Lead Scoring De-Mystified

As I was designing the 12 Demand Generation Essentials for our current educational series on BlogTalk Radio, Lead Scoring became DG Essential #3. It's important and effective. Yet, when I went to find a marketing practitioner who had deep experience in this area, I came up very short. They just did not exist. In talking to some of my friends and colleagues in the industry, the reason for lack of Lead Scoring implementation had little to do with technology and everything to do with process. Here are some of the reasons why and what you can do about it:

1. Sales and marketing don't often speak the same language. - Yet, when you do lead scoring, you have to do it with sales. A good lead scoring system produces high quality leads for sales and who knows better than sales which questions to ask for qualifying and propensity to buy?
2. Lead scoring creates "fear." - "What do you mean I (sales) don't get to see everything?" Even though sales people complain about lead quality, they still feel like they have to see everything so if you slow down the lead flow, this can create tension with sales.
3. Change, change, change. - Since lead scoring is an activity that has a big impact on sales, it often creates a lot of change and when was the last time marketing lead a change that effected sales? Lead scoring forces a discussion, a common set of lead definitions and direct responsibility for marketing in producing quality leads and sales in following up on these leads.

So, how do you address the above issues?

1. Involve sales from Day 1
2. Keep is simple, simple, simple
3. Turn something on - Like I tell my clients - "No small animals will be harmed in the process"
4. Implement, review (get feedback from sales) and tweak - Think about it. The chances of you getting this absolutely right the first time is very small.

What have you seen that works?