Global Definition
Lead scoring consists of assigning a score to your leads. This score aims to evaluate the conversion potential of your prospect based on their level of maturity. Several factors come into play when scoring leads. For example, you can consider actions taken by your prospect on your website or specific criteria related to the prospect. This is referred to as behavioral scoring and demographic scoring. Two other types of scoring are also gaining popularity: firmographic scoring and predictive scoring.
Behavioral Scoring
Behavioral scoring comes into play when your prospect performs defined actions in your customer journey. For example, these actions can include downloading a whitepaper, requesting information via email, attending a webinar, clicking on your email, and more. To identify these actions precisely, you need to use tracking tools (KPIs) at your disposal to collect and analyze this data. You can then assign a score to each of these criteria based on your expectations and target audience.
Demographic Scoring / Firmographic Scoring
Demographic scoring is based on specific criteria related to the prospect. This concept can be aligned with firmographic scoring, where the criteria are based on the prospect's company. For example, you can take into account the company's size, industry sector, geographical location, hierarchical status of the employee (e.g., decision-maker), company revenue, etc. The goal is to ensure that the criteria gathered by the lead align as closely as possible with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Beyond enriching your contacts, Dropcontact allows you to implement scoring in your CRM through company enrichment, such as revenue, salary range, industry sector, department, etc. For example, if your main criterion is company size, you can use the salary range provided by Dropcontact to score the leads in your CRM.
Predictive Scoring
Finally, predictive scoring is based on algorithms and data analysis to estimate the likelihood of a lead becoming a customer. This method requires the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools. While it can be more precise, it is also more complex to implement as it requires complementary AI tools.
Unit of Measurement for Lead Scoring
Once you have determined the different criteria to consider when ranking your leads, you need to assign points relative to these criteria. For example, you can assign 5 points if the lead clicks on your email and 10 points if they download a resource from your website, such as a whitepaper. Assigning this "score" allows you to visualize which of your leads are the most interested and likely to purchase your product, enabling you to adjust your targeting and create more personalized communication campaigns.
The Importance of Using Lead Scoring in CRM
Instantly Identify Hot Leads
The importance of lead scoring lies primarily in the ability to identify highly qualified leads through an accurate numerical ranking. By defining the most important criteria for your targeting and assigning scores to each of these criteria (e.g., on a scale of 10 or 100), you can obtain a precise ranking of all your leads. This ranking allows you to instantly identify the hottest leads.
Personalize Interactions
Lead scoring enables your sales teams to better understand the needs and interests of their prospects, while segmenting them into different categories based on their scores. By understanding the prospects' expectations, you can maximize the personalization of your marketing campaigns according to the interests and needs of each group.
Ensure Cohesion of Information for Marketing and Sales Teams
Lead scoring ensures consistency in the information available to sales and marketing teams by synchronizing data and sharing lead scores within your CRM. With an harmonized and clearly defined scoring system, your teams can evaluate the quality of their leads at a glance, avoid wasting time on low-value prospects, and increase their efforts on those with the highest conversion potential. This coordination allows marketing and sales teams to work together: marketing can adapt promotional content based on the criteria in the CRM to personalize the customer experience, while sales can prioritize leads in their follow-ups.
Optimize the Sales Process
Lead scoring optimizes the sales process by establishing an accurate ranking that reflects the engagement of leads with your product or service. Leads with high scores are associated with those who have already taken one or more key actions related to your company. They are more likely to move to the next stage of your sales process and convert. For leads with lower scores, more effort is required through promotional campaigns to capture their attention and turn them into customers.
Predict Future Sales
By tracking the evolution of your contacts' scores over time, you can predict and anticipate future sales and revenue. This is crucial for the planning and strategic management of your business.
It's important to note that the contact scoring process should be dynamic and constantly updated based on new information gathered about your prospects. The specific criteria for scoring may vary depending on your company, industry, and target audience.
Creating a Lead Scoring Property in HubSpot
HubSpot offers an integrated lead scoring feature that allows you to evaluate your prospects directly within your CRM based on criteria of your choice. Here are the steps to follow:
- Define your scoring criteria: In HubSpot, you can choose from a variety of criteria to establish your scoring system. For example, you can select contact demographics or specific behaviors (email opens, content downloads, website visits, etc.).
- Create a new property in HubSpot: Go to your settings, click on "Properties," and select "Create a Property." Define the characteristics of your property, choose your criteria, set the label, and select the field type as "Score."
- Configure scoring rules: After creating your property, specify the number of points you want to assign to each of the criteria (+10 points for email opens, +5 points for website visits, etc.).
- Apply scoring to your leads: Once you have configured your scoring rules, HubSpot will automatically apply them to all the leads in your database.
- Test and iterate: Monitor the evolution of your scoring closely, communicate it to your team, and make adjustments as needed to ensure consistent results.
