A huge volume of leads and no method for lead prioritization is sure to leave a lot of business on the table. At GAIN Capital, a global provider of online trading services, implementation of a careful lead scoring model coupled with a strong nurturing program resulted in reduced sales costs, higher conversions, a stronger relationship between Marketing and Sales, and improved customer experience.
This great lead scoring success story brought GAIN the Markie Award for Best Lead Scoring last month at Eloqua Experience. At DemandGen we share GAIN’s pride in this honor, and wanted to share a few valuable insights from the project.
Involve Sales Early and Often
According to Emily Deadwyler, Vice President of Customer Marketing and Analytics at GAIN Capital, one of the key factors from day one was the deep involvement of Sales at every stage of the project. “While the Marketing team drove the effort with strong sponsorship from the CMO, it was absolutely critical that we partner with Sales. “Lead Scoring was a big change from our existing model,” says Emily. “After years of experience, the Sales representatives had their own ways of recognizing which leads were most likely to convert. We were able to incorporate their experience and insight into the lead scoring model. And we knew that including the Sales team from the beginning would help them recognize the value of the system and become enthusiastic adopters.”
Moreover, she adds, the process of developing the lead scoring model has created a very strong bridge between the Sales and Marketing teams. “Today we share the same view of our customer, and the positive results of this Sales and Marketing alignment are being felt across both organizations.”
Make the Most of Your Data
GAIN was blessed with a large volume of historical lead behavior and win/loss data that provided a strong basis upon which the project team could make fact-based decisions. “Using this data, coupled with the Sales team’s hard-won insights from their years of experience, we built the Lead Scoring model based on explicit attributes as well as implicit attributes that we felt could influence conversion,” Emily explains.
Take Advantage of Available Expertise
Emily credits DemandGen with the experience-based guidance and tools that GAIN needed to translate the data into workable models. “DemandGen’s tools for developing the model and testing it allowed us to simulate results of leads with specific criteria. We were able to examine our historical data to determine the conversion point of leads with those specific criteria and test our assumptions.”
Do A Pilot Program
Together, GAIN and DemandGen implemented the program and ran in silent mode for a few months in order to check our theories. “We saw a few anomalies and made minor adjustments,” says Emily, “but at this point we were able to provide hardcore numbers, substantiating the approach, winning over the skeptics, and proving that lead scoring would be beneficial to the business.”
Next Time:
Next week, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of implementing lead scoring in your lead management process.
More more case studies on lead scoring
The post Insights From the Field: GAIN Capital’s Lead Scoring Project appeared first on DemandGen.