Sales is a perennial challenge. According to the 2024 Counselor State of the Industry survey from ASI Research, distributors’ top challenge across all company sizes is expanding their customer bases. Indeed, studies from outside the industry show that 80% of new leads don’t get to the close.

That means a lot of time and expense is spent on leads that aren’t a good fit and therefore won’t turn into paying customers down the line. Instead, prioritize more viable prospects with lead scoring, a sales practice that involves assigning values to leads and ranking them in terms of their likelihood to become a customer.

A proper lead-scoring plan must be carefully strategized in order to make it worthwhile. Here are five tactics to do so.

1. Study profiles and patterns.

Take a look at past successful sales and note the key attributes of the leads who became clients. Also examine those leads that didn’t make it through the pipeline to understand what doesn’t work well and who isn’t a good fit – and therefore should rank lower in lead scoring.

2. Look at engagement.

Understand the ways in which leads have engaged with your marketing. Analyze email blasts, social media posts and website engagement – a lead’s level of interest can be tracked, analyzed and noted through their direct engagement with campaigns.

3. Develop different formulas for various segments.

When targeting different audiences, create a cohesive, organized scoring process that ranks them in terms of what will most likely lead to success in those various categories. For instance, you can determine who has the budget and authority to buy premium products. This will help make your lead scoring more precise.

“Increasing the size of our customer base” is the top challenge for distributors across all revenue classes.(ASI Research)

4. Align sales and marketing.

Marketing teams know where to look for leads, while sales teams work with them directly to move them through the sales cycle. Communication between the two teams will create coherence that allows both parties to target leads from multiple angles.

5. Invest in software.

There are many popular CRMs that offer lead-scoring capabilities, which can help you quickly create different profiles and a targeted strategy. Consider platforms like Salesmate, HubSpot, Zapier, Salesforce and others.