How To Implement an Effective Lead ?

In this article, I would like to focus on alignment and cooperation between Marketing and Sales, and the systems they share, such as a lead scoring system. How are decisions made in your company? Which lead can you forward to Sales? And at what stage of the buying decision?

Introduction to Lead Scoring

Of course, you can evaluate your prospects manually, which may even be useful with small numbers. But if your database has several thousands of contacts and leads, and you add new addresses on a weekly base, then it makes sense to automate this process according to predefined criteria. This improves your sales efficiency, especially because then the team only has to worry about those sales opportunities that have real potential. Marketing and Sales, however, have to define common rules and procedures because qualification and evaluation criteria vary from company to company and must be determined individually.

The most common two-dimensional lead scoring model maps both a lead’s profile information (explicit scoring) and his interest (implicit scoring).

A lead scoring system is also a prerequisite for good lead nurturing, because you base the individual prospective approach on the scoring values, which leads to utilising the different stages in the buying process.

When does it become necessary?

Six points that indicate that you should consider a lead scoring system:

• You have many questions in your system and you don’t know how to rank them
• Your sales processes are very complex, so you want to reduce the workload and increase efficiency
• You have a CRM system in use
• You have a Marketing Automation system in use
• Sales and Marketing are willing to cooperate
• You can count on experienced implementation support

If most of this applies to you, or you plan to implement lead scoring, here are the four most important rules.

• You must define cooperation between Marketing and Sales

• What is your ideal customer profile?
  • What is your target group?
  • What are the personas you turn to?
  • What content matches with what interests?
  • What content brings a lead what points?
  • What profile information is most relevant to your business?

• Criteria for explicit scoring

• Is a lead a manager and decision maker, a head of department or an employee?
  • Which industry sector does his company belong to?
  • What’s the size of the company?
  • What is the expected revenue potential?
  • And so on

• Criteria for implicit scoring

• Does he react to your emails?
  • Does he download your documents?
  • Does he take part in your webinars?
  • Does he visit your website on a regular basis?

You then assess and rank the various activities and content interactions by giving points. As an example you can give 5 points for visiting your website, 15 points for downloading a document and even 30 points for watching a video. In addition, you can rank the CEO of a company with an “A”, the department manager with a “B”, and so on. The explicit ranking of course depends on your ideal audience or persona.

If you combine these two dimensions, you get a lead score indicating both qualification level and interest level, which exactly indicates in what phase of a purchasing decision a lead finds itself. As an example, a D100 lead shows a lot of interest, but is not suitable due to its lower profile information. A lead ranked as B5 however would, based on his profile, certainly fit your ideal customer profile, but is nevertheless not interesting because he doesn’t seem to be interested in your offer.

After defining all processes and rules for implicit and explicit scoring, it is now important to decide together which leads at what stage of the buying process are managed by what team.

• Connect Marketing Automation and CRM systems

Because the combination of the two systems is a prerequisite for a well-functioning Lead Scoring system. It’s the only way to make sure that sales and marketing are working with the same information. The Marketing Automation platform “speaks” permanently to the CRM system and synchronizes all relevant information, especially the scoring values and of course the activities of the leads that were recorded.

Other things to consider:

• Implementation of a Lead Scoring process will not immediately show its effects. Only after a few months will you get measurable results because it takes time for a significant number of leads to obtain a score
• Lead Scoring is not like “Set it, and forget it.” You need to check or adjust your defined criteria and procedures regularly. Are the qualification criteria still relevant? Is your target audience still the same?
• Marketing Automation doesn’t just allow you to assess your leads, but also to measure success or actual status. How many A, B, C, or D leads do you have in your database? How effective is your scoring? This information is the basis for a reporting system that documents the effectiveness of your marketing activities.

Summary

Marketers see the benefits of developing and implementing a Lead Scoring system. You simply can’t afford to give each lead the same time and attention. Effective Lead Scoring includes ensuring Marketing and Sales cooperation, defining criteria for explicit and implicit scoring and connecting your Marketing Automation and CRM systems.