A recent episode of the acclaimed Netflix series, Black Mirror, involved a dating app (Spoiler Alert!) in the future that ran simulations to match couples based on their preferences, current status and historical data. In retrospect, predictive lead scoring for B2B sales and marketing is quite similar in approach and parallels can be drawn.

Predictive lead scoring platforms, like PipeCandy, use your inputs and historical data to form an Ideal Customer Profile or ICP. This is used to generate a fit score that represents, mathematically, how close a prospective company is to matching your ICP. There are three types of scores. A fit score, an intent score and an opportunity score. The latter is basically a representation of whether the expected Life Time Value or LTV of a prospect is worth the money spent acquiring them. While it is ideal to assess all three scores, sometimes not all of them might be applicable for you. For example, if you have a niche target market, you’d essentially want to reach out to all companies that fall in that market, negating the need for a fit score. This is where an intent score is really important. It allows you to decide how to approach each prospect by giving more time and effort to those who have a higher intent to buy from you so that you can find and close deals quickly. If we take enterprise companies, for example, they could potentially bring in a lot of revenue if closed but are much less likely to invest in say, an ERP platform or a security system because they have probably already bought/created solution. It’s not worth spending your marketing and sales budget going after a prospect that has no intention of buying your product. On the other hand, it helps to figure out the prospect that is in the market looking for an ERP platform. This is intent. Is someone single and looking to date or are they already married? In the case of the dating app, a person’s mere presence on the app means there is intent. Similarly, there are markers to find out if there is an intent to buy your product. Intent can be generic, like the recent hiring of an Omnichannel strategist by a company which means they are looking to move to a different channel. Explicit intent can be downloading white papers that you have published or attending conferences where you exhibit. Intent can also be discovered through data science by looking at a prospects investment in similar or associated technology or even how their investment has been with regard to progressive technologies like endless aisle. While a fit score helps you nail your target market from a universe of 1.2 Million eCommerce companies and an opportunity score gives you the big picture value of all prospects, the intent score is absolutely essential to plan your marketing strategy. It allows you to focus ABM efforts on those prospects that are, as indicated by the scores, more likely to buy. Overall, the ideal prospect is a company that fits your ICP, has a high LTV and is in need of your product. PipeCandy, with predictive lead scoring, can represent this metric as a single number across each prospect. Give us a try.