Using Predictive Lead Scoring for B2B Appointment Setting Success

Rohan Mathew

Updated on:

By accessing only ‘ready to buy’ leads through predictive lead scoring, you shorten the sales funnel and improve b2b appointment setting

 

Improve Your Using B2B Appointment Setting with Predictive Lead Scoring

Lead generation is the bread and butter of B2B companies. But aren’t you overlooking opportunities by not making proper use of your existing contacts? An upsell is not the only thing you need existing accounts for. Mine your loyal customers for essential data and insights about their typical behaviors and pain points. Use predictive scoring for B2B leads and expand your business.

Why does your business need predictive lead scoring?

  • It will grow your revenue quicker due to the better lead quality
  • It will save time and energy to your sales team
  • If you’re contemplating lead scoring, it means your sales funnel is brimming with leads and you simply need to separate not only the good from the bad but also the best from the good

Considering predictive lead scoring as one of the most effective methods of b2b lead generation will help you align your sales strategy and develop the perfect sales funnel that will reflect the path your customers take on the way to purchasing your product/service. 

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What’s Predictive Lead Scoring?

Using trackable attributes and metrics for lead generation is nothing new. For decades, sales reps used to rank their prospects and leads with rule-based scoring systems either with manual lead scoring or with their marketing automation software. However, drawing mostly on the limited firmographic information (company size, business trends, activity, and ownership), scoring processes were time-consuming and not very strong on predicting and reliability.

When artificial intelligence entered the game, predictive scoring systems expanded their criteria to include budget size, likelihood to close, technologies used by customers, unique expertise, and priority. Accessing different sources of behavioral information (Google Analytics toolkit, apps, CRM software, chatbots, widgets, etc.) allowed AI to suggest sales teams the best approaches to lead scoring and b2b appointment setting. Thus, predictive lead scoring carried out by AI makes it easier for businesses to align their sales goals with the available resources. As a result, sales teams have more reliable data they can incorporate into marketing campaigns and enhance lead engagement.

Implementing Predictive Lead Scoring in the Sales Funnel?

The beauty of predictive lead scoring is that your sales and marketing teams no longer qualify leads manually. Predictive lead scoring programs and applications use machine learning models. Your task is just to feed the computer as much data as you can.

Here’s the pathway of predictive lead scoring integrated in the sales funnel:

  1. The sales reps feed the company’s historical customer data to the computer
  2. The computer analyzes what makes a lead qualified or not
  3. The sales reps feed the computer new data
  4. The computer identifies the most qualified leads
  5. Now the team can work with these leads

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Predictive lead scoring can be implemented in a company of any size at an affordable cost. Predictive scoring systems are normally well integrated with a company’s internal CRM and marketing automation database. Plus, they add external data. Here’s the list of internal and external information about leads and customers predicting scoring systems use:

  • Analytics data about prospect behavior on your website (pageviews, number of queries, search info, frequency and type of download activity, amount of data uploaded, number of tables etc.),
  • Marketing data (lead source, whether they left their work email address or not, number of emails opened, webinars attended)
  • Firmographic data about their company (size, industry, revenue)
  • Whether they upgraded to a higher tier or not
  • External data (company financials, number of employees, number and location of offices, media coverage, press releases, social media activity, management changes, patents, job openings, mergers and acquisitions, etc.)

In contrast to traditional b2b leads scores, the resulting lead scores are much better predictors of actual buying behavior.

Regardless of what sales funnel examples you use in your lead generation, predictive lead scoring is incredibly helpful at the last stages of the sales funnel – Decision and Action. Furthermore, there are predictive model builders available online that can be adjusted to your situation and are ready to use in hours.

How is Predictive Lead Scoring Used for Sales Appointment Setting?

It’s just common sense to use ‘ready to buy’ prospects for sales appointment setting rather than unselected or less qualified leads. Even though many CRM software vendors have lead scoring integrated into their sales automation platforms, AI uplifts predictive scoring to the next level of reliability. However, humans are still needed to interpret and implement the results of predictive scoring. Not all B2B companies have an in-house appointment setting team. Many outsource both predictive lead scoring and appointment setting to marketing agencies that have the technology and knowledge to use it. In addition to predictive lead scoring software, lead generation agencies have email spam checker software, landing page creation software, form & email collection, lead data collection and many other technological solutions to make lead generation as effective as it is humanly possible. 

It is also important to remember that no matter how smart AI gets, it hasn’t yet adapted to the non-linearity of human behavior. A customer’s journey is never linear these days. Prospects and leads may go in circles around your products and services and so far predictive scoring fails to account for it. However, experienced appointment setters can go past the top of the funnel and make sense of predictive scoring in the most reasonable way.

Is Your Business Ready?

Whatever your business’s size, the availability of historical customer data and acquisition expenses to implement it will allow you to use predictive lead scoring effectively. If your business is not ready to hire a full-time data analyst or a part-time consultant, you can find an automatized platform. However, remember that you can always reach out to Belkins and get not only a well-informed consultation but also the full package of lead generation and appointment setting services. In the future, predictive scoring will get more sophisticated and able to predict every stage of the sales funnel. However, you can start using predictive scoring right now and limit the number of times when your sales reps waste their time and disturb prospects who were not ready to buy. Implement predictive scoring and reach the right leads at the right moment.

Using Predictive Lead Scoring for B2B Appointment Setting Success

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By accessing only ‘ready to buy’ leads through predictive lead scoring, you shorten the sales funnel and improve b2b appointment setting

 

Improve Your Using B2B Appointment Setting with Predictive Lead Scoring

Lead generation is the bread and butter of B2B companies. But aren’t you overlooking opportunities by not making proper use of your existing contacts? An upsell is not the only thing you need existing accounts for. Mine your loyal customers for essential data and insights about their typical behaviors and pain points. Use predictive scoring for B2B leads and expand your business.

Why does your business need predictive lead scoring?

  • It will grow your revenue quicker due to the better lead quality
  • It will save time and energy to your sales team
  • If you’re contemplating lead scoring, it means your sales funnel is brimming with leads and you simply need to separate not only the good from the bad but also the best from the good

Considering predictive lead scoring as one of the most effective methods of b2b lead generation will help you align your sales strategy and develop the perfect sales funnel that will reflect the path your customers take on the way to purchasing your product/service. 

What’s Predictive Lead Scoring?

Using trackable attributes and metrics for lead generation is nothing new. For decades, sales reps used to rank their prospects and leads with rule-based scoring systems either with manual lead scoring or with their marketing automation software. However, drawing mostly on the limited firmographic information (company size, business trends, activity, and ownership), scoring processes were time-consuming and not very strong on predicting and reliability.

When artificial intelligence entered the game, predictive scoring systems expanded their criteria to include budget size, likelihood to close, technologies used by customers, unique expertise, and priority. Accessing different sources of behavioral information (Google Analytics toolkit, apps, CRM software, chatbots, widgets, etc.) allowed AI to suggest sales teams the best approaches to lead scoring and b2b appointment setting. Thus, predictive lead scoring carried out by AI makes it easier for businesses to align their sales goals with the available resources. As a result, sales teams have more reliable data they can incorporate into marketing campaigns and enhance lead engagement.

Implementing Predictive Lead Scoring in the Sales Funnel?

The beauty of predictive lead scoring is that your sales and marketing teams no longer qualify leads manually. Predictive lead scoring programs and applications use machine learning models. Your task is just to feed the computer as much data as you can.

Here’s the pathway of predictive lead scoring integrated in the sales funnel:

  1. The sales reps feed the company’s historical customer data to the computer
  2. The computer analyzes what makes a lead qualified or not
  3. The sales reps feed the computer new data
  4. The computer identifies the most qualified leads
  5. Now the team can work with these leads

Predictive lead scoring can be implemented in a company of any size at an affordable cost. Predictive scoring systems are normally well integrated with a company’s internal CRM and marketing automation database. Plus, they add external data. Here’s the list of internal and external information about leads and customers predicting scoring systems use:

  • Analytics data about prospect behavior on your website (pageviews, number of queries, search info, frequency and type of download activity, amount of data uploaded, number of tables etc.),
  • Marketing data (lead source, whether they left their work email address or not, number of emails opened, webinars attended)
  • Firmographic data about their company (size, industry, revenue)
  • Whether they upgraded to a higher tier or not
  • External data (company financials, number of employees, number and location of offices, media coverage, press releases, social media activity, management changes, patents, job openings, mergers and acquisitions, etc.)

In contrast to traditional b2b leads scores, the resulting lead scores are much better predictors of actual buying behavior.

Regardless of what sales funnel examples you use in your lead generation, predictive lead scoring is incredibly helpful at the last stages of the sales funnel – Decision and Action. Furthermore, there are predictive model builders available online that can be adjusted to your situation and are ready to use in hours.

How is Predictive Lead Scoring Used for Sales Appointment Setting?

It’s just common sense to use ‘ready to buy’ prospects for sales appointment setting rather than unselected or less qualified leads. Even though many CRM software vendors have lead scoring integrated into their sales automation platforms, AI uplifts predictive scoring to the next level of reliability. However, humans are still needed to interpret and implement the results of predictive scoring. Not all B2B companies have an in-house appointment setting team. Many outsource both predictive lead scoring and appointment setting to marketing agencies that have the technology and knowledge to use it. In addition to predictive lead scoring software, lead generation agencies have email spam checker software, landing page creation software, form & email collection, lead data collection and many other technological solutions to make lead generation as effective as it is humanly possible. 

It is also important to remember that no matter how smart AI gets, it hasn’t yet adapted to the non-linearity of human behavior. A customer’s journey is never linear these days. Prospects and leads may go in circles around your products and services and so far predictive scoring fails to account for it. However, experienced appointment setters can go past the top of the funnel and make sense of predictive scoring in the most reasonable way.

Is Your Business Ready?

Whatever your business’s size, the availability of historical customer data and acquisition expenses to implement it will allow you to use predictive lead scoring effectively. If your business is not ready to hire a full-time data analyst or a part-time consultant, you can find an automatized platform. However, remember that you can always reach out to Belkins and get not only a well-informed consultation but also the full package of lead generation and appointment setting services. In the future, predictive scoring will get more sophisticated and able to predict every stage of the sales funnel. However, you can start using predictive scoring right now and limit the number of times when your sales reps waste their time and disturb prospects who were not ready to buy. Implement predictive scoring and reach the right leads at the right moment.