The Importance of Lead Scoring in Achieving Seasoned, Sales-Ready Leads
As sales reps, we always experience this: Marketing runs campaigns, works to put leads through the sales funnel, and then passes off “sales-ready” leads to the sales team without lead scoring. But how sales-ready are these leads in reality?
In many situations, sales reps end up chasing marketing-made contacts which don’t have any opportunities for the close. But what if there was a way to ensure that these leads were seasoned enough for the close? Marketing automation (MA) does just that – it ensures that once leads get passed off from Marketing to Sales, they are ready as ever to do business.
Enter lead scoring.
Marketing automation equips both marketing and sales teams with a lead scoring capability that lets you define what a lead is and if it is, indeed, “sales-ready.” Perhaps the lead needs to be further nurtured. Perhaps it is ready for the close. Whatever stage of the buying process the prospect is in, lead scoring is that capability that enables you to see if a lead still requires nurturing to be ready for the close.
Below is a list of capabilities that the right MA platform offers to marketing and sales teams in order to ensure that only the most seasoned leads are passed off to Sales.
Default lead scores with each touchpoint
Throughout the customer buying journey, touchpoints allow us to see the footprints customers leave behind in an effort to get to where they are in their sales cycle. By setting a score at each touchpoint, it makes it easier to determine where the buyer is in the buying journey and how much more nurturing they need. By setting default scores for each webpage, call-to-action and email activity, it becomes possible to add together a full score with each touchpoint to determine if the lead is ready for Sales.
Segmentation
Whether you want to send a lead to sales rep “A” because it has a lead score of 30, or another with a lead score of 85 to sales rep “B”, you can segment according to these attributes. Depending on your set criteria, you can send leads to wherever you want them to go. For example, if certain leads are interested in product “A” – they go to this sales rep. If others are interested in product “B”, they go to another.
Regional and global operations
The right MAP enables you to segment leads by region. If your company is a regional or global sales organization, you distribute qualified leads by region, automatically.
Automatic lead escalation
Never lose a lead again. Many times, marketing and sales teams experience a leading falling through the cracks and never seeing the light of day. The right MAP enables you to ensure that a lead is “claimed.” If a lead goes “unclaimed,” a notification is automatically triggered to ensure that the lead doesn’t get lost.
Key Takeaway
Lead scoring is a powerful way to ensure that the right messages are delivered from the sales rep to the right prospect. By understanding their needs according to their buying journey, it makes it easier to offer the right solution. How effective are you at understanding the needs of your buyers? Do you assign “scores” to ensure they are ready for the sale?
