If you’re looking for a lead scoring template, look no further! This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a lead scoring template in just 5 steps.
I remember when I was first starting in sales and marketing, one of the things that I struggled with the most was creating an effective lead scoring system. It felt like every time I tried to create one, it would either be too complicated or wouldn’t work at all.
Thankfully, there are now templates that can help take the guesswork out of creating a lead scorecard. In this blog post, I’ll share with you my top tips on how to create a lead scoring template that actually works.
What is a Lead Scoring Template?
A lead scoring template is a tool used by sales and marketing teams to rate and rank leads according to their potential value to the company.
The template typically includes a scoring scale that assigns points to different criteria, such as the lead’s job title, industry, or company size.
Leads are then given a total score, which is used to determine whether or not they should be pursued.
How to Create the Perfect Lead Scoring Matrix for Your Business
Did you know that 61% of marketing professionals cite lead generation as their top challenge?
To create an effective lead scoring system, you need to identify what stages your prospect is in. That way, you can reach out to them at the right time when they’re most likely to convert.
Lead scoring is a way for businesses to measure how interested a potential customer is in what they have to offer. By assigning a score to each lead, businesses can prioritize which leads are more likely to convert into customers and direct their sales and marketing efforts accordingly.
Lead scoring is a way to prioritize leads in your sales pipeline. By assigning a score to each lead, you can determine which leads are most likely to convert into customers. This allows you to focus your sales efforts on the most responsive leads.
The scoring systems used by different industries and companies vary, but they all follow a common structure.
The framework for this tactic usually includes:
- Professional data provided by the lead.
- CRM systems automatically fill in the blanks with information from the web about the lead.
- How the lead behaves on your website, emails, advertisements, and other digital properties.
- Qualifying engagement notes.
Why You Should Care About Your Lead Score Matrix
While lead scoring is a strategy that’s used to help focus sales on qualified buyers, it’s also a marketing tactic.
Because you can identify which of your incoming sales inquiries are most likely to become customers, you no longer waste your sales and marketing resources chasing after dead ends.
Lead scoring can have several positive effects on your company.
Lead scoring is important because it allows you to see which marketing campaigns are working and which ones are not. By understanding which campaigns result in high-quality leads, you can make changes to improve your overall marketing strategy.
Additionally, lead scoring can help you prioritize leads, so you know who to contact first.
Lead scoring can help you close business deals faster by providing timely assistance to qualified leads. You can also use lead scoring to focus your resources on leads who are more likely to convert into customers.
How to Build a Lead Scoring Matrix
A sales engagement strategy will streamline your lead generation process by creating new revenue opportunities.
While it may seem complex, building your own lead scoring matrix is quite easy. Follow these steps to get started:
The sales and marketing departments invest a lot of money in driving traffic to your website. But do you track your customer journey?
Do you know what kind of people buy from you and why?
Of your website visitors, around 8% of them will sign up for your mailing list. What about the other 92%? Can you tell which visitors are viewing your site?
Can you reengage and target your unqualified, unidentified website visitors?
Lead Scoring for Contacts
When thinking about implementing and executing a lead scoring system, thinking of it more as an object or system can open your mind to more ways to implement and execute it.
Here are the most common ones we recommend:
Job Title and Job Function
This is one of the most important fields for a reason. It helps identify the decision-maker and their job function within a company.
It’s important to be aware that some job titles may not come with the authority to hire you. Be cautious of submissions from interns if this is a concern for you.
But the other, and perhaps more importantly, aspect of their job is their job function. A CMO is, you guessed it, a marketer.
IT Security Engineers are likely more concerned with securing their own company’s data than external threats.
Geography
Organizations may be unable to sell to companies in certain regions or countries due to shipping costs or competing sales regions. It’s important to understand the geographical landscape when running a business.
Budget
You shouldn’t be afraid to ask about the budget when servicing clients. Many organizations are timid about it, but it’s important to know what you’re working with. That way, you can provide the best possible service within their budget constraints.
Even if you target your message to your ideal customer, if their point of reference for your services is at a different level, then it doesn’t matter.
Lead Scoring for Companies
Just like you can score individual contacts based on certain criteria, you can also do the same for entire organizations.
This is the basis for a lot of effective advertising on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. You can target companies based on factors like industry, region, service offerings, and more.
Industry
Depending on the industry, different types of inbound marketing may be necessary. For example, we sell a lot of services for HubSpot. And while many industries can benefit from using HubSpot, some verticals are more likely to use the platform than others.
What types of inbound marketing do you need if you want to sell coffee at a local kiosk in the mall? You’ll likely need a more basic customer relationship management system like HubSpot to interact with your customers.
If you are a professional service provider for accounting or other high-end services, then HubSpot is an excellent choice for managing your customer relationships.
When considering industries, think about who you typically work with and what kind of technology they use. Looking at your past deals and clients can help you identify potential new target companies.
Product
Just some basic qualifying here, but it’s worth noting that you need to fulfill a need that another company has. What do they sell and how can you help them?
If you’re a premiere consultant in technology for making funnel cakes, then target companies or businesses that make or sell funnel cakes.
Many organizations create a field called “Product Focus” to describe their customers’ target customers.
Additionally, having this information organized in HubSpot will make your sales process more efficient.
Company Size
Company size can be a helpful indicator of budget and capacity. If the company is too big, you might not have the capacity to support it. On the other hand, if the company is too small, it may not have the resources to afford you.
How to Build Your Lead Scoring Matrix
Many marketers have some form of a basic scoring system in place for their leads.
Lead scoring is an important process for any business that wants to optimize its customer engagement and increase revenues.
A lead scoring matrix helps formalize and improve this process by providing a clear framework for assessing and ranking leads. This, in turn, can help you focus your resources on the most promising prospects and improve your chances of making successful sales.
A lead scoring system is a visual way of defining, creating, visualizing, and explaining your process for evaluating and ranking potential sales opportunities.
There are a variety of ways to structure your sales team. One company may organize its sales department differently than another. But there are some general guidelines to follow.
Here are three of them.
Explicit Data
Explicit information is information that people provide directly, without interpretation.
Here are some examples of explicit data:
- Company
- Location
- Business type/industry
- Revenue
- Number of employees
- Lead source
- Title/job role
- Level of responsibility
- Purchase authority
- Past purchases
Implicit Data
Implicit data is information that is derived from explicit data, It is not provided intentionally.
For example, if you have a person’s physical address, you can use that to infer which store location they’re likely to visit.
The following are examples of implicit data:
- Number and frequency of website visits
- Types of phone calls
- Content interactions
- Media downloads
- Subscriptions
- Webinar attendance
- Form completion
- Offline events
Negative Criteria
The negative criteria of the lead scoring system are the checks and balances of your matrices, adjusting the scores based on any factors that would make a prospect undesirable.
The following are examples of negative criteria:
- Lack of response to marketing messages
- Unsubscribing from an email list
- Requesting to be added to your do-not-contact list
- No decision-making authority
- Defined periods of inactivity
Conclusion
After reading this blog post, you should now have a good understanding of how to create a lead scoring template. By following the tips outlined in this post, you’ll be well on your way to creating an effective lead scorecard that can help you close more deals and grow your business. So what are you waiting for? Get started today and see the results for yourself!
