CRM - March 2009 - (Page 40)

LOOKING TO SCORE the office.” Jokes aside, Vannoy says there are two serious considerations in lead scoring: First is consensus on business needs. “It’s whatever sales and marketing agree on it to be; a midsize tech company might have a different definition than a $10 million startup where every lead has to be solid,” Vannoy says. “But there must be agreement.” Without it, the two sides get stuck in the tennis match as each tries to pursue different goals. The second is the idea of explicitversus-implicit lead qualification. It’s not always easy to grasp. “People get this conceptually, but don’t practice it,” Vannoy says. “Explicit lead scoring has been around for a long time—it should be a no-brainer. It’s all the things you can just query on ZoomInfo,” such as company, away from sole reliance on explicit qualification and static scoring. “If your score is just a single number, and that’s what the salespeople see, they just don’t know what went into it,” says Jim Meyer, vice president and general manager of eTrigue, a provider of on-demand leadanalysis tools. “That’s a problem with single-score solutions. An intern might have a low demographic score, but a high activity score—adding up to 100. A CEO, on the other hand, would likely have a high demographic score and a low activity score—also adding to 100. How can you tell the difference?” Like almost anybody you might ask, Meyer is of the “it depends” school when it comes to judging a lead. “I see many ways people choose to score—it’s all over the map,” he says. “Plus, any model you good one. But perhaps it should be expanded, to “Know Thy Customer As Thyself.” A clear understanding of your own value can only help you know which prospects are the best fit and most likely win. “Imagine an emerging business, coming to market with a product, as a Venn diagram of the market’s needs, your capabilities, and your competition,” SalesEngine’s Vannoy suggests. “You must consider your competition— if you go after business where you don’t have a compelling advantage, you can tee up a lot of opportunities for your competitors to win. That’s great if you get paid on the number of leads generated, but it’s a bad business plan.” Rather than give customers away, Vannoy says enlightened lead scoring— where you consider all the cards on the “If you go after business where you don’t have a compelling advantage, you can tee up a lot of opportunities for your competitors to win. That’s great if you get paid on the number of leads generated, but it’s a bad business plan.” sector, job title, and perhaps stated need for a product or service. “Implicit lead scoring is the client activity that shows interest in your product or service, like downloads or Web-site activity.” Of the two flavors of lead qualification, Vannoy strongly favors one side. “If you don’t include implicit scoring as a realtime, fluid thing,” he says,“you’re missing a lot of the point of scoring.”As an example, he describes two prospects, each of whom downloads a vendor’s white paper. In explicit terms, those are two equally valuable leads. Then imagine two other prospects downloading the white paper: One doesn’t open it, while the other opens it, confirms her email address, and forwards the document to others. Which one are you going to concentrate on more? Which one is more valuable? WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT THE LEADS? As technology advances and becomes more affordable, there has been a move 40 make to score leads is going to change over time.” He notes that larger companies “tend to be more formal about lead scoring, so they score more often,” but the criteria are not set in stone for any industry. Change over time is an important concept in lead scoring, and it’s also one on which eTrigue focuses. Not only do a company’s needs (and thus its scoring criteria) change over its lifetime, but the scores themselves need to reflect those changes for an accurate picture of a lead’s value. “Score as you go along, and adjust the scoring—but do it retroactively,” Meyer says. Doing so shows the present value of old business, making it easier to understand the nature of change. If webinars are performing badly, for instance, lower their value in the scoring system, but change the older scores as well so you don’t make decisions comparing against old data. Most readers are familiar with the mantra “Know Thy Customer,” and it’s a table, including the competition’s—is much more likely to lead to success. “Focus on what your competitors can’t do. Blow that out, make it big for you, and pursue the prospects that need it.” Meyer insists that custom scoring for particular markets is necessary, and there can be no one-size-fits-all solution to lead scoring. He also knows that, contrary to popular sentiment, it’s not always best to jump on the freshest leads immediately; wine that’s poured too soon is just grape juice. “Marketing tends to overvalue individual events, skew the weighting because of one thing, and hit the prospect too early,” he says. “Giving the salesperson a detailed view of what makes up a score is an important trend. Complete detail on a prospect is very useful when you make the call.” TIMING IS EVERYTHING Since the discussion of lead scoring includes the age of the lead and how active www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2009 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2009

CRM - March 2009 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Stay Tuned Stimulating Citizen Experience CRM on Twitter Retailers Face Reality Making Relationships Matter Required Reading We the People Innovation Nation CRM and the iPhone Looking to Score The Virtual Welcome Mat A Tough Transition Made Easier A Training Regimen Gets Rigorous A Battle Fought from Afar Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2009

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