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Many companies have created a lead scoring model such as [A, B, C or Cold, Warm, Hot] to help determine how valuable prospects are to your company. But what happens to the value of that prospect as time goes by? Are they as valuable six months from now as they are today?

Lead scoring is based on interactions and attributes of a prospect. An interaction can include an individual filling out a form, browsing your company website, or talking with a representative at a trade show. An attribute refers to key demographics of a contact and/or account including but not limited to name, title, email, phone, etc. 

Aging
A lead that is Hot today may not be as valuable next month or next year, but if you are not taking into account the recency of your leads, your sales representatives have no perspective on the true value of each lead. By introducing an aging multiplier, you can weight different interaction categories uniquely on how they impact the sales opportunity.

For example, a trade show interaction will be very valuable for a period of time and then quickly fade. A newsletter interaction may not be as valuable at the initial submission of interest, but from a branding and messaging perspective, this type of interaction drives value throughout the lifecycle of the subscription.

The graph shows how each interaction would be charted in terms of value over a three-year period using an aging model.

The Result

Combining the scores from prospects’ attributes and interactions, and applying an aging model, prospects can then be placed into a scale of 0-100. This scale then breaks into category levels of A, B, C and D. Each letter corresponds to a hot, warm, cool or cold score. The scale, score and terminology should mirror common sales terms currently in use at your organization.  The aging of the scores ensures that the most relevant and current opportunities always rise to the top.

There are always leads that will fall out of the sales funnel. Applying the right scoring model allows your organization to verify these very quickly and automatically before you invest valuable resources. By developing and implementing an automated lead scoring system, your company can:
• Prioritize leads and route them directly to appropriate sales resource or dealer.
• Provide focus to spend time on the best leads that will ultimately grow a stronger customer base.
• Achieve greater return on your marketing investment.