Definition
Lead scoring assigns a numeric value to a lead based on fit attributes (industry, size, role) and behaviour (pages viewed, emails opened, forms submitted), to prioritise follow-up. Its accuracy depends entirely on whether the model was built from outcomes rather than assumptions.
Behavioural points are the part that drifts. Scores built on email opens became unreliable once privacy features began pre-fetching images and inflating open rates.
A score is only validated by looking backwards: did high-scoring leads actually convert at a higher rate?
The usual error
Where this goes wrong in practice
Scoring engagement with content that does not indicate buying intent. A careers-page visitor and a pricing-page visitor should not accumulate the same points.
Related terms
Revenue operations (RevOps)
Revenue operations is the function that aligns marketing, sales and customer success around one set of definitions, one data model and one measurement system. Its work is mostly at the seams — handoffs, routing rules, stage definitions, field hygiene and reporting that all three teams accept.
DefinitionLead routing
Lead routing is the logic that decides which person or team receives an inbound lead, based on territory, product, company size, source or availability. It runs automatically in most CRMs, and the rules tend to outlive the organisational structure that justified them.
DefinitionOffline conversion import
Offline conversion import sends outcomes that happen outside the website — a qualified lead, a booked job, closed revenue — back to the advertising platform, matched to the original click. It lets bidding optimise toward revenue rather than form fills.
DefinitionPipeline velocity
Pipeline velocity estimates how quickly revenue moves through a sales process, combining the number of qualified opportunities, average deal value, win rate and average cycle length into a single rate-of-revenue figure.
DefinitionSpeed to lead
Speed to lead is the elapsed time between an inbound enquiry arriving and a human making genuine contact. It is one of the few operational metrics where the direction of the effect is not seriously disputed — contact rates fall sharply as the interval grows.
Definition