Lead Scoring
In one line
Lead scoring assigns numerical points to a prospect's behaviours and attributes so you can rank who is closest to a buying decision and prioritise outreach accordingly.
Going deeper
Lead scoring works on two axes. Fit captures how close the prospect is to your ICP — company size, industry, role. Engagement captures behavioural signals — pricing page visits, email opens, demo requests. Combining the two gives you Hot/Warm/Cold tiers automatically.
The real value is removing guesswork from the question 'who do reps call first?' When hundreds of leads land daily, just isolating the top 10% by score lifts sales efficiency materially.
The trap is treating the model as a one-and-done deliverable. Markets shift, products change, and signals that used to mean 'hot' can quietly become noise. Most teams revisit the model quarterly, and the bigger ones graduate to ML-driven scoring that learns weights from actual conversion data.
Related terms
MQL
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a prospect whose engagement and fit signals indicate they are ready to be handed off from marketing to sales.
MarketingSQL
A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a prospect that sales has independently verified — confirmed intent, budget and authority — making them the real starting point of an active sales motion.
MarketingLead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the practice of moving prospects who aren't ready to buy yet through a sequence of relevant content until they reach a buying decision.
MarketingMarketing Automation
Marketing automation is the tooling and strategy that triggers email, CRM, ads and in-app messages automatically based on user behaviour and lifecycle stage.
MarketingICP
An ideal customer profile (ICP) defines the company-level characteristics of your most valuable B2B customers — the anchor for targeting, content and sales decisions.