Lead Scoring in CRM: Prioritizing Prospects in the Consideration Phase Who Are Ready to Buy

Not all leads are created equal. Some are just becoming aware of your brand, while others are in the consideration phase—actively evaluating solutions and getting closer to making a decision. Without a system to separate curious browsers from true buyers, your sales team can waste valuable time on leads that aren’t ready yet. 

That’s where lead scoring comes in. 

By assigning numerical values to each lead based on demographic data and behavioral engagement, lead scoring helps your team focus on the prospects most likely to convert. And when you pair Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the emfluence Marketing Platform, you get an automated, real-time scoring system that makes prioritizing leads easier than ever.

Let’s take a look at how lead scoring works and how to build a model that helps you identify the hottest opportunities—especially as leads move into the consideration phase of the customer journey.

What Is Lead Scoring and Why Does It Matter? 

Lead scoring is the process of ranking your leads based on how well they fit your ideal customer profile and how engaged they are with your brand. Think of it as a way to quantify lead quality.

Instead of treating every contact equally, your team can use scores to: 

• Prioritize outreach to the most sales-ready leads 
• Segment your marketing campaigns by readiness or interest 
• Create better alignment between sales and marketing teams 
• Improve sales velocity and overall conversion rates 

An effective lead scoring model surfaces the right leads at the right time—giving you the insight to move quickly when a prospect is signaling they’re in the consideration phase and ready to engage deeper.  

Key Components of a Strong Lead Scoring Model 

A balanced lead scoring model includes two types of criteria: fit and behavior.

Here’s how they work together:

Demographic/Firmographic Scoring

These are attributes that help determine how well a lead aligns with your ideal customer. Examples include: 

• Job title or role (e.g., decision-makers score higher) 
• Industry or vertical 
• Company size or revenue 
• Geographic location 

This kind of scoring ensures your team is focusing on the right types of buyers for your business.

Behavioral Scoring

These are the actions a lead takes that indicate interest or intent, such as: 

• Visiting key pages on your website 
• Clicking through marketing emails 
• Downloading gated content like eBooks or whitepapers 
• Registering for or attending webinars 

With the emfluence Marketing Platform, you can automatically assign points for each of these actions using website tracking, email engagement tracking, and form completions—then push that data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM for a complete picture of each lead’s engagement.

These behavioral cues are especially helpful in identifying when a lead has moved from awareness to consideration—a critical point in the journey where targeted follow-up can make all the difference.

Negative Scoring Factors

Not all activities are good activities. Your scoring model should also subtract points for behaviors that suggest disinterest or poor fit, like: 

• Unsubscribing from emails 
• Providing personal (not business) contact information 
• Bouncing emails or invalid addresses 
• Lack of engagement over a long period 

This helps prevent unqualified or cold leads from being passed to sales. 

How to Implement Lead Scoring in Microsoft Dynamics & emfluence 

The combination of Microsoft Dynamics and emfluence makes it easy to track engagement, assign scores, and trigger next steps—all without manual intervention. 

Tracking Behaviors in emfluence 

• Use website tracking to monitor visits to product, pricing, or demo pages.
• Assign points for email opens, clicks, and form completions. 
• Score specific content downloads based on buying stage relevance (e.g., a demo request scores higher than a blog visit). 

Learn more about how emfluence tracks lead activity across your digital touchpoints with website tracking. 

Syncing Scores to Microsoft Dynamics 

• Push lead scores into Dynamics in real time. 
• Use views or dashboards to sort leads based on scoring tiers. 
• Create automations that alert sales or assign leads when they hit a defined score threshold. 

Using Lead Scoring to Drive Sales and Marketing Alignment 

Lead scoring not only improves lead qualification—it also tightens collaboration between sales and marketing. Here’s how: 

• Clearly define what qualifies as an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) vs. an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) using score thresholds.
• Use scoring to trigger automated CRM workflows that notify or assign reps when a lead enters the consideration phase.
• Share visibility into scoring models and lead activity across teams to enable better follow-up and lead management.

Monitoring and Refining Your Lead Scoring Model 

Your scoring model isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. You should continuously analyze performance and refine scoring rules based on what actually leads to conversions. 

Track metrics like: 

• MQL to SQL conversion rate 
• Average time to close 
• Email and website engagement trends 
• Lead score accuracy vs. actual outcomes 

Over time, you’ll develop a scoring model that perfectly reflects your ideal customer journey. 

Conclusion 

Lead scoring helps you filter out the noise and focus on the leads that matter—especially those entering the consideration phase and getting closer to a decision. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the emfluence Marketing Platform, you can automate the entire process, align your sales and marketing teams, and maximize the ROI of your lead generation efforts.

Ready to automate your lead qualification strategy and start identifying sales-ready prospects sooner? ???? Schedule a demo of the emfluence Marketing Platform today.

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