even if you feel like you don’t have enough information for example — a better indication of intent to purchase? on your prospects yet, start with a guess and adjust your Assign higher point values to these pages so you model later. Here are a few items to consider as you can see which of your leads are taking “hand-raising” begin building a scoring and grading model of your own: actions at a glance. Get input from sales. It’s important to make sure your 40.7% of B2B marketers do not sales team is involved in the lead scoring and grading award higher lead scores to high- process from the very beginning. Sit down with sales stakeholders to discuss the following questions — before value web pages. your lead qualification system even gets off the ground. - Spear Marketing • What constitutes a qualified lead? Start assigning leads to sales — automatically. • What prospect actions typically signal sales According to a 2015 study by Spear Marketing, 46% of readiness? B2B marketers have not set up a lead scoring threshold • When would sales reps prefer that leads get that will automatically alert or route leads to sales. This assigned to them for follow-up? How will lead threshold is key because it ensures that leads are only follow-up be handled? assigned once they’ve met a qualification level that your • Can lead nurturing be used to supplement the sales team has agreed upon. This makes it easy for sales sales process if leads are not ready to talk to sales? to prioritize incoming leads and takes the guesswork out of lead assignment for the marketing team. Setting these expectations up front will prevent you Whether you’re a beginner setting up your system for from having to backtrack later. It can also give you the first time or a marketing automation pro looking valuable intel as you begin setting up your lead nurturing to fine-tune your scoring and grading system, the programs. worksheets provided on the next few pages will give you a helpful foundation to start from. Then, move on to Identify high-value actions and pages. When it comes to chapter three to learn more about setting up effective lead scoring, not all prospect activities are created equal. nurturing programs for the leads in your database that Are certain pages — a pricing page or contact us form, aren’t yet sales-ready. 15 / Pardot