Imaginasium | Lead Generation | 5 minute read
Scoring Sales Leads, for Manufacturers
In consumer sales, it’s all about urgency… addressing leads as quickly as possible to move them toward a sale. With B2B and manufacturing, it’s a bit different: the purchase size is bigger, so the sales cycle is longer and often involves many people, departments and divisions.
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Even in this setting, it’s helpful to have a methodology for scoring leads: examining leads who state that they’re interested in what you offer, and assigning a value to these leads/ ranking them against others. It’s key for time management and for knowing the right touches at any point along the sales funnel.
Use Your Time Effectively
The last thing you want is for your sales team to waste time trying to close a lead that doesn’t hold potential. You should have a system to know which to contact first, and what to say - by ranking them.
Say the Right Thing
Before you reach out to an interested lead, you need to do a bit of research into the potential customer’s company. Scoring leads helps you know which ones to spend time on researching, and crafting pitches that will be targeted to their needs.
A Basic Model for Scoring Leads
Your system will be tailored to the products you manufacture and the customers you serve, but the simplest starting point for scoring leads is some version of “hot,” “warm,” and “cold.” These categories can be defined around characteristics like needs for a product that you offer, any budget information, even company culture fit… the list goes on!
Consider your own priorities and set up a system where any lead that ranks in the 75-100th percentile is “hot,” 74-40th percentile is “warm,” and the rest are “cold.”
And don’t forget, we can help! As the Smart Marketing agency for manufacturers, this is just one key piece of the strategies that we develop and implement, to help you grow sales.