You have 200 names on the list and about four hours to call them. So you start at the top. By lunch you have left a pile of voicemails, talked to three people who were never going to buy and not reached the one person on page six who asked for a quote yesterday.
Nobody did anything wrong. The list was just in the wrong order. That is the problem lead scoring software solves. It gives every name a simple score so the people most likely to buy get called first. Below: the signals worth scoring, a score you can build this afternoon, how to tell if it works and how the AI calls the top of the list first.
Why calling top to bottom wastes your best leads
Most call lists are sorted alphabetically, by date added or by whoever typed them in. None of that has anything to do with who is ready to buy.
That would not matter if your team had unlimited time. It does not. In Salesforce's fifth State of Sales report, a 2022 survey of more than 7,700 sales professionals, reps said they spend just 28 percent of their week actually selling. The rest goes to admin, meetings and data entry. In a small business the person selling is often also the person doing the work.
Interest fades. The person who asked for a quote this morning is comparing options today. By Thursday they may have booked someone else. The order you call in decides which leads you still have a real chance with.
What lead scoring actually means
Strip away the software and lead scoring is a points system. You decide which things make someone more likely to buy. Each one adds points. The names with the most points go to the top.
Lead scoring software does the adding up for you and re-sorts the list every time something changes, like when a lead replies to a text or picks up a call.
Our post on buyer intent signals lists fifteen signs that a business has started shopping. This post is about the next step: turning those signals into an order and acting on it every day.
The signals worth scoring
A small team does not need thirty signals. Three kinds cover almost everything.
Fit: are they the kind of customer you win?
Think about your best jobs from last year. What did those customers have in common? Their industry, their area, the size of the job?
A lead that looks like your best customers gets more points. A lead outside your service area or far outside your usual job size gets fewer, however eager they sound.
Recent activity: did they do something lately?
This is about what the person did and when. Filled in a form this morning. Replied to a text. Picked up a call and asked you to ring back Thursday. Asked for a quote last week.
The fresher it is, the more it counts. A form from this morning should beat a form from last month every time. If you only score one thing, score this.
In market today: are they shopping right now?
Most of your possible customers are not buying today. Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, writing for the LinkedIn B2B Institute in 2021, found that businesses switch providers about once every five years. That leaves only about 5 percent in the market for a given service in any one quarter.
So a lead who is shopping now is worth far more than one who fits perfectly but is happy with what they have. If you sell to other businesses, an in-market audience gives you exactly this signal: businesses that searched for what you sell or filled in a form about it in the last day or week.
Signals to weigh less
A download from a year ago or a job title with nothing else behind it feels meaningful and mostly is not. Give these a point at most.
Signals that remove a name
Some answers should not lower a score. They should take the name off the call list. Somebody said no clearly. Somebody is outside your area for good. Somebody asked not to be called. Respect that at once. Our post on AI calling and the TCPA covers the rules on consent and opt outs.
A simple score you can build this afternoon
Here is a starting point. Score each signal from 0 to 3, then change the wording to suit your business.
| Signal | How to score it, 0 to 3 |
|---|---|
| Fit | 0 if they are outside your area or job type. 1 if a bit outside. 2 if close to your best customers. 3 if just like them. |
| Recent activity | 0 if nothing in months. 1 if something this quarter. 2 if something this month. 3 if something today or this week. |
| In market | 0 if there is no sign they are shopping. 1 for maybe. 2 for likely. 3 if they are shopping right now. |
Add the three together for a score out of nine. Then split the list into three groups:
- Seven to nine: call today. These go first, before anything else.
- Four to six: call this week. Worth a call after the top group, then follow-up by text and email.
- Zero to three: keep in touch. A text or email every so often. Call them when their score climbs.
After a month, check it. Did the top group book more appointments than the middle group? If not, your points are in the wrong place. Maybe fit matters more than you guessed. Maybe recent activity matters less. Move the points and try another month.
Wherever the score lives, write it on the contact record, not in a separate spreadsheet. Our CRM best practices explain why one record per lead matters so much.
A three signal score your team trusts beats a thirty signal score nobody understands.
How the AI scores and works the list in order
Scoring by hand works for a while. Then the list grows, the scores go stale and somebody goes back to calling top to bottom.
Multiply Revenue puts a lead score on every contact, on every plan. Each score comes from what actually happened with that lead: how calls went, whether they replied and what signals show they are shopping. The list re-sorts as those things change. Your team and the AI work the same order, so the conversation most likely to turn into a job happens first. The analytics page shows how the scoring and forecast fit together.
AI lead qualification on every call
The score gets better because every call teaches it something. You decide what a qualified lead means for your business: area, timeline, size of job or anything else. The AI asks those questions on the call, writes down the answers and only books the ones that pass. Each answer goes back into the score.
A lead who said "we want this done before the end of the month" climbs. A lead who said "we just signed with someone" drops. Nobody had to update a spreadsheet.
Who the AI calls
A high score does not change the calling rules. The AI works your own list: people who asked for a quote, filled in your form or bought from you before. It opens every call with your business name, says it is a digital assistant and tells the person the call is recorded. Businesses from an in-market audience are called on their verified business landlines only. An AI voice counts as an artificial voice, so a sales call from it to a cell phone or a home phone needs the person's prior written permission.
The rest move to follow-up
Names lower down do not get forgotten. They get follow-up by text and email, written from what was said on the last call, on a schedule you set. When one of them replies or starts shopping again, their score goes up and they move back toward the top.
The honest part
A score is only as good as the history behind it. In month one there is not much history, so the score leans on fit and signals. By month three it has seen what actually booked in your business and it gets sharper. Give it time before you judge it.
Calling back new leads and follow-up are on every plan. Outbound campaigns to a new list are on Pro and Enterprise. The pricing page has the details.
How to tell if your lead scoring is working
Track three things every week. Write them down before you start so you have something to compare against.
- Booking rate by group
Of the leads in your top group, how many booked? Compare that with the middle group. The top should win clearly. If it does not, change the points.
- Time to first call for the top group
Your best leads should get the fastest calls. If one waited days, something in the setup is slowing it down.
- Top leads that never got a call
This should be zero. A high score that sat untouched is exactly the waste lead scoring is meant to stop.
Call the right names first
Your team will never have enough hours to call everyone right away. They only need enough to call the right people first.
Lead scoring gives you that order. Fit, recent activity and whether they are shopping today tell you who goes to the top. The AI calls them first, asks your questions, books the ones that qualify and keeps everyone else warm with follow-up. If you are weighing that against a new hire, our post on what an AI employee is walks through the trade. Book a demo and see how it sorts a list like yours.
- Salesforce Research, "State of Sales", fifth edition, 2022, survey of more than 7,700 sales professionals.
- John Dawes, "Advertising Effectiveness and the 95:5 Rule: Most B2B Buyers Are Not in the Market Right Now", Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for the LinkedIn B2B Institute, 2021.
Multiply Revenue