Lead Scoring: How to Rank Leads With Simple Rules

Lead scoring is a way to rank your leads with points, so your team calls the best ones first. Give points for who the lead is and for what the lead does. Add them up. Call the people with the highest totals first. You can start with a spreadsheet and about ten rules.

1. What lead scoring is

   A lead is a person or company that has shown some interest in what you sell. Some leads are ready to talk. Many are not. Lead scoring gives each lead a number so you can tell them apart.

   HubSpot describes it as a way to prioritise the contacts and companies in your CRM. Scores assign values to leads so you can judge which ones are likely to become customers. The score is stored in a property, so you can use it in lists, workflows and reports.

   Marketo describes the same idea in one line: scoring people helps your sales team prioritise.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool; Adobe Marketo Engage Documentation, Change Score

2. The two kinds of points

   Most scoring systems use two kinds of points. HubSpot names them fit and engagement.

   Kind	What it measures	Examples
   Fit	Who the lead is	Job title, company size, annual revenue, industry
   Engagement	What the lead does	Visits your site, opens an email, clicks a link, fills out a form

   HubSpot also offers a combined score on its Enterprise plan. It looks at fit and engagement together. Other plans keep the two scores apart.

   Keep the two apart in your own sheet too. A lead can be a perfect fit and still be silent. Another can click everything and never be able to buy. Two numbers show you both cases.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool

3. A small points table you can copy

   This table is an example, not a standard. The numbers are ours, made up to show the shape. Change them to match your own sales.

   Rule	Type	Points
   Job title is owner, director or head of a team	Fit	+15
   Company has 10 to 200 staff	Fit	+10
   Located where you do not serve	Fit	-20
   Opened an email	Engagement	+2
   Clicked a link in an email	Engagement	+5
   Visited the pricing page	Engagement	+10
   Booked a meeting	Engagement	+25
   Unsubscribed from email	Engagement	-15

   Notice the weights. A booked meeting is worth far more than an email open. That is on purpose. Actions that sit close to a purchase should earn more points than actions that show only a little interest.

   Pick a line, such as 50 points, and call that a hot lead. Look at your last ten customers. Check what score they would have had. If most would have passed the line, it is a fair start.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool; Adobe Marketo Engage Documentation, Change Score

4. Negative points, caps and decay

   Good scoring also takes points away. HubSpot says you can add or subtract points for each rule. Its examples are a contact who engages with your content but unsubscribes, and a company that fits well but sits in a region you do not serve.

   It also lets you set limits. A score limit is the most points the whole score can reach. A group limit is the most points one group of rules can add. HubSpot gives this example: page visits sit in an awareness group with a small cap, while sales form fills and meetings sit in a group that can earn more. This stops a lead from reaching a high score just by opening many emails.

   Then there is decay. HubSpot can cut the value of an old action over time. In its example, a form fill worth 10 points drops to 5 points after one month, and to 0 a month later. Old clicks should not keep a lead at the top of the list.

   Marketo supports the same moves. Its Change Score step can add points with a plus sign, subtract with a minus sign, or set the score to an exact number.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool; Adobe Marketo Engage Documentation, Change Score

5. How to start without new software

   You do not need a new tool on day one. Marketo advises getting some basic scoring in place quickly and then tweaking the results over time. Here is a simple path.

   1. Write down five traits of your best past customers. These become your fit rules.
   2. Write down five actions those customers took before they bought. These become your engagement rules.
   3. Give each rule points. Use bigger numbers for actions close to a sale.
   4. Add two or three negative rules, for example wrong region or unsubscribed.
   5. Score your current leads in a spreadsheet and call the top group first.
   6. After a month, compare the scores to real sales. Change the points that did not predict well.

   If you already use HubSpot Professional or Enterprise, or Marketo, you can build the same rules inside the tool and let it keep the score for you. Check which plan includes scoring before you plan around it.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool; Adobe Marketo Engage Documentation, Change Score

6. Mistakes to avoid

   • Too many rules. Start small. Twenty rules nobody understands is worse than ten that everyone does.
   • No link to sales. If your sales team does not trust the score, it will not use it. Ask them which leads they liked and test the points against that.
   • Never reviewing. Markets and buyers change. Look at the rules every quarter.
   • Scoring only one kind of point. Mix fit points with engagement points, and give the most weight to strong actions such as a meeting request.

   Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool

7. Sources

   1. HubSpot Knowledge Base, Understand the lead scoring tool
   2. Adobe Marketo Engage Documentation, Change Score

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