey
Read press releases
Clicked on multiple pages during a single visit
Visited a specific page multiple times
Visited your website on more than one occasion
Downloaded relevant ebooks, tutorials, or articles
Participated in free trials
Attended relevant trade shows
Viewed or shared videos from your website
Stayed on your website for a lengthy period of time

Based on the list given above, characteristics that require significant time and energy like “participating in a website or phone chat,” would describe someone who has demonstrated a greater interest than someone who has “used specific keywords in a search engine to find your site.” Each example needs to be ranked based on its relevance to a product or service, as well as the likelihood that the specific behavioral quality is a known indicator that the lead is ready to be converted into a sale.

Consistently Improve Your B2B Lead Scoring Models

January 21, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Salesmen find implicit data most viable when assigning new values after successful B2B lead scoring campaigns have commenced while marketing professionals remodeling new campaigns would find explicit information more plausible, especially when leads which previously were unsuccessfully nurtured need shifted towards different niche markets. Whichever angle your current goals reside, consistent improvements to B2B lead score models should be wholly approached instead of individually planned. A new business quarter is upon us, thereby providing the new window of opportunity necessary in getting B2B lead scoring perpetuated early. Here’re several benefits of scoring early, and often.

New Year, New Information

Marketing competition, often seen as the ‘Scaramouche’ of social businesses, heightens when new quarters, and years, commence. Previous years’ global data is available, various demographical trends change and economically induced changes in B2B buying shifts along with newly discovered data sets Properly vetting your competition, scrubbing your own database and reiterating your B2B lead scoring plans before everyone jumps ahead of your makes the ensuing blogging ‘balderdash’ much easier to deal with. Why bother discussing marketing blogs during lead scores? Quite simply, there’re surpluses of B2B information available which assist various departments in quantifying, and qualifying, their leads just off information found in blogs B2B customers actively engage in.

Scoring Models Will Change

Segmented leads from previous years’ campaigns will inevitably change, along with models used to determine sales readiness. Because of inevitable changes forthcoming to marketing plans, B2B lead scoring models used to grade, file and seal various leads during stages of nurturing will need fed through new funnels for proper segmentation based off newly discovered information about business buyers. Keeping current databases refreshed when year-end data becomes prevalent will allow for future scoring models to be introduced much more seamlessly while allowing new information to be found much easier.

Businesses May Lose Interest

Since we’ve recently found our government passing tax reform which affects business decision makers known to marketing professionals as ‘B2B leads’. Many individuals will make their buying decisions earlier than normal so as to avert the potential fiscal cliffs expected to fall throughout January and February. Collection of newly available information, scoring B2B leads while funneling them quickly through sales channels before others jump ahead will assure your business will receive their cut of the cake, per se, when B2B lead scoring results are expected to be higher than years previous.

Quickly Improve Your Modeling

As we’ve said, 2013 will be B2B lead ‘make or break’ for numerous smaller companies wishing to avoid undue hardship by nurturing B2B customers towards purchasing appeasement. Therefore, revamping B2B lead scoring models previously used while comparing potentially better models for this new year of deeper economic uncertainty would make your campaigns potentially more fruitful than without planning newer initiatives.

Since many individuals reading this piece have some familiarity with lead scoring on B2B level, keep moving your leads from one funnel to another, always refresh information when made available while never forgetting information from previous years will help reassess your current database for plausibility purposes. 2013 could make or break B2B lead scoring models – make sure your current schema doesn’t falter.

How Customer Engagement Data Can Fuel Lead Scoring

January 18, 2013/0 Comments/in Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Lead scoring is a systematic, data-based approach to understanding where a lead is at in their buying process. This is done so marketers will have a great knowledge of how to nurture a lead with the right content until they are ready to commit to a purchase. Once the lead is ready to make a decision, marketing can give the lead and their scoring profile to the sales department to complete the process. Learn how customer data can fuel lead scoring.

The key is engaging the customer in order to extract useful information for scoring. The concept of lead scoring is simple enough, but the practicality of implementing it can be complicated and overwhelming without the necessary technology and engagement tactics to support it. Every lead leaves a trail of information about their buying process on the internet, but without marketing automation and customer engagement it is nearly impossible to absorb all the demographic and behavioral characteristics that describe the potential consumer’s thought process.

One popular approach to use is interactive multimedia to connect with the lead. It engages prospects on a more personal level and it is an extended experience that captures incremental information. This priceless information is necessary to build a more detailed customer profile for lead scoring. Marketing automation enables you to collect data at multiple points throughout the experience, including interactive and passive responses.

It is also possible to collect user-supplied demographic information such as job function, buying authority, budget, or purchasing influences through registration forms, but you can go beyond that by utilizing interactive polling, Q & A and click data. This information is a vital part of the registrant’s profile which can be scored to assess their readiness to make a purchase.

Customer engagement data is easier to collect when a lead has willingly interacted with either the main website or various social networking platforms for a given business. The key is giving them a reason to participate. Ask questions that will spark responses or make potential customers offers that will inspire them to get involved with a specific business.

Another technique is providing them with helpful and relevant content that needs to be downloaded. If a customer has taken the time to download an article or tutorial, it is a good sign they are sincerely interested in a product or service. They feel appreciation for the business that provided them with free information and at the same time, it gives the company promoting the content a better look into their lead’s buying process.

The goal of engagement marketing is to create relationships that are beneficial to both the customer and business that is promoting it. By giving potential leads the chance to interact, it will help build brand loyalty and provide a business with valuable customer engagement data for lead scoring. Strong content and perceived leadership aligned with the willingness to listen can also strengthen a company’s credibility. The more a company can engage a lead prior to their purchase, the more likely they will become a loyal customer for years to come.

Five Steps to Creating an Effective Customer Profile for Lead Scoring

January 17, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Lead scoring can save a company significant time and money if scoring is done based on an accurate and effective customer profile. The first step in every lead scoring initiative is to create a profile that captures your ideal lead. This is the benchmark all future leads will be ranked against.

These are six simple steps to creating an effective customer profile for lead scoring:

1. Create a detailed description of existing customers

Hopefully there is already a detailed account of your existing customer’s characteristics, but if not there should be. Describe their demographics, personality, and behavior as it relates to your products or services.

2. Locate your customers online

This is where you analyze exactly which websites and pages customers have visited in search of information about your business, product, or services. Determine the kinds of searches (keywords and keyword phrases) they are using, as well as what types of articles they are reading to gain further insight into their purchases.

3. Define their purchasing process

There is a different purchasing process for every product or service. Expensive or complicated purchases usually involve significantly more research, quotes, and time before a commitment is made. Put yourself in the shoes of a typical buyer who is in need of your product or service. Record the steps they would take before you feel confident in making an informed decision. These steps would all be considered strong criteria for an effective customer profile.

4. Survey current customers

Existing customers are invaluable resources. There is a specific reason why they chose to deal with a particular business and it is important to understand the thought process that brought them to that point. Ask current customers why they first bought and why they continue to buy.

5. Develop a customer profile and corresponding criteria

Using the information gathered in step 1-4 to create a list of the characteristics that make up an ideal customer. What is the demographic background of a typical customer, what steps did they first take in their buying process, and what inspired them to make a purchase. Include everything that could possible impact their decision.

6. Rank each criteria based on relevance

Some factors in the customer profile will have more weight than others. If a potential lead has downloaded a relevant tutorial on a product or service, it will have more significance then just clicking on the home page. A lead who attends a local event in person would most likely have a higher ranking than both of the previous criteria. Ranking should be aimed at discovering which leads have invested the most time and effort into researching a product or service.

Contact Lead Liaison to learn more about our unparalleled lead qualification capabilities including lead scoring, lead grading, a hot lead dashboard – called Briefcase, and more!

An effective customer profile is the basis for reliable lead scoring. By following the six steps outlined in this article, the end result should be an accurate and detailed description that captures your ideal lead. That priceless information can help the marketing team develop more personalize content, prioritize leads for the sales department, and nurture a stronger relationships with new customers.

Lead Scoring Attributes: Hidden Information That May Not be Included

January 16, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

When you use a lead ranking system like the one in our Lead Management Automation™ platform, you’ll find that leads are prioritized according to fit and behavior. Lead scoring combines a grade for explicit attributes, which indicates fit, with a score for implicit attributes, which indicates an interest level. While implicit attributes measure digital body language, such as website visits or email click-throughs, explicit attributes rank how well a prospect meets an optimal lead profile.

Grading leads according to fit seems straightforward; each grading category will include easily definable attributes which help determine a good or poor fit. Scoring leads according to interest may also seem simple enough; online body language can be easily captured to show whether there is enough interest to justify pursuit. However, there are usually non-apparent factors which may not show up in a “standard” lead scoring matrix. Here are a few examples of critical information that may not be reflected in a standardized lead scoring matrix, these lead scoring attributes should be included.

Revenues

Annual revenue figures can be easily defined and included in a lead form, but the figures may be misleading. A company representative may either not have that information or be reluctant to select a revenue amount when filling out a form. Usually providing a set of amount ranges to choose from may be effective. For example, $0 to $500K, $500K to $1MM, etc. may be appropriate.

Also, current revenue figures don’t reflect future earnings. A lead that earned $750K last year may not rank highly in your matrix, but if revenues rise to $1MM, its rank may rise accordingly. In this case, it’s important to avoid discarding a lead because of its low current revenues grade. (It may be effective to include a revenue projection category in your lead form.)

Number of employees

Company size is an important determinant to a lead’s fit. But employee numbers only tell a part of the story. The number of employees, like revenue figures, is a dynamic characteristic. For instance, the company may have just completed a downsizing or may have merged with another company. These actions won’t be easily captured in a lead form.

Another factor that isn’t usually reflected in a lead scoring matrix is: what are the possibilities for growth for a lead? Certainly, if a lead employs 500 workers then it may qualify for a high score in your matrix, but where will that lead be in a year or two? Is the industry growing? Are there more competitors entering the space? While it should be easy to collect and score the current company size, potential growth may be a more subjective score to determine.

Website product pages visited

Many lead scoring matrices include negative scores which decrements a lead’s overall rank. One scoring example would be a lack of page views about products. It may be difficult to capture through a standard lead form why a prospect visited your site but viewed no product pages. The reason could be due to a lack of need or incorrect timing. If a contact has only visited certain pages, such as investor relations, careers or about us, the reason for the site visit may not be a product purchase. Some visits to management pages may be part of a company review in anticipation of a purchase; however, visits to those pages should accompany product views if a lead is to be scored high.

For more thoughts on effective lead scoring, connect with our revenue generation blog regularly and learn how Lead Liaison can drive revenue through marketing automation.

Why Businesses Need Lead Grading and Lead Scoring

January 15, 2013/0 Comments/in Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Every lead that comes in contact with a given website has the potential to be converted into a sale at some point or another. In fact, 98% of all website visitors never submit a form, which means they could go completely undetected. That is why marketing automation has become so vital to the success of modern marketing campaigns. Marketing automation captures these potential leads for further marketing and nurturing that is more customized to the individual lead. Let’s have a look at why businesses need lead grading and lead scoring.

Marketing Automation Needs to Prioritize Leads

Lead grading and lead scoring are vital to any marketing organization. Marketing automation brings in an abundance of leads, however, today’s marketing departments still need to solve the problem of determining a lead’s potential and how long it will take before a lead is ready for sales. The sales department does not have time to pursue every individual who comes in contact with a related website. Lead grading and lead scoring prioritize each lead making the entire process more efficient. It also assists the marketing department in making their content more relevant to each unique lead. That is exactly why businesses need lead grading and lead scoring.

Lead Scoring

Scoring specifically refers to the interest level of the individual lead. A lead score may be calculated based on a number of parameters such as email clicks, web form submissions, number of visits, page views, clicks on links, and file downloads. The more someone clicks on your emails and visits your site, the more interested they probably are in your products or services. Unfortunately their level of interest doesn’t always mean they are a good fit for your business. That is where grading becomes necessary.

Lead Grading

Grades are based on explicit factors such as industry, company size, budget, or job title. Where lead scoring dives into their behavior and interests, grading explores a prospect’s demographic profile. Leads are ranked based on how close the prospect is to a predetermined ideal customer profile. Matching demographics is not a guarantee for sales, but it does improve the likelihood.

The Need for Both

Judging a lead based only on their demographic profile won’t work well on its own, since it doesn’t indicate their interest in a product or service. That is why it takes a combination of both to generate more sales-ready leads. Lead score must access their behavioral attributes based on their activity, while lead grading cross-references their potential compared to predetermined demographic characteristics.

Lead grading and scoring work together to give you an in depth look into a prospect’s likelihood of becoming a sale. This powerful combination is the most effective way to qualify and prioritize leads for marketing automation. Once leads have been graded and scored, the chance of conversion will be significantly higher.

Lead Liaison is one of the few companies in the industry that provides a professional and easy to use implementation of both lead grading and lead scoring. Let us know if you’d like to learn more!

How Lead Scoring Makes Your Sales and Marketing Department More Efficient

January 14, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Learn how lead scoring makes your sales and marketing department more efficient. Marketing automation has quickly became the hottest trend in B2B sales and marketing due to its ability to produce high quality leads that generate revenue while saving valuable resources like money, time, and energy. Lead scoring is an essential component of the marketing automation process. As leads are gathered and nurtured, lead scoring assesses their potential for conversion using pre-established criteria.

Lead scoring qualifies and quantifies a lead’s individual likelihood of purchasing based on their online profile. Every lead leaves a trail of evidence or insight into their character that can be beneficial to your sales and marketing team. It evaluates and prioritizes leads based on pre-determined demographic and behavioral factors that are unique to purchasing certain products or services. By profile unique to your target customers and then ranking new leads against it, marketing can determine how well each lead matches to the ideal customer profile.

Once leads are ranked, marketing will only passes on sales-ready leads for the sales team to pursue further. This way the sales department is only contacting potential consumers who are seriously interested in making a purchase. That is probably the most obvious way it will make your sales and marketing department more efficient, but it is not the only benefit.

Lead scoring quantifies each lead, plus it acts as an effective barometer to quantify current lead generation methods. For example, if your lead generation method is consistently generating low quality leads that are not ready, then you may be you are focusing on the wrong market segment. It could be that the marketing message that is being sent out is not in line with the products or services that are being offered. It also could be targeting buyers who are still in the initial stages of research. Regardless of the reason, a constant generation of low quality leads is a sign that the lead generation method and overall marketing strategy needs to be reviewed and revamped.

Lead scoring improves efficiency by providing the marketing automation department with a reliable and powerful source of feedback. By giving clear, concise and measurable information, such as what stage the current lead is at, or what are the chances this lead is ready to be converted into a customer, or even what methods of interaction that have been successful so far, lead scoring can be used to enhance lead nurturing efforts and further engage the potential consumer with additional relevant content.

Also, lead scoring works well because it brings in more loyal customers. Customers obtain during the marketing automation process are obtain by developing a strong and meaningful relationship. Leads that convert will feel a connection with the company based on appreciation for educational or helpful content. This increased loyalty will save your marketing department the time and expense of securing new customers when others fail to come back.

Marketing automation is designed by nature to improve inefficiencies and lead scoring is vital in that process. Generating sales-ready leads, evaluating current lead generation methods, providing useful information for lead nurturing, and developing more loyal consumers are all ways that lead nurturing can improve the efficiency of your sales and marketing department.

Building Your Lead Scoring Matrix: What to Include

January 10, 2013/0 Comments/in Best Practices, Lead Scoring, Revenue Generation Blog/by Lead Liaison

Include key items when building your lead scoring matrix. Before you can determine a lead score for a marketing contact, it is important to determine the criteria that will be used to calculate that score. A typical lead scoring matrix will rank leads according to explicit (demographic) and implicit (activity) criteria. Explicit scoring criteria define who has been contacted and provide fundamental data that reveals whether the contact is relevant to your business. In many lead scoring programs, explicit criteria is assigned a grade, such as A, B, C, etc. Types of demographic grading criteria should include:

Company Name
Location
Revenue
Industry
Title
Number of Employees
Products Purchased
Competitors
Relationship
Lead Source
Partners
Timeframe
Environment Technologies (CRM, ERP, etc)
Email Type (personal, professional)

Implicit criteria are used to score activities which a lead has performed that are relevant to your business. Most lead scoring programs will assign points for implicit criteria, such as 0-10 points. A lead scoring matrix should include:

Website traffic – Frequency of website visits, which pages have been viewed, and the duration of each visit/view.
Phone calls – Number of phone contacts with representatives and duration of conversations.
Press release views – Number of views, article type, and article sharing activity.
Books/eBooks requests – Publications viewed, ordered or downloaded.
Content requests – White papers, infographics or product manuals viewed or downloaded.
Content subscriptions – Requests for newsletters, updates, news or other ongoing content.
Video views – Viewing frequency, video tag searches, and duration of viewing.
Webinars attended – Number of webinars attended, duration of attendance, and most recent event attended.

Negative criteria should also be included. Typically, decremented scoring adjusts a lead’s rating for factors that make a lead less desirable, such as a lack of response to marketing messages. Negative scoring criteria include:

Unsubscribing from an email list
Lack of website product pages visited
Request to be added to Do Not Contact list
Inactivity period

There are many other factors that can be included in a scoring matrix. One model may not fit all companies, but it is important to include essential scoring criteria that can clearly differentiate a hot lead from a cold one. To learn how our lead scoring software can help prioritize your leads, contact Lead Liaison for more information.