What is predictive lead scoring & reasons to use predictive lead scoring software

what is predictive lead scoring

Do you want to avoid sifting through countless leads to determine which ones are worth pursuing?

Predictive lead scoring can help you streamline this process and concentrate on the most promising prospects for better conversion. So, how is this done? Predictive lead scoring software uses historical patterns and behavior to predict a lead's conversion chance using data and analytics.

This blog will explore the benefits and importance of predictive lead scoring and how it can help you prioritize your efforts and drive revenue growth.
 

Table of content:

What is predictive lead scoring?

Predictive lead scoring is used in sales and marketing to identify which leads (possible customers) have the highest chance of becoming paying customers. Each lead takes a numerical score or ranking based on their behavior, characteristics, and interactions with a website, social media platforms, email campaigns, and other touchpoints.

The predictive lead scoring algorithm considers various variables that suggest a lead's probability to convert, including demographic data, company size, industry, job title, degree of interaction with the content on the company website, and previous purchase behavior.

Sales and marketing teams can concentrate their efforts and resources on the most promising leads by employing predictive lead scoring, which boosts the effectiveness of their outreach and increases conversion rates. This approach can assist businesses in determining where their lead generation and marketing strategies require work.

Consider Lead A and Lead B as two examples. Depending on behavior and other rules set for a firm, Lead A has 80 points according to the predictive lead scoring methodology, whereas Lead B gets 35 points. You can infer from the ratings that Lead A is more likely to develop into an opportunity. You can also look at the top influencing factors to determine why Lead B's score is lower than Lead A's and develop a plan to raise it.

predictive lead scoring example

What is B2B predictive lead scoring model?

In the B2B world, not all businesses are equally valuable as customers. Some may have a higher likelihood of making large purchases, being long-term partners, or bringing in significant revenue. A B2B scoring model assigns scores to potential leads or companies based on their industry, company size, engagement level, and more. 

Imagine a software company that sells specialized accounting software to other businesses. They use a B2B scoring model to evaluate their leads. Here's how it might work:

  1. Company size: They assign higher scores to leads from larger companies, as they often have more extensive accounting needs. For instance, a score of 8 for leads from companies with 500+ employees.

  2. Industry: The software company might target specific industries where their software is most valuable, like finance or healthcare. They give higher scores to leads in these industries.

  3. Engagement: Leads that frequently visit their website, download whitepapers, or request demos receive higher scores, as they show genuine interest.

  4. Budget: If a lead indicates they have a substantial budget for software solutions, they get a higher score.

  5. Referrals: Leads that come through referrals from existing satisfied customers might receive a boost in their scores.

What is B2C predictive lead scoring model?

In B2C, some customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, refer friends, or engage with your brand consistently. A B2C scoring model assigns scores to individual customers based on their behavior, preferences, and interactions with the brand. These scores enable businesses to tailor their marketing and customer service strategies to different customer segments.

Consider an online clothing retailer that uses a B2C scoring model to understand and engage its customers effectively. Here's how it might work:

  1. Purchase history: Customers who have made multiple purchases in the past are assigned higher scores. For example, a score of 9 for customers who make three or more purchases in a year.

  2. Product category: If a customer consistently buys from a particular product category (e.g., dresses or shoes), the model assigns them a higher score in that category.

  3. Engagement: Customers who frequently open emails, click on product recommendations, or follow the brand on social media receive higher scores for engagement.

  4. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Those customers who have spent more money over time are given higher scores, as they are more valuable to the business.

  5. Referrals: Customers who refer friends or family to the website receive a boost in their scores.
     

 

Why should you start using predictive lead scoring?

There are several reasons to adopt predictive lead scoring in your business, including the following:

  • Better lead targeting: Predictive lead scoring helps you identify which leads are most likely to convert, allowing you to focus your resources on those with the highest potential. You can improve your lead conversion rates and increase sales by effectively targeting your efforts.

  • Improved lead qualification: Predictive lead scoring enables you to automate a large portion of the lead qualification process, saving time and effort by identifying high-potential prospects. Your sales and marketing teams will become even more effective, freeing them up to work on other essential tasks.

  • Improved customer experience (CX): Predictive lead scoring can help you deliver a more personalized and relevant customer experience by tailoring your messaging and offers to their needs and interests. Tailoring CE can help you build stronger relationships with your customers and increase their loyalty to your brand.

  • Data-driven insights: Analyzing the data used in predictive lead scoring can help you gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Understanding your customers can help improve your marketing and sales strategies and identify new growth opportunities.

  • Competitive advantage: Using predictive lead scoring can give you a competitive advantage by allowing you to identify and convert high-potential leads faster than your competitors. Having this edge can help you grow your market share and profitability.

predictive lead scoring

Importance of predictive lead scoring

1. Combination of humans and technology

Businesses can profit more from the mix of human intuition and machine learning algorithms, which can be particularly successful in predicting lead scores.

  • Work from data-driven insights

Take an example of predictive lead scoring in the context of an ecommerce website. By tracking a user's behavior on the website, such as visited pages, products viewed, and items added to their cart, the website can assign a score to each user indicating their likelihood to make a purchase. You can then personalize the user's experience with the lead scores by offering them discounts or suggesting products that are highly relevant to their interests.

In the above example, predictive lead scoring helps make data-driven decisions that improve the effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts, resulting in increased revenue and ROI. By providing data-precision insights into the potential value of each lead or user, predictive lead scoring helps businesses allocate their resources more effectively and focus on the most promising growth opportunities.

  • Save time

Lead scoring is an essential process for any successful sales team, but the traditional approach of manual scoring can be time-consuming and prone to human error. By utilizing predictive lead scoring, advanced methods of consolidating data from various sources can provide faster and more accurate results. Predictive lead scoring saves the sales team time and allows them to focus on higher-value tasks such as engaging with qualified leads.

Furthermore, the automation of the lead scoring process can reduce the risk of human error. When relying on manual scoring, it's easy to miss important details or misjudge the quality of a lead. But with automated scoring, the algorithm follows predefined rules, ensuring every lead is evaluated consistently and without bias.
 


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2. The perfect symbiosis between the sales and marketing team

There is no doubting the significance of good communication between any company's sales and marketing departments. When these two teams collaborate well, they can develop a robust and successful strategy that promotes development and success.

Sales + marketing team's efficiency:

Define lead scoring criteria: Sales and marketing teams can work together to define the requirements that can be used to score leads. Aligning the teams with the lead score criteria ensures that both teams are in sync on what constitutes a qualified lead and what data should be considered.

Share data: Both teams can share the collected data to get the most accurate predictions. Marketing can provide data such as website traffic, social media engagement, and open email rates, while sales can provide data such as deal size, close rates, and more.

Monitor and adjust the process: Both teams can regularly monitor the lead scoring process to ensure it works effectively. Tracking the process includes the following:

  1. Tracking the accuracy of predictions

  2. Identifying areas for improvement

  3. Adjusting the scoring criteria as needed

importance of predictive lead scoring

Benefits of predictive lead scoring software

Predictive lead scoring software offers several benefits for businesses that want to improve their sales and marketing efforts. Some of the leading benefits of using predictive lead scoring software are listed below:

Predictive lead scoring for sales teams:

  • Prioritize leads: Predictive lead scoring software allows you to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert. Targeting based on this means that sales reps can focus on engaging with leads more likely to become customers rather than wasting time on low-quality leads.

  • Personalize outreach: Sales teams can tailor their outreach to specific leads using predictive lead scoring software. A few ways can include customizing messaging, offering targeted promotions, or providing specific product recommendations.

  • Optimize sales funnel: Predictive lead scoring software can provide insights into where leads are in the sales funnel, which can help sales teams optimize their approach. For example, if a particular stage of the funnel is causing a lot of leads to drop off, the team can focus on improving that part of the process.

  • Measure success: Predictive lead scoring software provides a measurable way to evaluate the success of your sales team's efforts. By tracking the conversion rates of leads with different scores, you can gain insight into what's working and what's not and adjust your approach accordingly.

Predictive lead scoring for marketing teams:

Predictive lead scoring software can provide insights into which marketing campaigns and channels are most effective at generating high-quality leads. Getting these insights allows the marketing team to optimize its strategies and allocate its resources accordingly.

Predictive lead scoring software is a powerful tool for the marketing team to increase efficiency, improve lead quality, and drive revenue growth. By leveraging predictive lead scoring software, the team can achieve better results and stay ahead of the competition.

Choosing the right predictive lead scoring software for your business is an important decision that requires careful consideration of several different aspects. Let's look at what you should analyze during your search.
 

Features:

  1. Identify which features you'd like to have in a predictive lead scoring software solution.

  2. Shortlist which solutions contain most of the features and choose one or more you want to try. Sign up for a free trial.

  3. Check out the features and the accuracy of the results from different software.

  4. Read reviews and case studies to understand the software from the customers better.

Integration: Be sure the software can integrate with your current marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Integrating with your existing data systems allows you to analyze all available data and provide more accurate predictions.

Ease of use: Choose predictive lead scoring software that is easy to use and can be easily integrated into your sales and marketing workflows. The software should be intuitive and provide actionable insights to act upon quickly.

Customization: Look for software that allows customization to meet your unique business needs. This includes customizing lead scoring models and adjusting weights to reflect the importance of various data points.

Customer support: Choose predictive lead scoring software from a vendor that offers reliable and responsive customer support. The vendor should provide access to training resources, documentation, and a support team that can answer your questions and helps you troubleshoot any issues.

Cost: Last but not least, consider the software's price and ensure it fits your budget. Check for software that offers a reasonable price with the features you need and avoid overspending on features you don't need.


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Zoho SalesIQ, the best lead scoring software

Zoho SalesIQ is comprehensive lead scoring software that offers advanced AI algorithms, real-time scoring, customizable models, and seamless integration with other apps, making it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes. It offers several features to help businesses engage with website visitors, identify high-quality leads, and convert them into customers.

The following are some of Zoho SalesIQ's features:

  • Customizable lead scoring models: Zoho SalesIQ allows businesses to create custom lead scoring models that reflect their unique business needs. It includes adjusting the scoring criteria to reflect the importance of different factors.

  • Advanced lead scoring: Zoho SalesIQ uses advanced algorithms to predict the likelihood of a lead converting into a customer, helping businesses prioritize high-quality leads and focus their sales and marketing efforts on those leads

  • Real-time website visitor tracking: Information on website visitors, including their location, pages visited, and time spent on the site.

  • Marketing automation: Zoho SalesIQ can be combined with marketing automation software to prioritize leads, personalize campaigns, automate lead nurturing, optimize spending, and improve sales coordination. It also integrates with Zoho's CRM and other CRM systems to track leads and manage customer data in one place.

  • Affordable pricing: Zoho SalesIQ offers affordable and transparent pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes, making it accessible to small and mid-sized businesses.

Try Zoho SalesIQ for free now and gain rich insights about your customers along the journey!
 



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