Lead scoring
Ranking leads by how much their profile and behaviour resemble buyers - title, company fit, pages visited, emails opened - so sales works the likeliest first. A prioritisation tool, not an oracle: scores encode yesterday's assumptions, so the model needs revisiting against what actually closed.
Where it's used
Used in B2B marketing automation and CRM. Good when there are more leads than sales can call, and it needs regular checking against actual deals.
How to calculate it
Lead score = Points for fit + Points for behaviour
Worked example
Illustrative numbersLeads scoring 50 or more go to sales. This one is a Head of Marketing (20 points) at a 200-person firm (15 points). They visited the pricing page (15 points) and opened three emails (2 points each).
Points for fit
20 title + 15 company = 35
Points for behaviour
15 pricing + 6 emails = 21
Lead score
35 fit + 21 behaviour = 56
What it tells you
This lead goes to sales. If high scorers close no better than low ones after a quarter, the points are wrong and the model needs rebuilding.