Lead Scoring - A Dangerous Decision
The possibility of automating the lead evaluation and taiwan telephone number process in Inbound Marketing projects is enchanting. Having information on which customers are ready to buy, which customers are not yet ready to buy, or which customers do not have a purchasing profile brings high expectations for results.
It is the possibility of having greater knowledge about leads and customers with a profile that is more appropriate for your company and also adds value to the demand generation work.
However, you need to be careful and evaluate three important issues before opting to use this powerful tool. This decision is dangerous and can ruin your Inbound Marketing project and, consequently, your investments.
1 - Does your company need Lead Scoring?
This is the first consideration. Any company can adopt it, but not all need to. The decision to implement a lead scoring system depends largely on the business profile, type of buyer and, most importantly, the sales process.
Companies with high-volume business models and repetitive and predictable sales processes have greater potential to obtain results with lead scoring. Another important criterion is the number of leads generated. If the volume is above the sales team's capacity to serve, it is time to optimize.
If your company does not have any of the above characteristics, think twice before using lead scoring, as there is a high chance that it will not work.
2 - When is it time to adopt Lead Scoring within Inbound Marketing?
One fact is striking: many executives choose to start the conversation about lead scoring even before implementing the Inbound Marketing strategy , some decide to implement it in the first few months of the project, without any prior assessment of the need for its use.
The risk of it not working when this happens is high, especially in companies that have no experience with this technique or no prior knowledge of the profile and behavior of potential customers throughout the sales cycle .
It makes no sense to parameterize lead scoring criteria right from the start, without history and information on the behavior of customers who have purchased in at least the last three months.
Any attempt to define criteria and score leads without this knowledge will be an exercise in “guessology”. To give an example: will a lead with a LinkedIn profile have scoring criteria? If so, how many points will this criterion be worth?
Lead scoring is a place you arrive at, not a place you start from - remember that!
3 - Who owns Lead Scoring within Inbound Marketing? Marketing or Sales?
Lead scoring is usually the responsibility of the marketing department or the demand generation area, but it can vary depending on the company's profile and organizational model.
It is very common to find this technique in the area that has the mission of generating leads on a large scale, most often marketing, demand, inside sales or SDR (Sales Development Representative).
We cannot forget that one of the benefits of lead scoring is to optimize sales resources, forwarding only leads with potential to buy to the sales department, i.e., it is not recommended to leave it in another area.
Finally, it is worth remembering that lead scoring is basically an algorithm. Algorithms work well when they are configured with real criteria and not hypotheses. With that in mind, I would like to leave some thoughts for companies that are working on Inbound Marketing projects: Has
your company already implemented lead scoring? If so, is it working correctly and does it help in qualifying leads? What is the success rate?
Is your company thinking about implementing it? If so, what problem will it solve? What is the expected result?