If you’re in sales, you’re probably tired of receiving unqualified leads from your marketing team — and if you’re in marketing, your sales team’s dismissal of marketing leads has likely gotten quite tiresome. When it comes to the tension between these two teams, poor lead quality is one of the biggest culprits.

In fact, according to MarketingSherpa, 61% of marketers pass all leads to sales, but only 27% of those leads are qualified. In other words, 73% of these leads are unqualified.

Blended lead scoring and grading

Many marketers make the mistake of relying on their gut feeling when qualifying sales leads. But when these semi-qualified leads get passed from marketing to sales, reps often find that they fall into one of the following (less-than-ideal) categories: leads who 1) have little to no interest in your product, 2) aren’t a good fit for your product, or 3) don’t meet your ideal prospect profile.

This kind of disconnect between marketing and sales is exactly what lead scoring and grading was designed to prevent. For those who are new to a blended lead qualification method, a lead score (expressed as a number) indicates how interested a lead is in your product or service, and a lead grade (expressed as a letter, A-F) shows how well leads fit your ideal prospect profile. By using a tool like marketing automation to objectively score and grade leads, you can improve lead quality, decrease the tensions between your two teams, and increase the efficiency of your lead management process.

Here are a few examples of how this works:

1. John has a score of 20 and a grade of B+. His high grade indicates that he might be a good fit for your company, but his low score shows that he’s had little time to research your product. John would be a good candidate to be placed on a lead nurturing track or receive a quick sales call.
2. Gina has a score of 200, but a grade of C+. While her score indicates that she has a fairly high interest in your company, her grade indicates that she might not be a great fit. Gina should not be passed along to your sales team, and should instead be nurtured in order to conserve resources.
3. Michael has a score of 315 and a grade of D-. Michael’s score is high enough to warrant being passed to a sales rep, but his grade is much more telling. It turns out that Michael is just a job seeker who was on your site looking for helpful information.
4. Stewart has a score of 350 and a grade of A-. He has a high interest in your company and fits your ideal prospect profile. Stewart should be assigned to a sales rep and moved through the sales process.

Interested in learning more about lead scoring and grading? Pardot recently released an interactive Lead Qualification Lab to walk you through the scoring and grading processes. Use the lab to see how scoring and grading might apply to your company, then practice grading leads and interpreting lead qualification data. View the lab by clicking on the banner below, and don’t forget to download Pardot’s free supplemental resource, the Complete Guide to Lead Scoring and Grading.