Posted by Trask Rogers

One of the largest advantages in integrating a marketing automation platform into your company is the ability to create a rich lead scoring system. In theory (and in practice), this is a huge step. In the past, scoring leads involved:

• Outsourcing qualification to a telemarketing firm
• Painstaking manual labor on a contact by contact basis
• Costly custom database solutions
• Scoring? Just send me the contact info!

Now, marketing and sales can develop co-dynamic scoring measuring both a prospect’s explicit information (derived from forms, event attendance lists, etc.) with their implicit data (pages visited, email click-throughs, etc.). However, implementing a lead scoring system is only the beginning of the process.

Revisiting the lead scoring on a regular basis, ideally monthly, is critical to ensuring it continues to drive both the quantity and quality of leads needed by sales. Without these checks, Sales is more likely to disengage if they don’t feel the data is credible. And it’s this ongoing alignment that will pay dividends in the long-run.

Speaking of Sales, involve them in the lead scoring audits. Get their first-hand accounts of how sales-qualified the leads have been that Marketing has passed along. After that, look at the frequency of the lead scores. If you have a disproportionate amount of leads that aren’t passing the criteria, it might be time to adjust. However, if Sales if fuming over wasting time with Mom & Pops, first duck, then make the necessary adjustments to tighten things up a bit. Obviously, lead scoring is different in each instance. The trick is to stick with it, keep it under the microscope and get as much feedback from Sales as you can.

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