Glossary term
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring ranks incoming leads with points so the team calls the ones closest to buying first. It does not replace qualification; it decides where qualification starts.
What is lead scoring?
Lead scoring is a method of giving every lead a number that reflects how likely it is to become a customer. The number is built from two kinds of signals: fit, meaning how closely the lead matches your ideal customer (industry, company size, city, job title), and engagement, meaning what the lead has done (asked for a quote, attended a demo, replied to messages). Points are added up, negative signals can subtract points, and the total is compared with thresholds that marketing and sales agree on, which decide who goes to a rep now and who stays in nurturing. Scoring is either rule-based, where the team writes the rules, or predictive, where a model learns from past deals.
A simple points model
A company selling point-of-sale systems to restaurants sets these rules (illustrative values):
| Signal | Points |
|---|---|
| Industry is restaurants or cafes | +30 |
| 3 or more branches | +40 |
| Requested a demo | +50 |
| Asked about accounting integration | +20 |
| Wrote from a personal email address | -15 |
| No engagement for 30 days | -25 |
A five-branch restaurant that booked a demo and asked about integration scores 30 + 40 + 50 + 20 = 140. With a hand-off threshold of 100, it goes straight to a rep. A single-branch cafe that wrote from a personal address and has been silent for a month scores 30 - 15 - 25 = -10 and stays in marketing nurture. After a quarter, compare scores with what was actually won: if many won deals started with low scores, the weights need rework.
In Naffes CRM
Naffes CRM offers two ways to score, and each has limits worth knowing before you rely on it:
- Admin-defined scoring rules. Under Settings, then Automation, then Lead Scoring, an admin adds a rule for Deals or Companies, builds conditions on fields or tags that must all match or any match (with operators such as =, >, <, contains and in), and sets the points, which can be negative. Scores are banded Cold, Lukewarm (50+), Warm (100+) and Hot (200+). A score is recalculated when a record is created or when key fields such as stage, amount or sector change, and Recompute scores re-scores every record.
- On-demand AI scoring. On the Contacts or Companies list, select records and choose Score. AI returns a 0-100 score with a one-line rationale for each, up to 50 records per job. Viewing the results requires a plan that includes the AI features; see pricing.
Worth knowing: rule-based scoring is limited today. The score and its breakdown appear only in the company drawer, not on deals or contacts, so a rule that targets deals produces a score you will not see on the deal page, and rules cannot target contacts at all. AI scores are shown in a dialog and are not saved to the records.
Do not confuse a lead score with a deal health score. The first asks whether a lead deserves the team's time; the second asks whether an open deal is still moving. Naffes computes deal health from 0 to 100 from factors led by recent activity, stakeholder coverage, stage velocity and data completeness.
Building a score reps will trust
- Start with four to six rules and tell reps why each one exists.
- Derive rules from recent won deals: which industries, sizes and behaviors do they share?
- Add negative points for signals that predict a poor fit, such as competitors or students researching a topic.
- Review thresholds every quarter against actual wins, then adjust the weights.
A score is worthless if nobody responds in time; a hot lead left waiting a day goes cold. Read this term together with lead and speed to lead, and see lead management for the tools.
Questions
Questions 2
How is lead scoring different from qualification?
Scoring is an automatic or semi-automatic ranking based on the data you already have. Qualification is a conversation in which a rep confirms need, budget and the decision maker. Scoring decides where to start; qualification decides whether to continue.
Can Naffes score contacts with rules?
Not today. Scoring rules target deals or companies, and the score appears in the company drawer. To rank a batch of contacts, use AI scoring from the Contacts list, keeping in mind that its results are not saved to the records.