Effective HubSpot Lead Scoring and Its Impact on Sales Performance

While lead generation is hard, do you know what’s harder? Separating the wheat from the chaff. 

If your current lead scoring model feels outdated or isn’t delivering the results you need, you’re not alone. Having worked with both the old and new HubSpot lead scoring systems, we’ve seen the difference an effective scoring model can make. Spoiler alert: the old way just doesn’t cut it anymore.

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we’ll break down what lead scoring is, why it’s still essential for sales teams, and how HubSpot’s updated lead scoring system can help you zero in on high-value leads, align your sales and marketing efforts, and ultimately close more deals. Let’s get into it!

What is Lead Scoring?

Simply put, lead scoring is the process of assigning values to your leads to determine how likely they are to become customers. Think of it as a priority list — but one that’s rooted in data rather than guesswork.

Why does this matter? Because time is money.

According to Ebsta, win rates have dropped by 18%, and sales cycles are dragging on by 16%. With 16% of reps missing their quotas, I think it's safe to say that it's imperative we shift gears to focusing energy on leads that are actually going to convert!

These values can be numerical scores or qualitative labels like "High" or "Low."

How do you determine these scores? By looking at two kinds of data:

1. Explicit Data (ICP): This includes professional details like job title, company size, or budget — information prospects provide directly.
2. Implicit Data (Behavioural): This tracks how leads interact with your brand, such as visiting your website, opening emails, or downloading resources.

Here's how we look at lead scoring:

The key takeaway from this lead scoring matrix is how to prioritise your leads effectively. If a lead has a low engagement score but a high ICP fit score, it’s a strong candidate for nurturing through targeted marketing campaigns to build interest. Conversely, if the ICP fit score is low but the engagement score is high, it’s unlikely to be worth sales’ time and resources, as the lead doesn’t align with your ideal customer profile.

By analysing this data, you can identify which leads fit your ICP and are ready for sales engagement and which ones need nurturing. It’s all about ensuring your sales and marketing teams focus their energy on the leads that matter most.

Why HubSpot Lead Scoring is a Sales Leader’s Best Friend

Easily qualifying and prioritising the right leads has never been more critical for sales and marketing teams. Marketers face declining lead conversion rates and diminishing lead quality, while sales teams grapple with prolonged sales cycles and wasted time chasing deals that aren’t the right fit.

This lack of clarity creates friction between teams. Sales grow frustrated with the lack of actionable context and quality in leads, while Marketing feels disheartened when the high-quality leads they’ve generated are overlooked. Misalignment like this doesn’t just waste time — it costs revenue.

An effective lead scoring solution solves this by giving both teams the clarity they need to focus on the right opportunities. It helps sales reps understand which leads to pursue and why, while giving marketers the confidence that their efforts are being put to good use:

• Prioritise High-Value Opportunities: Focus on the leads most likely to convert and generate revenue.
• Reduce Sales Cycle Lengths: Targeted engagement means less time spent on unqualified leads.
• Enhance Sales Efficiency: Sales reps know exactly which leads to pursue, increasing productivity and closing rates.

As Mark Osborne, founder of Modern Revenue Strategies, puts it, "Remember the 80/20 rule: 80% of your revenues come from just 20% of your clients. Without a lead scoring system, businesses risk spreading their efforts too thin and losing out on the best opportunities to savvy competitors."

In short, lead scoring ensures your team works smarter, not harder.

The Old Way of Lead Scoring Just Isn't Working Anymore

If you’ve dabbled in lead scoring before, you might remember HubSpot’s old approach — and let’s be honest, it wasn’t great.

Under the old model, lead scoring was limited to a single property called the "HubSpot Score," which attempted to account for both engagement and ICP fit within the same metric. This often resulted in scores that were misleading or difficult to interpret. For example, consider a lead actively engaging with your website, racking up a high score of 400. If your scoring criteria assigned a penalty of (-)300 for being employed at a competitor's company, the lead would still show up prominently on your sales team's radar. This lack of distinction between fit and engagement made it challenging for sales reps to prioritise leads effectively and avoid wasted effort on unqualified prospects.

It just wasn't practical because, in some instances, we even saw unrealistic scores like -500 or even worse, giving your reps barely any insight. This system was:

• Overly complicated to set up.
• Confusing for sales reps, offering little actionable insight.
• Hidden in the depths of the CRM, making it a nightmare to manage.

The New & Improved HubSpot Lead Scoring

HubSpot has revolutionised lead scoring, and it’s now intuitive, accessible, and — dare we say it — fun to use. Here’s what makes the new HubSpot lead scoring system stand out:

1. A Flexible Score Builder

HubSpot provides everything you need to create scores tailored to your business. With the new score builder, you can easily develop:

• Engagement Scores: These measure a contact’s level of interest based on their actions and interactions, such as email clicks, website visits, and content downloads.
• Fit Scores: These assess how closely a lead aligns with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) using demographic and firmographic criteria like industry, company size, and revenue.

This flexibility empowers businesses to build scores that reflect both the quality and intent of their leads, ensuring a more targeted approach.

2. Company and Contact Scoring

Whether you’re focusing on individual contacts or evaluating companies as part of an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, HubSpot’s system supports both. This dual functionality enables you to align your lead scoring model with a variety of go-to-market strategies, including inbound marketing and ABM campaigns.

3. AI-Assisted Scoring

For those looking to refine their scoring further, HubSpot’s AI-assisted scoring is a game-changer. By analysing the attributes and behaviours of successful leads that converted in the past, the AI model offers recommendations to create more accurate fit and engagement scores. It’s the perfect combination of human intuition and machine intelligence, helping you identify your most promising leads with confidence.

4. Score Thresholds

HubSpot simplifies lead prioritisation by categorising scores as High, Medium, or Low. These thresholds make it easy for sales teams to quickly spot top leads and focus their attention where it’s needed most.

5. Contact Score CRM Card and History Panel

Lead scores are now prominently displayed within the CRM contact record, making them easily accessible to both sales and marketing teams. The score history panel also tracks how a lead’s score evolves over time, providing valuable insights into engagement trends and timing for follow-ups.

6. Built-in Score Reporting

The new system comes with built-in reporting tools that allow you to monitor the performance of your lead scoring strategy. These insights help you identify areas for improvement and fine-tune your scoring model to ensure it continues delivering results.

How to Set Up Lead Scoring in HubSpot

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of setting up lead scoring in HubSpot. It’s simpler than you think.

1. Build a Fit Score

Start by defining your ICP. What makes a lead a perfect fit for your business? Consider explicit data points like:

• Company size
• Annual revenue
• Industry
• Job title
• Budget

Assign scores based on how closely a lead matches these criteria. For example, if your ICP is mid-market tech companies, a prospect in the right industry and revenue bracket gets a higher score.

2. Create an Engagement Score

Now, it’s time to measure intent. HubSpot lets you track behavioural data such as:

• Website visits
• Email opens and clicks
• Downloads of white papers or case studies

Assign points based on interactions that signal buying intent. Don’t forget to use decay scoring to lower a lead’s score if their last activity was months ago — after all, timing is everything.

3. Combine Fit and Engagement Scores

Here’s where the magic happens. By blending fit and engagement scores, you’ll get a comprehensive picture of which leads are worth pursuing.

A high-fit, high-engagement lead? That’s your golden ticket. A high-fit, low-engagement lead? Pass it to marketing for further nurturing.

Optimising Your HubSpot Lead Scoring System

Wrapping Up

Lead scoring isn’t just about numbers — it’s about prioritisation, efficiency, and making life easier for your sales team. 

In a world where sales cycles are growing longer, budgets are tighter, and competition is fiercer than ever, having a robust lead scoring system can be the difference between closing deals and losing them. It aligns your marketing and sales teams, reduces wasted effort, and drives better results.

The bottom line? Investing in a well-structured lead scoring strategy doesn’t just improve sales performance — it transforms how your team works.