Lead Scoring

[ErinK]

Ok. So long story short. I need to implement a new lead scoring strategy. Can anyone out there explain how they completed their lead scoring? perhaps show some examples? I guess I am confused on how people can only receive points for each rule ONCE? How do you work around that?

Like I want people to earn points when they open an email but I dont want to create a new rule for each email if that makes sense. 

Looking for what is working for you to qualify your records for your sales teams! Thanks in advance!

[dfarkas]

Did you ever get a response to this because we are facing the same problem! We want to apply a general score on all the opens/clicks for each of our communications and doesn't look like you can do that. Thanks

[AmeliaE]

Agreed, and it's still an issue in 2021. 

People here have suggested here (and in other posts) that we keep it simple and so on - but to my mind, keeping it simple means having the capacity to: 

- has a contact clicked a link in an email? +1 every time

- has contact looked at a webpage (ideally for >20 seconds)? +1 every time

- has a contact completed a form? +5 every time

- has a contact completed this super special form? +20 for that individual form

- has a contact looked at my careers page, or any page within the /careers/ branch? -10 points 

And so on.

And! I want to set degradation - as in, points expire after 3 months (or whatever your sales cycle looks like). 

I have attempted to find ways to implement lead scoring like this, and have discovered no way to do it, either within HubSpot's 'best practice' methodology OR by jury-rigging.

I have created a better system with workarounds, but it is not good by any stretch. The organisation I'm currently with has an unhelpfully complex and ineffective lead scoring methodology that triggers MQLs that are consequently ignored by sales. 

Basically, I have done a lot of reading on this, I have not found a solution. I think it is telling that nowhere either online or in consultation with Hubspot support/customer success can I see actual examples of parts of lead scoring that people find effective. It leads me to believe that this is an area in which Hubspot really needs to commit to development. 

If anybody does have a way of applying something even approximating what I've outlined above - I would LOVE to see your examples. And if you posted it online, I guarantee you'd get a LOT of interest - check out the search volumes for 'hubspot lead scoring' versus any other 'hubsport thing' search volume - hubspot lead scoring has been searched at a vastly higher rate than other hubspot functionality for years! 

[DDavidson8]

Hi Amelia,

Appreciate this post is old. Did you ever find a solution to this as I'm stuck in the same boat?

[BérangèreL]

Hi @DDavidson8,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community!

I understand that you would like explanation and have examples of lead scoring. More precisely, you would like contacts to earn points when they open an email but you don't want to create a new rule for each email, is that right?

First, I'd like to share this article that explains how this works "Set up score properties to qualify contacts, companies, and deals".

Also, I have found similar posts that might interest you:

- The solution from @MFrankJohnson on this post "Lead scoring: assigning points per marketing email opened?"
- This post "Best practices on lead scoring on any email open or click"
- The solution from @karstenkoehler on this post "How to best incorporate specific emails into lead scoring"

I also wanted to invite a couple of subject matter experts to this conversation @GeorgeBThomas, @CateDuarte and @BukunmiOdetayo do you have any suggestions to help @DDavidson8, please?

If anybody else has anything to add and/or share, please feel free to join in the conversation 🙂

Thanks and have a great day!

Best,
Bérangère

[MFrankJohnson]

Help other HubSpot searchers find this post quickly by accepting the solution

Q: I want people to earn points when they open an email but I dont want to create a new rule for each email if that makes sense. 

Short A: Perfect sense Erin. Phil Vallender already addressed the "tiered lead scoring rules" method.

Longer A:

-1- We like to identify both positive and negative lead scoring attributes in a manner very similar to how we identify attributes for stale contacts. Using a quick little chart listing a handful of essential criteria.

(see image -- partially sanitized chart shown)

We find that using a paper chart (not computerized) forces us to closely examine our criteria -- possibly the most important step in devising any lead scoring strategy -- away from the Lead Scoring tool. That way we're not even tempted to play with critera that add absolutely zero value to the conversation.

To Phil's point ... "There can be no debate about who is an MQL and who is not." Couldn't agree more.
(btw - excellent post Phil ... thanks for that.)

To Phil's other point about keeping it simple ... totally agree. Complex lead scoring (in my mind) is symptomatic of a team trying to solve the sales-marketing disconnect by using technology. It rarely works and often results in undeserved blame of 'the system' -- HubSpot! 😞

-2- We like to use smart lists to identify lead scoring attributes. This way we can bundle related criteria without creating an overly complex lead scoring interface, and we can SEE the actual contacts to which the attributes apply (unlike within the lead scoring tool where we only get to view criteria).
(see image)

-3- Once the smart lists are built it becomes very easy to plug those values into the HubSpot Lead Scoring tool simply using the 'List membership' trigger.
(see image)

You now have the best of all worlds.

a) Documented buyer-centric criteria

b) 100% visibility into the contacts that match criteria at every stage

c) A relatively clean Lead Scoring interface

[ErinK]

Hey @MFrankJohnson and @Phil_Vallender How do you suggest you come up with the point values and what point values qualify different records for different stages in your lifecycle. For example, a MQL lead is qualified when their score reaches 100. How do you determine the correct point values!?

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

I think Phil's post, Simple lead scoring strategies for B2B SMEs, sums it up nicely @ErinK

He also includes a few formulas in this HCF post, Lead Scoring Cumulative Form Submissions

We typically use a 10-99 scoring system so the vast majority of valid lead scores produced result in 2-digit numerals. This is mostly for sorting purposes when used in Task Views to help sales reps prioritize large numbers of tasks quickly.

Other than that, the weight of specific criteria is pretty audience-dependent. Meaning, in some portals completing a 'free trial' may lead to a purchase >20% of the time. That means we'd weight a free trial very heavily in that portal.

In other portals webinar attendance may be a better indicator of purchase behavior, so we'd weight it more heavily.

Finally, forms submissions, meeting bookings, repeat webpage visits tend to be good indicators of interest in all portals. However, 'interest' (or engagement) isn't necessarily an indicator of ideal buyer fit.

That being said, we typically prefer to look at actual customer behavior data when setting up Lead Scoring. This approach tends to yield higher ROI on the lead score investment.

Additional References

How to use Manual Lead Scoring to automate your lead qualification
Having Trouble with B2B Lead Scoring?
Workflow to sync or update Lifecycle Stage based on Lead Score tiers

[Phil_Vallender]

Hi @ErinK

There are obviously lots and lots of ways to go about building your lead scoring and, despite what people may say, getting it right is very hard. 

To answer your question about contacts getting points for each rule only once - you can use tiered lead scoring rules to build cumulative scores for multiple occurrences of the same action. In HubSpot this is most easily done on metrics like website visits, page views, emails opens and clicks, form submissions, etc. 

I describe an approach to this type of engagement-based lead scoring in this blog post: Simple lead scoring strategies for B2B SMEs

This is not my preferred approach however as in the case of many B2B SMEs, engagement does not correlate with purchase. Therefore, I prefer to do ideal buyer type lead scoring along the lines of what I talk about in: What is a Marketing Qualified Lead (Really)?

I hope this gives you some ideas.