Lead Scoring 101

Lead scoring is a hot buzzword for today’s marketer. Simply put, it’s a method of ranking leads to determine how “hot” or ready they are to be closed by a sales team.

Generally, the way to determine a lead score is by creating a point system. Points are earned by a lead when they complete an activity associated with your customer journey. For example, the lead opens a marketing email (2 points), clicks on a link in the email (1 point), and submits a contact form (5 points)—for a total of 8 points. The more points, the “hotter” the lead.

Using points to rank leads can help companies know which leads they should fast track as sales-ready or continue lead-nurturing. This methodology is great for B2B (business to business) companies with a longer sales cycle, and specific targeted personas or accounts.

However, most apartments are not B2B. They don’t have a long sales cycle. Assigning points based on personas is complicated due to fair housing. And frankly, many leasing professionals don’t want to learn a confusing ranking system to determine their follow-up activity.

Thankfully, there are lead scoring processes available for multifamily that alleviate these challenges.

Lead Scoring for Multifamily

The first step is to score leads from the multifamily industry’s most valuable communication source—phone calls. According to LeaseHawk, 75 percent of inbound communications to properties are phone calls, followed by email web forms (23 percent), and text messages (2 percent). When a lead decides to call your property, they are highly motivated and more likely to be in a position to sign a lease.

To implement this, use telephone tracking numbers on your property website and advertising sources. Ensure the phone calls from the tracking numbers are recorded in a high-quality, dual-channel format—this will ensure crystal clear audio and make it easier for software systems to analyze the calls for you.

The fun part is next. Scoring your phone leads.

Use a simple scoring methodology that directly identifies who is calling, this takes the guesswork out of creating a points-based ranking system. By listening to each inbound phone call, you can determine if the caller was a new or repeat prospect, resident, vendor and more. If it is a new or repeat prospect, those leads should be flagged and followed up with as soon as possible by your leasing team. Understandably, the process of listening to every inbound call and determining if it is a viable prospect or not can be a dauntingly manual process.

That’s where AI (Artificial Intelligence) can step in to help.

Lead Analysis from LeaseHawk, How Does It Work?

LeaseHawk has revolutionized the lead scoring process by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to make lead analysis and scoring for the multifamily industry faster and more intelligent than ever.

It does all the work for you to listen, transcribe, and score every inbound call and voicemail to determine caller intentions. Your calls will be assigned with one of 18 caller types, such as new prospect, repeat prospect, or resident. Results are available within minutes allowing for prioritization of follow-up activities and, since the ad sources are being tracked, the ability to make more nimble marketing decisions.

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Our machine learning model was trained by one million (and counting) human-scored phone calls and voicemails from properties nationwide. And over time, the machine is only going to get smarter.

Make follow-up a simple process for your leasing team. To learn more about lead analysis and other features included in the LeaseHawk Performance Platform, visit leasehawk.com/performance/overview.