Lead Scoring: Prioritize Prospects and Close Deals Faster

What is lead scoring?

Lead scoring is a rating system that automatically assigns a score to each prospect based on pre-defined criteria. The higher the score, the "hotter" the lead and the more ready they are to buy. Your salespeople sort their list by descending score and always work from the top down.

Result: they spend 80% of their time on the 20% of prospects that generate 80% of revenue — the Pareto principle applied to your pipeline.

How to calculate a lead score

Firmographic criteria

• Industry: +15 points if within your target, 0 otherwise
• Company size: +20 for 10–200 employees, +10 for 200+, +5 for solo
• Geography: +10 for core markets, +5 for secondary
• Contact title: +25 if decision-maker (CEO, CFO, CTO), +10 if influencer

Behavioral criteria

• Demo request: +40 points (very hot lead)
• Pricing page visit: +20 points
• Downloaded a guide: +15 points
• Opened 3+ emails: +10 points
• No activity in 30 days: −15 points

Qualification thresholds

• Score ≥ 70: Hot lead — immediate call
• Score 40–69: Warm lead — targeted nurturing, follow-up in 7 days
• Score < 40: Cold lead — automated email sequence

5 steps to implement lead scoring

• 1. Define your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): which industry, size, budget?
• 2. List the buying signals shown by your best current customers
• 3. Weight the criteria by assigning point values
• 4. Configure the rules in your CRM
• 5. Adjust after 30 days by analyzing which scores actually converted