More leads, more deals, more revenue.

Well, who doesn’t want that! 

The hustle is all about getting there faster. 

Get the right leads, qualify them quickly, close more deals with shorter sales cycles, and accelerate your sales efforts to crush that quota.

But if you have unqualified leads in the first place that lead you on and on before actually committing to getting into business with you - well, that’s more than just sad news. That’s a waste of time, money, and resources that could have been spent on leads that could actually convert. 

Everybody gets bad leads, and everybody (including you) gets golden leads too - the ones with a great likelihood of conversion. All you need to do is to differentiate between the two - right when you are about to begin your sales journey - so that you can prioritize the high-quality leads and filter out the ones who have no/low intent of buying (at least for the time being).

Well, that’s just what lead scoring does for you! It gives you a headstart on your sales cycles by filtering out the prospects that could go stale in no time. Wait no more; let’s get you equipped with the tips and ways of using lead scoring for accelerating sales. Before that, let’s get familiar with…

What is lead scoring?

It’s a process of categorizing and identifying which leads are more capable of converting into buyers or, in simple terms hunting qualified leads. These leads are most valuable to a company to increase their revenue and not waste time chasing after not-so-promising leads. 

A lead scoring model consists of a point- based lead scoring system where each leads are assigned a point value between 1-100 and rank their credibility. Lead scoring not only helps companies to identify significant leads but also speeds up the productivity helping your move your prospects past the sales funnel faster. 

Here are some lead scoring techniques and practices to amp up your sales efficiency:

1. Create customer profiles

Do you know your target audience? Do you know what kind of prospects will be most interested in buying your products and services? Who is your ideal customer?

For example, if you are an anime streaming platform, then your target audience are people who follow anime or show interest in anime but are yet to watch it. Your customer profile or buyer persona should include the age group that watches anime. Moreover, since most manga readers watch anime too, manga readers could also be included in your customer profile. A person interested in Japanese culture or products may also be interested in anime. There - you have it! You have now identified your ideal customer.

Now you need to assign point values to leads mentioned above; for example, a person that shows interest in popular anime shows with many seasons probably has watched anime for a long while and is more likely to convert into buyers. They can have a lead score of 80/100. A person that goes for mediocre shows with only 4-5 episodes is not committed to the show and are temporary watcher, and they can have a lead score of 20/100. In this way, you can create a buyer persona that includes age, location, demographics, revenue, and industry to get a closer look into your target audience.

2. Identify MQLs

Sales team as the Lionel Messi to your Cesc Fabregas, aka marketing team. The collaboration of the sales team and marketing team will increase sales efficiency and help in the qualifying of lead generation, exactly how the football duo collaborated to score 88 goals.

MQLs or marketing qualified leads are prospects that have shown significant interest in your company as a result of marketing efforts and are ready to convert into buyers. But how do you know if a prospect qualifies to be an MQL? 

Here’s how: You can decide a point value after which a lead is considered a marketing-qualified lead. You can use marketing automation tools like HubSpot to automate this process for your marketing and sales teams. For example, when a lead reaches a score of 80 points, your MQL conversion point, your internal workflow should notify the sakes teams that it’s time for a discovery call. It’s time to go Sheldon Cooper, and grade your prospect’s activities!

For example, we have two leads, A and B

Lead A

5 points: visits your website

15 points: subscribes to your emails

30 points: requests a quote

Lead A receives a total score of 50 and needs an additional 50 to become a MQL.

Lead B

80 points: requests a demo

15 points: fills out a webinar form

5 points: attends the webinar

Lead B has achieved a score of 100 and is considered a qualified lead. If you company has invested in a sales intelligence platform, then the CRM will automatically notify the sales team that you should prioritize it since it is ready to convert into a buyer.

3. Choose when to score negatively

Positive points are not the only thing your prospect gets, nuh uh. 

Recognize certain actions of prospects that make them seem like they are drifting away from pursuing the MQL position.

By including negative scores, your sales and marketing teams will get a clearer perspective on who they should pursue, or when is the right time to nurture them. You can score your leads negatively for instances such as email bounces, low budget, email unsubscribes, or job applications received in a lead generation form. Recognizing negative scores can help save time.

4. Integrate CRM tools and marketing automation for sales qualifying actions

With this integration, your sales reps can view leads’ activity on their contact record, understand their actions, and analyze the campaigns they show interest in.

Once a lead becomes an MQL, CRM tools can help administrators create automation rules, by alerting or assigning the leads to their specific reps. This fastens the sales process, since you get to engage with your prospects in an automated manner, on the fly, and don’t miss out on any opportunity. Once the sales reps are notified of an MQL, they can begin sales qualifying discussions in order to convert them into a buyer.

5. Get the old closed-lost leads back to the sales cycle

The leads that you have graded negatively or have not qualified to be considered as an MQL, are important too. Don’t ignore your old prospects, give them a second chance. You can optimize your old prospects by analysing their sales pipeline to see if they show potential. You can do this by curating an outreach program where you revisit your old prospects. Your outreach program should include new and effective tactics. Come up with effective marketing strategies that can light up old leads. Showcase your marketing efforts!

6. Revisit lead scoring models for follow-ups

Your lead scoring system is failing to help you score more deals? It’s okay, buddy. We have all been there. But hey! Don’t lose hope. Maybe it’s time to do a check-in and see if you’re going wrong somewhere. If your sales-ready MQLs are not converting into buyers or there are consistent changes happening in the marketing teams, then this is a sign. Check in and evaluate the performance of your existing lead scoring model. You can do this by conducting meetings between sales and marketing teams and opening the ground for discussions on how the lead scoring mechanism could be improved to accelerate sales. You don’t want to be stuck in the same cycle (and longer sales cycles) do you? 

Sales intelligence to the rescue!

Wingman, our sales intelligence platform, helps you manage your leads better than ever! It is integrated with your CRM and marketing automation tools and helps you to keep a tab on your interaction with prospects to get a better understanding of their buying process. With these AI-powered insights at your fingertips, you can assign scores to your leads on the fly and accelerate sales for your business. Shoot up your conversion rates by spending time on the sales calls that reap results. Let Wingman be the wingman you need to supercharge your sales. Book a demo with us to get a headstart on your sales goals.