Lead scoring is a critical step in prioritizing where your sales team spends their time. It sounds complicated, but it's quite easy if you have a good process.
In this article, I'll discuss some tips to think about with your lead scoring process. You might already be using some variation of them, which is great!
1. Are They Ready to Buy?
This one is pretty obvious. If a lead is not ready to buy, you'll have to invest a lot more time trying to move them further down their buyer's journey. In addition, they may never buy, so your sales team could be wasting valuable time. It's best to rate each lead on a 1 to 10 scale on how close they are to making a buying decision.
A relatable example of this is when you're looking at getting a new car. You start off by just "looking" at all of the options. Isn't it annoying when a salesman tries to close you at this point in your search? Aren't they wasting their time? Apply the same understanding to your leads.
If most of your leads come from online sources, for example, search traffic, then let keywords dictate how ready to buy they are. Moreover, structure your content in a way that pulls potential leads in when they're closer to buy. It's the best place to start. You can then create additional content that has keywords for leads that aren't ready to buy yet, and then warm them up with additional content, an email list, etc.
2. Demographics
Does the lead match the ideal demographics of your ideal customer? If not, perhaps you need to broaden your demographics if you keep seeing more and more leads outside the "ideal buyer".
The most important one is whether or not the lead can afford your product or service. If your online content is attracting folks that don't have the budget or interest in your product, then these leads are probably not good. Your scoring system should reflect this.
For example, if you're selling baby products for new moms, and your content is attracting young males that like to play video games, then the odds of you closing the lead is probably 0.
Pay close attention to the demographics of your leads and make sure it matches the profile of your ideal buyer.