Doron Herzlich
Co-founder, CEO
Posted on: October 3, 2022
Have you ever asked yourself how can your business increase the value of lead scoring?
The key to answer this riddle is that your current data of HubSpot contacts can help you to build an efficient lead scoring model. Optimizing lead generation is not an easy task, but it is absolutely do-able and highly necessary for filling your sales pipeline.
A little bit about lead scoring systems
Since outbound is almost dead and inbound is very expensive, many companies are currently experiencing uncertainty and feel highly challenged when they come to achieving their inbound goals. Therefore, high scoring using business relationships can be used as one of the most productive and effective tactics to grow your sales pipeline.
Lead scoring is used for evaluating the likelihood that a prospect will become a warm lead, by estimating the readiness of leads to buy and turn into paying customers. Marketing and sales teams use scoring systems to identify which leads are the most valuable prospects and therefore, should be prioritized in the current sales funnel.
Marketing teams collect leads based on various lead scoring systems and different models that help convert leads into sales. Collecting data is crucial to enable you to determine which parameters will grant to certain kinds of prospects high lead scoring. One of the best tips for building an effective lead scoring model is simultaneously using marketing and sales efforts.
Why should lead scoring really matter to you?
Although you have already spent significant resources on purchasing new leads, generating leads using LinkedIn or cold calls will only provide you with leads that come with public information. Those leads are processed in your HubSpot CRM until they are either converted to customers, nurtured, or lost. The main obstacle while trying to maximize lead generation is that leads are processed with no previous data of any relationships in your corporate network.
For bridging this gap, sales intelligence platforms are able to gather relevant data about your targeted companies and their contact persons, from various public, private, corporate and business sources, to grow your pipeline by generating more high-quality leads.
A network of trusted referrals that gathers many relevant relationship data out of multiple information sources, will help finding various business relationships that can create sales opportunities and increase deal closings. The data that is gathered is used for increasing lead scoring of your HubSpot contacts.
Key elements for building effective scoring models
Lead scoring takes under consideration many characteristics that you define, based on criterias of data you choose and using predetermined methodology, in order to rank the sales-readiness of leads. Each one of them is assigned with different point values, to give to each selected criteria its weight in the total and final lead score. Each lead gets a final score that helps sales and marketing teams to determine what are the odds that this lead will be qualified.
Many of the common lead scoring parameters are used to determine general fit (including BANT elements (such as budget, authority, need, time, etc.); growth stage of companies, decision-makers, and more); interest level (highly influenced by the need for using this product/solution, mostly evaluated based on online audience behavior) (including checking if your business has additional leads from the same targeted company); measurement of prospects interactions and engagement with your digital content, to track your leads behavior.
Here some useful examples of data that can help you assign scoring, to determine the data points that you give to leads in each one of the criterias that you set in your lead scoring model:
- Direct relationships of AEs and contact persons;
- Relationships of AEs with decision-makers in the same departments as your leads;
- Data on recent funding rounds of a lead’s company which indicates readiness and ability to buy;
- Linkedin URL;
- Updated email address;
- Current position and title;
- Additional social data that is not in your CRM; and more.
In conclusion
Optimizing and monitoring the effectiveness of your lead scoring is crucial.
There are various types of lead scoring models, such as website data-based and demographic models, as well as combined ones (demographics and behavior, interest and fit, need and fit, etc.) and many more. They all are based on using the most accurate and relevant data to learn about leads. Collecting, organizing and updating your HubSpot leads database, using automated sales intelligence tools that can definitely help you with this, is a key element that will improve lead scoring.