Glossary: lists and qualification
What is lead scoring and how does it work?
Lead scoring is a way of ranking leads by giving each one points. Points are added for traits that match your ideal customer and for actions that show interest, and the total decides which leads sales contacts first.
Formula
Worked example
40 + 35 = 75 points
A lead score is fit points plus behavior points.
The score has two halves. One describes who the lead is, and the other describes what they have done.
Fit points reward the right kind of lead.
Award points for an industry, a company size and a job title that match your profile. These rarely change.
Behavior points reward interest.
Award points for actions such as replying, visiting the pricing page or asking for a demo. Recent actions count for more.
A threshold triggers the handoff.
Pick a total at which a lead is passed to sales. Leads below it stay with marketing or in the sequence.
Here is a lead score worked out for an invented company.
Imagine Corvenby, an invented IT services company. Its model gives 20 points for a target industry, 10 for the right company size and 10 for a director-level title. It gives 20 for a pricing page visit and 15 for a reply to an email. The handoff threshold is 70 points.
A director at a mid-sized firm in a target industry scores 40 for fit. She visits the pricing page and replies to an email, adding 35 for behavior. Her score is 40 + 35 = 75 points, above the threshold, so sales calls her that day. A student with a pricing page visit only scores 20 points and is left alone.
Two Corvenby leads against the 70 point threshold
Use lead scoring to decide who gets a call first.
A simple model that sales trusts beats a clever one nobody understands.
The four steps in order
- 1Study past wins
- 2Keep it small
- 3Set the line
- 4Check results
- 1
Study past wins.
Look at the leads that became customers and find the traits and actions they had in common. Those earn the points.
- 2
Keep it small: five or six rules.
A short list is easy to explain and easy to fix.
- 3
Set the line with sales.
Agree the score at which a lead is worth a call, and what happens when it is reached.
- 4
Check results against the scores.
Each quarter, check whether high scorers closed more often. Adjust the points where they did not.
Prymatica handles the outbound side for you: verified prospects, sequences, sending and weekly optimization. We qualify the replies and book interested prospects onto your calendar. See how Prymatica's cold email process works.
Teams make these mistakes with lead scoring.
The model is built on opinion.
Points chosen in a meeting reflect guesses. Base them on what past customers had in common.
Scores never go down.
Interest fades. Without decay, a lead who clicked once last year still looks hot.
Behavior outweighs fit.
A keen reader at a company that cannot buy is still not a buyer. Fit should carry at least as much weight as behavior.
These glossary terms sit next to lead scoring.
Questions
People ask these questions about lead scoring.
How is a lead score calculated?
Add the points a lead earns for fit, such as industry, company size and job title, to the points earned for behavior, such as replies and page visits. For example, 40 fit points plus 35 behavior points gives a score of 75.
What is a good lead score?
There is no universal number, because every company chooses its own points. What matters is the threshold: the score at which, in your own data, leads become likely enough to buy that a call is worth making.
What is the difference between lead scoring and lead qualification?
Scoring ranks leads automatically from data, before anyone speaks to them. Qualification is a person confirming fit, need and ability to buy in a conversation. Scoring decides who to call. Qualification decides what happens after.
Is lead scoring useful for outbound?
It helps in two places. Fit scoring ranks a prospect list so the best accounts are contacted first. Behavior scoring ranks the responses, so a reply that asks about pricing is handled before a click.
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