Lead scoring

Lead scoring is a method of ranking leads by assigning points for how well each one fits your target customer profile and for the actions it has taken, such as attending a demo or viewing pricing. When a lead's total crosses an agreed threshold, it is routed to sales. Leads below the threshold stay in nurture until their behavior or fit changes.

How it is calculated

The weights and the threshold are choices your team makes. The formula only works if marketing and sales agree on them.

A concrete case

Salesforce describes sales-ready criteria that might include leads who’ve attended a product demo, engaged with three or more assets, or submitted a pricing request. It adds that some teams use a score of 80 or higher based on intent signals, to trigger automatic routing. A lead that reaches the threshold goes to a rep. A lead that falls short stays in nurture.

Salesforce also reports a customer that automated scoring and handoffs, and they doubled their conversion rate and increased upgrades by 80%. That is one vendor-reported case. It is not a benchmark.

Usual mistakes

• Loose criteria. Klipfolio lists the case where lead scoring criteria are too loose as one cause of a low conversion rate from marketing qualified lead (MQL) to sales qualified lead (SQL). A scoring model that promotes leads too early inflates your MQL count without improving pipeline quality.
• Static weights. Salesforce notes that static rules quickly become outdated.
• No feedback loop. Understory names closed-loop feedback from sales dispositions back into scoring as a lever. Scoring criteria should reflect what your sales team actually sees in leads that close.
• Scoring without agreement. According to Salesforce, the fix is also a shared definition of what makes a lead sales-ready.

When it matters

Scoring matters most when MQL volume grows and SQL volume stays flat. That pattern usually means the threshold is too low or the weights reward activity that does not predict a close. Compare your stage rates against our funnel conversion benchmarks. Then work backward from your pipeline target with the reverse funnel calculator.