Sick of spending hours manually scoring leads based on gut feelings? We’ve been there.
Leads can be a huge time drain that leaves your sales team twiddling their thumbs while waiting for the next big fish to bite.
But what if AI lead scoring could help you out — on autopilot?
In this guide, we'll let you in on how AI lead scoring takes all of that hard work off your plate so that you can focus on actionable leads.
We’ll cover:
- Main benefits of AI lead scoring
- 10 ways conversational AI lead scoring can help you
- Next steps you can take to get started
The benefits of AI lead scoring
There’s a lot to love about AI lead scoring.
Let’s take a look:
- Massive efficiency gains: AI can automatically score new leads in real-time based on their online behavior and interactions. No more wasting hours manually researching and evaluating each lead.
- Accurate as all get out: A solid artificial intelligence has access to huge amounts of data that it uses to determine the attributes of your ideal customers. It can then compare new leads to these attributes to determine the best matches. This data-driven approach is far more accurate than humans guessing based on limited information.
The end result? Your sales team spends time on leads that are most likely to convert.
- Grows when you need it to: AI lead scoring systems can handle huge volumes of data and scale as your business grows. Whether you have 100 new leads a day or 100,000, AI can efficiently analyze all of them without breaking a sweat. Your sales and marketing teams are equipped to handle growth without needing to add significant resources.
Use cases for conversational AI lead scoring
Let’s take a look at some ways AI lead scoring can help out:
1. Accurately predicting prospect behavior
AI scans all those little details about your leads like what they click, how long they stay on your site, and what content they love.
Then, AI uses machine learning algorithms to analyze all available data points like time on the site, pages visited, downloads, form submissions, and more.
Based on this trove of insights, AI can identify which leads:
- Are in the early research phase versus “ready to buy now”
- Have a strong interest in certain products or services you offer, instead of the internet equivalent of “just browsing”
- Are likely to abandon their journey so that you focus only on those who want to move forward in the funnel
This predictive ability means you can segment your leads into groups based on their buying stage and likelihood to convert. You can then personalize your outreach and nurturing efforts for each group.
2. Improving all-around customer segmentation
Basic info like company size or location is so last decade.
AI looks at what your leads actually do and care about so that you can group them in ways that make sense. Maybe one segment always clicks product demos while another prefers educational content.
Here are some ways AI helps:
- Personalizing product recommendations: AI can tailor these based on previous interactions instead of just intuition.
- Targeting of educational content by interests: This makes prospective clients more likely to click all the way to the end of the funnel.
- Identifying segments that are most likely to adopt new products early: Some people are late adopters, and that’s all well and good. But AI can help you identify would-be clients who are ready to jump at the first opportunity of buying a product.
- Grouping leads with similar pain points and priorities: This makes you far more likely to get conversions.
- Focusing sales outreach on segments with the highest conversion potential: Don’t waste your time — AI can help you set your sights on the high rollers.
3. Automating lead quantification
Nothing says “wasted time” like quantifying leads.
Set your criteria for a quality lead and AI will automatically qualify new leads that meet the mark. Your sales team will thank you when they have more time to actually sell instead of sifting through unqualified leads.
You can implement criteria like:
- Contact information provided
- Downloads of a certain asset
- Visits to a specific page
- Completions of a form
Once a lead meets those conditions, their score passes a threshold you set, and they're automatically marked as qualified. Your sales reps get notifications of the new qualified leads and can immediately start engaging them.
4. Nurturing those leads
AI gets personal with your lead nurturing campaigns. Each lead gets content and communication tailored to their needs based on their unique interests and behaviors. No more batch and blast emails.
Here’s how AI ensures each lead feels like your #1 priority:
- AI analyzes each lead's behavior and interactions. This helps determine the content and frequency that would be most relevant for them.
- Leads are segmented into groups. You can target them based on their needs and interests to receive group-specific nurturing messages.
- It automatically sends personalized emails. with educational content, product demos, or other resources that match each lead's unique profile.
- AI creates follow-up messages and reminders. These interactions are tailored to the next best step for moving each lead further along the sales funnel.
5. Updating you on leads dynamically
Leads are living, breathing potential customers. As a result, their scores need to reflect their latest interactions and interests.
AI lead scoring gives you major insights into the leads that have the highest potential to convert into customers. The AI is constantly updating lead scores based on new behaviors and interactions.
In summary, dynamic AI lead scoring:
- Provides real-time visibility into your best leads
- Replaces manual score updating so your team can focus on selling
- Improves sales productivity by focusing outreach on high-potential leads
- Optimizes your lead funnel for maximum conversions
6. Telling you, "Hey, you can cross-sell or upsell here!"
AI scans customer data to find the perfect upsell or cross-sell for each loyal customer. Maybe customers who buy Product A always come back for Product C six months later.
Here are some tips to maximize the potential of this intervention:
- Start small. Test the AI on a subset of customers before rolling it out company wide. This will allow you to refine the recommendations and AI model.
- Be selective. Only recommend the most relevant products to each customer. Too many irrelevant offers will annoy customers.
- Don’t forget to personalize. Include the customer's name and personalized details in the offer. This shows you know and understand their unique needs.
- Make it effortless. Integrate the AI recommendations directly into your sales and service workflows to minimize friction.
- Follow up proactively. After sending an AI recommendation, have your sales team follow up to answer any questions and close the deal.
- Listen to feedback. If customers reject offers, use that feedback to refine the AI model and improve future recommendations.
7. Analyzing lead sources
AI evaluates the performance of various lead sources in real-time, making sure that your marketing budget is aimed toward the most productive channels.
Here’s how it does it:
- Real-time assessment: AI analyzes metrics such as click-through rates, time spent on the site, and engagements with the content to identify high-quality leads.
- Optimized marketing spending: With insights on effective channels, you can allocate resources more efficiently, focusing on sources that yield the best results.
8. Detecting and reacting to lead drop-off points
AI pinpoints stages in the sales process where leads commonly lose interest or disengage, allowing for proactive adjustments to the sales strategy.
How?
AI identifies drop-off points where leads typically disengage during the sales process. Based on these insights, you can tweak your messaging, improve follow-up processes, and provide additional resources to keep leads engaged.
9. Prioritizing leads through sentiment analysis
AI lead scoring can give you sentiment analysis tools to assess the tone and intent of communications from potential leads.
How does this help?
- Gauging sentiment: AI analyzes emails, chat interactions, and social media posts to determine the mood of leads (positive, neutral, or negative).
- Prioritizing follow-up actions: Leads showing strong interest or urgency are always the priority — you want timely and engaged responses.
- Tailoring responses: Getting a grip on lead sentiment helps tailor responses to individual needs, improving outreach effectiveness.
10. Integrating IoT and social data for comprehensive scoring
AI also integrates data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices and social media interactions into the lead-scoring model.
This gives you a comprehensive overview of lead engagement and potential with:
- AI data integration combines IoT and social media data with traditional metrics to enhance lead scoring.
- This bird’s eye view integration offers a fuller picture of lead behavior, such as product usage patterns and social media interests.
- Accurate scoring models incorporate diverse data sources to improve the accuracy of lead scoring, ensuring focus on the most promising prospects.
Summing up
We’re sure that was a lot of AI lead-scoring goodness to digest.
First, start with one area that needs improvement, like lead qualification or nurturing. Then implement a smart AI solution just for that, and let it work its high-tech magic.
Once you see great results, you'll be hooked and ready to let AI loose on every corner of your sales process.
Next steps
Lindy's AI-powered chatbot is the ultimate solution for improving your lead scoring and boosting sales.
Check out its main features:
- Analyze lead behavior: Lindy tracks how prospects interact with your website, content, and chatbot to identify their interests and intent.
- Predict buying readiness: Lindy's AI accurately predicts which leads are ready to buy, which need nurturing, and which are likely to drop off, so you can tailor your approach accordingly.
- Qualify leads automatically: Stop wasting time on unqualified leads. Lindy automatically identifies high-potential prospects who meet your criteria, so your sales team can focus on closing deals.
- Nurture leads effectively: Lindy delivers personalized nurturing campaigns that keep leads engaged and guide them through the sales funnel.
- Effortlessly scale your support: Create societies of Lindies to handle increasing lead volumes and improve responses over time through shared learning. Lindies can handle virtually any task under the sun.
- Gain valuable insights: Understand what drives your leads, identify drop-off points, and optimize your sales process based on Lindy's data-driven insights.
- Connect with thousands of integrations: Connect Lindy with over 3,000 of your favorite tools, including CRMs, email marketing platforms, and more.
- Build your bot, your way: Easily create and customize your chatbot to match your brand's unique voice and style, no coding required.
