Best Practices For Lead Scoring

If sales and marketing are arguing over what "qualified" means, your pipeline’s already in trouble. We’ve all seen it: - Marketing hits their MQL numbers, pats on the back all around. - Sales gets the “qualified” leads… and half of them are tire-kickers with zero urgency. Now the pipeline’s stuffed, win rates are tanking, and everyone’s pointing fingers. Here’s the real issue: Most of these leads aren’t bad. They’ve got pain points. They’re even “qualified” on paper. But they lack urgency…and sales is left trying to manufacture it out of thin air. You can’t build a healthy pipeline on hope and hypotheticals. Here’s how to fix it: 1) Pre-pipeline holding zones Not every lead deserves pipeline status. Create a pre-pipeline stage for deals with latent pain but no clear timeline. Sales can nurture them without clogging up forecasts. Bonus: Your QBRs will stop looking like a graveyard of stalled deals. 🕺 2) Urgency-based lead scoring Stop relying on surface-level qualifications. Score leads on intent and timeline, not just “right company, right title.” - Active Need: They’re shopping now. - Latent Need: Pain exists, but no immediate plan to fix it. 3) Sales-led nurture playbooks Give AEs tools to move latent pain into active need…without wasting cycles. Think cost-of-inaction decks, ROI calculators, and strategic drip touchpoints. 4) Align KPIs across teams Marketing’s job isn’t to stuff the pipeline - it’s to accelerate it. Sales shouldn’t be judged on bloated pipelines either. Align KPIs around pipeline velocity and win rates, not just volume. A bloated pipeline isn’t a sign of success. It’s a symptom of a broken process. Fix the gaps, align teams, and turn “qualified” into closeable.

The Power of Lead Scoring: A Case Study One year ago, I worked with a tech startup with a big problem at hand... They reached out to me because their lead conversion was extremely low. Here's their story: This client faced a common struggle: Turning leads into customers. Despite their efforts, they couldn't crack the code. And there was one main reason for this—they had ZERO lead scoring in place. Now, I know what you might be saying “Jordan, what’s lead scoring?” Okay, so here's the deal with lead scoring: It's like having your own personal radar system for your sales and marketing efforts. You're basically assigning points to leads based on how interested they are in what you’re offering and how qualified they are—by a strict set of standards you create. So, instead of wasting time chasing after every lead out there, you can focus on the ones that are most likely to buy. It's all about working smarter, not harder. That's how you close more deals with less effort. Now, here’s the 5 part lead scoring system we put in place for this tech startup: Demographics: We looked at the industry, company size, job title(s), and location of their prospects. Behavioral Data: We monitored website visits, content downloads, and social media engagement. Engagement Level: The frequency that leads interacted with their content. By looking at this we were able to identify the most engaged prospects. Purchase Intent: Signals like demo requests or inquiries about pricing helped us to prioritize leads that were ready to make a decision. Lead Source: Understanding where leads came from provided insights into their level of interest and intent. Together, we introduced a cohesive lead scoring system—a smart move that changed the game for this startup. By implementing these five key criteria, they could finally stop wasting time and pinpoint which leads were worth pursuing. With this system in place, they saw incredible results. Leads weren’t just numbers anymore—they were real people with real needs. By focusing on the most promising leads, our client saw their conversion rates soar. In the end, it all came down to simplicity. By streamlining their approach and zeroing in on what mattered most, they saw record high sales numbers that year. P.s. - Does your company use lead scoring? If so, what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? Thanks for reading. Enjoyed this post? Follow Jordan Nelson Share with your network to help others increase their sales with lead scoring.

What is lead scoring for? This topic, in my opinion, does not get enough airplay. As a result, the value of "scoring" is consistently questioned and is typically used as a way for marketing to "tell" Sales what is qualified. The resulting output is a "Marketing Qualified Lead" that marketing can tell Sales is qualified and hold them "accountable" for spending time and treasure to attempt to convert. However, this plan works to the extent that Sales values your leads. If they cease to believe marketing's claims of quality, the score loses value to them and then marketing leadership starts to question the value of time spent on scoring. However, the value of scoring is not to qualify leads. That's sales' role. The value of scoring is to give Sales insights into high potential people to engage with. This means, your scoring system needs to include the following items. 🤝 Agreement: Sales must buy-in on the activities and the fit criteria being used. If this buy-in doesn't exist, your scoring isn't worth much. 💯 Activities that matter. Sales must value the activities you are scoring, which are generally activities that have meaning to them. Opening/clicking on an email or clicking on a marketing ad are generally inadequate. They care more about buying intent activities such as interest in a demo, RSVP'ing for an event where a buying conversation is possible, and questions asked during a webinar that indicate buying interest. 🪧 Context: Sales doesn't care that you have a lead scored at 100 points, or labeled as an "A2" without some context as to why those scores have been given. Context includes: 1. What specific sales-valued activity did they do? 2. How can I best engage the prospect to make the conversation successful? 3. Where specifically is the fit? 4. When did they engage in this activity (is this activity recent enough that a conversation is relevant at this time to the prospect?)? Note that none of these items insinuate "gating." They all point to prioritization. Therefore, scoring has more value in helping sales to prioritize their outreach than it does with qualifying. The insights and data you provide to sellers is more important than the act of assigning a lead as an "MQL." The more we as #MOPs professionals align around this mindset, the more successful we will be with driving revenue impact.