Now that you’ve been collecting leads and racking up prospects, your sales team is probably busy all day making calls and setting up meetings. Even if you think things are running smoothly, there is likely another level of efficiency you could be reaching. If your sales people aren’t calling the exact right prospects at the right time, they’re not making the most of their efforts.
Prioritize your sales prospects with “lead scoring.” A Sirius Decisions blog defines lead scoring as “…a methodology used to rank prospects against a scale that represents the perceived value each lead represents to the organization.” Though the exact methodology can vary by firm, the principle remains the same: rank each sales lead based on the likelihood of buying.
One simple way to do this is to assign point values. The higher the point value, the closer to a sale the prospect is. You’ll need to follow a few steps:
1. Define MQLs
A marketing qualified lead (or MQL) is a lead who is very likely to become a customer based on some key data points. For example, if that lead’s demographic information matches current customers, or if the lead has been reviewing various pages of your website for several days. The first thing you should do is segment all of your prospects into those who you would call MQLs and those who are not.
2. Establish a System
Establish other criteria you care to record and create a system for assigning points. For example, every time you talk to a prospect on the phone, that prospect gets assigned X number of points. At this stage, you’re just deciding what activity and characteristics earn what number of points.
3. Assign Actions to point Values
When a lead reaches a certain point threshold, it may be time for your sales staff to set a meeting or touch base more frequently. The final stage is to delineate which sales actions should be taken at various point levels to advance a sale through your funnel. The higher the point value, the closer to a sale and the higher priority for your sales team.
If lead scoring sounds complicated, let Salesgenie help your organization. Our Salesgenie for Enterprise package offers custom sales and marketing management tools for your company, including the ability to build models for scoring your leads.
