Sales doesn’t like the leads you are sending over, or sales doesn’t even bother to look at them. Sound familiar? The June Eloqua User Group meeting, hosted by immixGroup, was filled with great tips for aligning sales and marketing. This included a presentation from immixGroup on the rebirth of its lead scoring program. Here are a few key takeaways from their experience:

Assess the Situation

Figure out what is working well and what needs some adjustment. Check the number of email opens, click-through rate, or web traffic. Do a content audit and see what is performing well and can be repurposed and added to a welcome or nurture campaign. Take some time to dig into the existing data to see where lead scoring could assist in improving weaker areas.

Meet Regularly to Keep Momentum

Schedule a reoccurring meeting for the marketing team to sync up on the current activities and to plan for what is ahead. Determine what events, webinars or other activities are happening in the month and prepare for the upcoming number of leads. This gives time to update the model and adjust notifications to best serve the new leads to sales. Meeting regularly also provides an opportunity to check on current activities and, if necessary, realign without wasting countless hours on a program that is not meeting the set goals.

Lead Scoring Programs are Constantly Evolving

Not only are lead scoring tools and programs evolving, so is the market. Leads are constantly being moved from hot to cold depending on their interaction through live events, webinars, email clicks, or blog visits. Companies need to consistently look for better ways to automate and streamline leads to improve the lead management process. This could involve looking for new tools or start at the beginning and reassess how the sales and marketing teams are currently handling leads. Change is inevitable and necessary to meet lead scoring goals.

The revamp of immixGroup’s lead scoring produced tangible success, one example being surpassing multiple sales goals. Another result of improved lead scoring is better alignment between marketing and sales. Thanks to immixGroup’s presentation, others can glean from their lessons learned and compare it to their own lead scoring model or begin to consider setting up a program from scratch.