B2B Marketing

I have seen quite a few hit and miss lead scoring solutions in the B2B world.  Hot/Warm/Cold. ‘A' lead, ‘ B' lead, ‘C' leads and so on but whilst this type of categorization might well be appropriate for organisations who  just don't generate the quantity of leads to warrant time and attention for more sophisticated methods, such scoring solutions can become problematic due primarily for the room for misinterpretation and as leads are passed between marketing, sales and even the channel.

In an attempt to get around this problem companies have been turning their attention to the lead scoring system and using numeric scoring systems based on a combination of explicit and implicit intelligence. Lead scoring assigns or removes points from qualifying questions or behaviors to determine a sales opportunity's overall score and its value to the organisation at any point in time. Using this information, organisations can trigger certain activities such as knowing when to pass over an opportunity to sales, determine whether that prospect is qualified for certain offers etc or whether to continue to nurture and review that lead for a later time.

The simple idea is the higher the score the more likely that the lead is towards and along the buy cycle and the higher the propensity to purchase. Explicit information may be segmentation criteria such as industry, size, budget, authority, need, and timescale. And implicit is the activity such as visits to your websites, seminar attendance, requests for information etc. Since the scoring is numeric each prospect can we weighted relative to another, whatever numbering system is suitable for your company. The latest demand generation solutions allow you to track and score your online and offline activities and map those against each lead. Such an approach will help your organisation move a Marketing Qualified Lead (marketing has qualified to pass to sales) to a Sales Accepted Lead (sales have accepted leads passed over and will take next steps to qualify) and to a Sales Qualified Lead (sales have contacted and have determined revenue potential).

Sounds good doesn't' it? Just remember that pure numbers in themselves can be misleading and a one dimensional approach to lead scoring might make you miss opportunities or misinterpret some data. Say a customer was identified as a very good prospect but only at the needs recognition stage and was not ready to engage with your company just yet. He might score heavily on explicit data (i.e. D&B search) but not far along to want to talk to your sales person. That prospect could perhaps be ripe for more specific nurturing before being passed as a marketing qualified lead.

Therefore here are some practical suggestions to get started:

• Identify your business and pipeline requirements and work backwards. To obtain the revenue targets you need, what pipeline would you have to fuel?
• Work with your sales teams to determine what scoring mechanism works for you at any point in time. Remember it is best to start of small and continually refine your approach over time.
• Look at points of touch and the customer buy cycle and what data: explicit or implicit you wish to and are able to collect
• Determine a suitable scoring system and pilot the approach and refine.
• Continue to look at percentage of marketing qualified leads that get converted to sales accepted leads and percentage of sales accepted leads that convert to sales qualified leads and of course the closed sales.

Retrospectively, match the closed sales against the scores the leads were given, to gain insight into how your scoring system could be improved. The point of the approach is not to get bogged down with analysis paralysis but to make the process more automated and seamless to all. To achieve this will take some upfront time investment but it should pay dividends to the quality of business you generate and save you time later on. Happy scoring..:-)