What is a lead scoring model?
A lead scoring model automatically calculates a score for your leads to help inform marketing qualification decisions. You can build scores using both behavioral interactions and attributes stored on a lead or related record. Behavioral criteria might include:
- Opening a marketing email
- Clicking a link
- Submitting a marketing form
- Interacting with a text message
- Having an email blocked or bounced
You can also score leads based on attributes such as Lead Source, Estimated Value, or information from related records like contacts, accounts, and events. By combining these signals, you can define what makes a strong lead for your organization and help your marketing and sales teams focus on the right prospects.
Prerequisites and security
You'll need a Dynamics 365 Customer Insights license to use lead scoring. This can be a standalone license or an attach license when used alongside existing Dynamics 365 licensing. An administrator also needs to enable lead scoring in the marketing app. Go to:
- Settings
- Feature Switches
- Find Lead Management
- Turn lead scoring on
There are also two security roles that determine what users can do with lead scoring:
- Lead Score Viewer: Users can view scoring models and analytics but cannot create or edit models.
- Lead Score Modeler: Users have full access to create and manage scoring models.
Create a lead scoring model
From the marketing app, open Lead Management, select Scoring Models, and create a new model. You can add conditions to control which leads the model evaluates. For example, you could limit scoring to leads created on or after a particular date. From there, you can begin adding groups of scoring conditions. There are two primary types of criteria you can use:
- Behavioral triggers: Actions the lead or related contact has taken.
- Attributes: Information stored on the lead record or related records.
Each condition can add or subtract points from the lead's overall score.
Score leads based on behavior
Behavioral triggers allow you to assign points based on interactions with your marketing. For example, instead of simply awarding points when someone opens an email once, you could create a condition for a lead who opens an email three times within the last two months. You can adjust the conditions and operators to make your scoring criteria as specific as needed. Different interactions can also carry different values. A link click, for example, might be worth more points than an email open because it can indicate a higher level of engagement. Not every behavior needs to increase a score. Negative interactions, such as blocked or bounced emails, can be configured to subtract points.
Score leads based on attributes
You can also build scoring groups using information stored on the lead record or related records. For example, you might award additional points when a lead's Estimated Value is greater than or equal to $10,000. Attributes can come from:
- The lead record
- A related contact
- A related account
- Event registrations or attendance
- Other related information available to the model
You can also combine multiple conditions within the same group. For example, a group could consider both a lead's Estimated Value and the annual revenue of the related company before awarding points. A lead scoring model can contain up to 40 groups, giving you room to combine multiple behavioral and attribute-based signals.
Assign lead grades
A numerical score isn't always the easiest measurement for sales and marketing teams to interpret at a glance. Grades can make the meaning of a score clearer. For example, you could define:
- A or Hot: 40 points or higher
- B: 30 to 39 points
- Additional grades for lower scoring ranges
The specific labels and ranges should reflect how your organization defines lead quality. This gives salespeople an easier way to understand the significance of the underlying score without relying on the numerical value alone.
Include parent contact interactions
Your model can also account for interactions associated with a parent contact linked to a lead. This can be helpful when you're marketing to existing contacts in your system and want their interactions to contribute to the associated lead's score. Choose whether those parent contact interactions should count when configuring the model.
Publish your lead scoring model
Once your scoring conditions are configured, you can publish the model. Keep in mind that once the model is live, you cannot modify its scoring conditions. Scores also may not appear immediately. Processing time depends on factors such as the complexity of the model and the number of leads being scored, so allow time for scores and analytics to populate.
Review lead scoring insights
Once leads have been scored, you can use the model's analytics to see how scores are distributed across your leads. You can also open individual lead records and use the Lead Score tab to review their scores. This gives your marketing team insight into how leads are responding to your efforts while giving your sales team another way to understand the quality of the leads they're working with.
Automatically qualify leads
Lead scoring becomes even more useful when you connect it to lead qualification. You can define a score that determines when a lead should automatically become marketing qualified and sales ready. For example, your organization might determine that once a lead reaches 40 or 50 points, the lead has demonstrated enough interest or meets enough of your criteria to be passed to sales. Instead of requiring the marketing team to manually decide when each lead is ready, the qualification process can happen automatically when the configured score is reached.
Help salespeople focus on ready-to-engage leads
Marketing qualification can also be incorporated into Dynamics 365 views. Because Marketing Qualified is available as a status reason and Sales Ready can be shown as a column, you can create and filter views so salespeople see the leads that are ready for them to engage. For example, you could create a view that displays only marketing-qualified leads or leads marked as sales ready. This creates a more streamlined handoff from marketing to sales and helps sellers focus their attention on leads that have already met your organization's qualification criteria.
Put your lead scoring model to work
A lead scoring model can turn marketing engagement and lead data into an actionable qualification process with relatively little setup. Start by identifying the actions and attributes that indicate a strong lead for your organization. Assign meaningful point values, use grades to make those scores easier to understand, and establish qualification thresholds that determine when a lead is ready for sales. Once your model is running, review its analytics and scored leads to continue making informed decisions about how your marketing and sales teams nurture and prioritize prospects.
