Lead Scoring and Lifecycle Implementation

[Jean_Borich]

We are going to be implementing our first lead scoring model and lead lifecycle model at the start of 2020. Prior to this, there was no real formal process for how leads are handled. This is all changing with the launch of both models. 

These concepts will be introduced to our sales team in the form of a few presentations. I want to make sure that I have additional resources available for our sales team that they can reference since these are entirely new concepts to them. 

What has worked well at your company in terms of education on these types of concepts? Have you created any tipsheets, guides, and other resources for Sales to reference on these topics? 

Does anyone have a recommendation on documents and reference sheets to create for the launch of these models? Any ideas would be helpful! 

[Nicholas_Hajdin]

Hi Jean,

There are a few threads on this topic if you run a search. Below are some key considerations to get you started:

• Involve sales early and ensure you are aligned on lifecycle definitions and SLAs. Do Marketing and Sales agree on what a MQL is?
• Align with Sales on how they will be alerted of MQLs and expected actions. Do they prefer a task in CRM or an email alert?
• Align on your fast track criteria 
• Get sales input on key behavioral activities, demographics, and firmographics that will help inform the scores you attribute in your lead scoring model.
• If you are using MSI, ask Sales what types of behavioral activities or data changes they would like called out on the lead/contact layout as Interesting Moments.
• If you are using MSI or Sales Engage, be sure to explain how to use the tool and benefits
• Determine a few specific rejection reasons for Sales that Marketing can leverage to recycle, disqualify, or further manage leads.
• When building your scoring model, be sure to tokenize for scalability. Lots of threads on the community on this topic.

Take a look at Marketo's The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring.

[Jason_Keller1]

Congrats on getting lead scoring prioritized as an initiative! It is never a small feat to get a team to adopt a new process and/or strategy.

Nicholas is spot on here. 

One thing that I have leveraged for help with adoption is actual lists of those that would be qualified by lead scoring versus those that would not. This helps provide the team a litmus test and helps build confidence in the scoring model. 

[Adam_Berlin]

We didn't put together a guide per se, but one idea that helped our process was to reach out to the active players in the Lead Scoring conversation with an email survey (generated very easily through SurveyMonkey). We used it to gauge their opinion of different point values. We then used those totals in a meeting to finalize all of the point totals for the 15 behavioral scoring fields we decided to use. It ended up being very effective. 

[AyanTalukder]

Hi Adam,

We are thinking of doing the exact same thing. Do you have examples of the types of questions you asked?

[Juan_de_Dios_Ng]

When i started (a while ago), i remember I found the 'Marketo Lead Scoring Cheat Sheet' quite useful, basic but useful!

Also try to avoid these 5 common behavioral lead scoring mistakes which I see some companies do

1. Using Only 1st Party Engagement Data
2. Not Investing in Clean Data
3. Not Having Separate Scores for Behavioral and Demographic Values
4. Ignoring Score Inflation
5. Not Iterating on Your Lead Scoring Model

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

Hi Jean,

In the past, I've done initial trainings with sales to offer a high level overview of the lead lifecycle and scoring model, and how it applies to them. This should definitely be done through an in-person or virtual meeting rather than through an email. Sales teams tend to only want information that pertains to them closing deals, so keeping the details to a minimum will help with adoption (and keeping their attention). As marketers, we tend to focus a lot on the thought behind our decisions and why it's important, but going on and on about this will make eyes start to glaze over. Focus on showing them where they can find the information they need, what steps they have to complete at the various stages, and how this will help them close deals faster. I would also suggest making a sales playbook with definitions and workflows that they can refer to on their own to help familiarize themselves with these new terms and concepts. It really puts the accountability in their hands to learn new processes on an ongoing basis.

Good luck to you!

[Abhishek_Chand2]

Hi Jean,

It is really a very good step to have better collaboration with sales team and lead scoring model also provides insight on many aspects which we tend to loose while doing other marketing activities fr example how much engagement can be considered good engagement, when will we consider a lead to be transitioned from MQL to SQL etc.

While sharing such concepts with sales it is very important to make sure we explain them that it is for their benefit and not something which marketing wants to implement to show that marketing has better contribution in creating the opportunities.

Sales people will be more interested in it if we tell them that it will reduce their pain points, so instead of just explaining the concepts, first ask them about their pain points and then relate it to lead scoring and how it will help them. It may not resolve all the pain points but sales team will understand that it is for their benefit.

Good luck for the implementation and kindly share your experience and learning while implementing it.

Regards,

AC

[Amy_Goldfine]

I think having a visual is really helpful for everyone. You should definitely be modeling everything out before implementing. I like to use LucidChart, and I color-code which systems are doing what—purple for Marketo, blue for SFDC. 

[Josh_Hill13]

I agree with all of these. Check out some of what I've written about before:

https://www.marketingrockstarguides.com/?s=lead+scoring

https://www.marketingrockstarguides.com/webinars/

https://www.slideshare.net/jdavidhill/marketo-revenue-cycle-model-and-lead-lifecycle-how-to