What do I do when I have so many incoming leads that they overwhelm the sales team? How can I help my sales team focus on the most interested and qualified prospects? These are common dilemmas for the modern day marketer. One of the biggest advantages of Marketing Automation is that we have the data at our fingertips to solve these problems. Join us as we discuss the finer points of lead qualification with Pardot. We’ll cover the best practices of using Pardot’s scoring and grading tools, and touch on some theory around buying stages. Your sales team will thank you later.

1. Lead Qualification: Defining Your
A-list Prospects for Focused Sales
Efforts
Dave Bloch
Kate Geerlings
Implementation Specialist
Implementation Manager

2. The problem: We’re at War!?

3. Statistics
• 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to sales;
however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified.
(MarketingSherpa)
• Lead Scoring provides an ROI of 138% versus companies that
don’t score leads (78%). (MarketingSherpa, 2012)
• 70% of the buying process is now complete by the time a
prospect is ready to engage with sales. (SiriusDecisions)

4. Agenda: Defining your “A” list prospects
• Buying Stage Theory: Nail down what stage someone is in.
• Scoring Theory: Helps us to gauge interest and identify
stage.
• Grading Theory: Which leads should we focus on based on
best fit?
• Practical Tips: 4 must-haves

5. Buying Stages
Content distribution

6. Buying Stages
Awareness /
Identifying issues
“All about them”
Solutions focused
(No BANT)
“Social proof”
Types of content:
• Case Studies on how
others benefitted
• Feature/benefit highlights
• Testimonials and statistics
on your product/service
Why are you the
best choice?
“About you”
Types of content:
• How to buy
• ROI proof
• Pricing guides
• Sales Sheets
Types of content:
• 5 industry tips
• Blog articles
• Personalized emails w/
links to articles
• Help someone do their
job better!

7. Scoring Theory
Insights into engagement / buying stage

8. Scoring Theory
Not all content is created equal: Score based on buying stage.
How? Baseline scoring vs. item specific
Item Early Stage Later Stage
Forms
(Completion actions, Auto rules)
Newsletter = 10 pts Contact Sales= 50 pts
Pages
(Page Actions, piPoints=“n”;)
Homepage = 1 pt Pricing page = 25 pts
Email CTA
(2 calls to action / Email)
Trial download= 10 pts How to Buy= 25 pts

9. Grading Theory
Insights into fit

10. Advanced Grading – Three Tiered Grading
Map out your grading strategy (A+ through F) in three steps:
1. Choose 3 criteria:
– Examples: Job Title, Company Size, Industry
2. Break each criterion into 3 tiers:
– Example: Job Title Tier 1 (“A”), Tier 2 (“B”), Tier 3 (“C”)
3. Map out values for each Tier: Examples
– Job Title Tier 1 = CEO; President; CMO
– Job Title Tier 2 = VP; director; Manager
– Job Title Tier 3 =Specialist; Associate

11. Practical Tips
4 must-haves

12. Create Custom Views in Salesforce

13. Keep Dynamic Lists of your “Hot” Prospects

14. Set Up Alerts/Assignments for Sales
Score-based using Automation Rules

15. Set Up Alerts/Assignments for Sales
Via Completion Actions for important content / activity
• Examples: Stage 3 Content, Contact Sales Form

16. Set Up a Score Depreciation Rule for Inactivity

17. Wrap up

18. Conclusions
• Track everything and score content based on buying stages.
• Decide to pass to sales at a certain score or when later-stage
content is accessed.
• Grading is a massive help to prioritize leads in the queue.

20. Q & A
Email: dbloch@salesforce.com