CHAPTER TwO two Be better at lead qualification. Today’s tracking tools and marketing technologies have When used properly together, automated lead scoring revealed one thing: cramming as many leads into the and grading can take the guesswork out of lead sales funnel as possible and hoping for the best is no qualification and assignment, streamlining your sales longer a viable approach to doing business. cycle and ensuring that your leads are better qualified and properly nurtured before they ever reach the sales Luckily, marketing automation uses a blended lead department. scoring and grading model to provide an elegant solution to lead qualification challenges. In this chapter, Let’s take a closer look at lead scoring and grading. In you’ll learn the basics and benefits of scoring and this chapter, we’ll examine how they differ, how they grading — and get several worksheets and checklists work, and why you need both. to help you build and optimize a scoring and grading model of your own. SCORING LEADS InTRODUCInG BLenDeD LeAD SCORInG A lead score, expressed as a numeric value, can tell AnD GRADInG you how interested a prospect is in your product. Leads are automatically assigned scores based on The process of sorting through incoming leads can their implicit buying signals (e.g., activity on your site be an immensely time-consuming task for marketing or their response to your online marketing), providing departments. Passing on the wrong leads to sales hard, objective data in an otherwise subjective sales wastes your sales reps’ time — plus, it puts a strain process. Prospects are assigned a score when they on the sales and marketing relationship. fortunately, respond to an offer and enter your database. They marketing automation offers a solution to the lead will continue to build on this score over time as they quality disagreements that often force these two teams interact with your brand. out of sync: blended lead scoring and grading. 13 / Pardot