‘Lead Scoring’ has become one of the most-discussed topics in the SEO world and every serious marketer in the business today is spending days and nights scratching his brains to figure out the method behind the madness. But what is the fuss all about, you say? Well, consider this: hundreds and thousands of leads can flow into your company from numerous possible sources and the rate of this flow usually increases by undertaking different marketing initiatives. But the real challenge here is to identify and separate the useful from the ineffectual. This filtering can be done with the help of a process that we refer to as lead scoring.

The process of lead scoring basically deals with using algorithms for categorizing a sales opportunity by asking a few qualifying questions. The answers of these are assigned certain points based on its importance in determining the opportunity’s overall score value. These response points are added to get a lead score. Higher the score, the further a sales opportunity is along in the purchase process.

Now that I’ve briefed you about lead scoring, let me share a few tips with you for getting started with this practice.

Avoid generating ‘too many’ leads: Although this may seem ironical and counterintuitive, having too many leads, especially low-quality ones, can actually overwhelm your sales force and lead to lower productivity. Remember the general rule which says that 80% of the business comes from 20% of the leads, though this ratio can vary. So you need to make these particular useful leads your priority in order to achieve your sales goals.

Practice lead development
It is a complicating fact that all leads are never in the same level of readiness for making purchases. Some prospects buy immediately, whereas some of them never get to the buying stage at all. But most of these prospects are usually found in a buying cycle’s early stages and are quite receptive to marketing efforts. So, you need to recognize these early-stage leads and nurture them with all your efforts in order to turn them over to sales in a short time.

Grab the right tools
Get hold of good marketing automation softwares like Manticore and Eloqua. You would also need a good CRM package for storing and delivering your data efficiently and within the deadline to the right sales personnel.

Give your time and efforts to develop the system
Developing a good, food proof lead-scoring system is the most important job in the whole process. It isn’t as tough as it seems: just pick the essential factors, designate weights for each one, assign numbers to them and add up to get the total. Try and include your sales force while developing your system because they will be the ones ultimately using it.

Upgrade continuously
If you want to be successful you have to keep adjusting and improving the elements of your system which directly influence your leads. Modify your programs, scores and the metrics that you use to examine your leads and their status.