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I share tactical insights, tested frameworks, and real-world lessons to help modern GTM teams scale smarter from attribution fixes to sales stack alignment and RevOps strategy.

Lead Scoring Isn’t Dead – You’re Just Doing It Wrong

Introduction

In today’s RevOps-driven world, marketers and sales teams are under more pressure than ever to prioritize high-intent leads. But lead scoring, once hailed as the holy grail of sales prioritization, has lost its shine in many organizations.

Here’s the hard truth: lead scoring isn’t dead. It’s just misunderstood.

The Problem With Traditional Scoring

Most companies rely on static scoring models with arbitrary point systems:

+10 points for a whitepaper download
+5 points for an email open
+15 points for the job title “Manager”

While these behaviors are signal-worthy, static models often fail to consider:

Stage in the buyer journey
Recency of engagement
Account-level context

The result? SDRs chase leads who aren’t truly sales-ready—while marketing gets blamed for sending “junk.”

What Actually Works

To evolve, lead scoring must become lead and account intelligence. Here’s how to do it right:

1. Score Behavior Over Time

Not all engagement is equal. A lead who opens 5 emails in a day is vastly different from someone who opened one email last month. Use:

Time decay models
Behavior clustering

2. Layer In Account Fit

Scoring should reflect context. Use firmographic data:

Industry
Company size
Tech stack

A highly engaged student isn’t equal to a decision-maker at a $50M SaaS firm.

3. Collaborate on Score Thresholds

Sales and marketing must agree on what score = “ready.” This means:

Backtesting closed-won data
Reverse-engineering ideal profiles

4. Add Negative Scoring

Not all activity is good:

Subscribes = good
Unsubscribes, inactivity = decay score
Track disengagement patterns

5. Operationalize It

Scores shouldn't be vanity metrics. Use them to drive:

Automation workflows
Lead routing
Lifecycle transitions

“If your lead score hasn’t changed in a year — neither will your results.”

Final Thoughts

Lead scoring still matters. In fact, done right, it can power focused sales motions and enable smarter marketing spend. But like any engine, it needs maintenance and optimization.

Your leads have evolved — your scoring model should too.