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WHITEPAPER Forget the ABC's of Lead Scoring
Forget the ABC's of Lead
Scoring If your sales team loves your ABC lead-ranking system because it really works, good for them. However, if your Hot-Warm-Whatever system is leaving the sales team cold, there is a better way.
Lisa Cramer President LeadLife Solutions, Inc. lcramer@leadlife.com 770-670-6702
©2008 Copyright. LeadLife Solutions, Inc. www.leadlife.com 1 WHITEPAPER Forget the ABC's of Lead Scoring In the age of the Internet, lead scoring has become crucial for marketers. Leads must be scored and prioritized for appropriate action. Otherwise, you'll be wasting, time, effort and your budget.
Today, leads flow to Marketing from ever-increasing online sources-email campaigns, the company website, Google AdWords and Google searches, webinars, online advertising, blogs and virtual trade shows-as well as from traditional marketing activities such as print ads, direct mail, trade shows and networking.
The sheer volume of leads, or "suspects," can be overwhelming. How does Marketing prioritize all these suspects and determine which ones to:
. Send immediately to Sales
. Move to telemarketing for qualification and appointment setting
. Keep and nurture with e-newsletters, surveys and other marketing activities
. Set aside for another day
Automated lead scoring and prioritization is the key. Spreadsheets and calculators simply will not do given the volume of leads and the varying sources and interactions. Marketers simply do not have time to crunch numbers as well as craft innovative campaigns with compelling messages and eye-catching images.
A robust database and campaign management application helps Marketing score every interaction by every lead, online and offline, and prioritize leads automatically for appropriate next steps.
It's Prioritization, Not Categorization
It's important not to confuse lead prioritization with traditional lead categorization. Lead categorization-the classic A, B or C categories-is a system more associated with Sales than Marketing.
Typically, leads in a Sales funnel are categorized A, B or C. They are all deemed to be Sales-ready, but A's are more ready than B's, and B's more ready than C's, so Sales works them in that order. And Marketing refills the funnel. Lead categorization can be helpful, but traditionally, it's been prone to a "toss it over the fence and meet the lead quota" perception.
©2008 Copyright. LeadLife Solutions, Inc. www.leadlife.com 2 WHITEPAPER Forget the ABC's of Lead Scoring When Sales loses confidence in leads coming from Marketing, those leads get minimal attention, or they are ignored completely. That means Marketing wastes its time, effort and budget generating leads Sales does not pursue. Leads fall to the side, and some purchase products and service from competitors. That's not good for Sales or Marketing.
Scoring Guides Marketing Action
Lead prioritization is a different discipline than categorization, more attuned to Marketing action than Sales. It comprises a set of levels for suspects, leads and Sales-ready leads. Of course, the final action is moving a lead to Sales, a lead that has attained an appropriate score threshold. Your company's specific scoring scheme will vary depending on your needs and processes. A very basic scoring scheme might look like this:
LEAD PRIORITIZATION
LEAD SCORE PRIORITY LEVEL MARKETING OR SALES ACTION
20-40 Suspect Nurturing activities by Marketing
45-55 Possible Lead Move to Telemarketing for qualification
60-70 Warm Qualified Lead Send to Sales for timely action
75-100 Warmer Qualified Lead Send to Sales for immediate action
Of ... [download for more]
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