How to Use HubSpot Lead Scoring

Lead generation and conversion are no walk in the park, and there’s nothing more frustrating in sales than being handed leads who aren’t ready to put their hand in their pocket and buy your product.

Expecting your sales representatives to sell to disengaged, uninterested customers wastes time, resources, and effort better invested elsewhere.

But with HubSpot lead scoring, you can identify the prospects you ought to be focusing on, in your efforts to increase sales and drive revenue for your business.

In this article, we’ll focus on the core elements of HubSpot lead scoring, and how you can use it to fuel your sales success.

What is lead scoring?

Lead scoring is the process of ranking potential customers based on their likelihood to convert into buyers.

It combines demographic data (like company size, industry, or location) with behavioural data (such as email engagement or website visits) to assign a score to each lead.

This helps businesses identify and prioritise the most valuable prospects for their sales and marketing teams to focus on.

Why is lead scoring important?

The benefit of lead scoring is clear: it avoids wasting time on contacts that may appear engaged based on their behaviour but don’t match your ideal customer profile.

For example, without proper demographic consideration, a student conducting research could receive a high score due to frequent website visits or email opens, only to be passed on to sales and turn out to be a poor fit.

When done properly, lead scoring strengthens the relationship between marketing and sales. Historically, a lack of trust can arise between these teams, with sales often feeling that marketing delivers low-quality leads.

Conversely, marketing may feel frustrated when sales fail to act on the leads provided.

By implementing a robust lead scoring system, the marketing team can ensure they only pass high-quality, well-targeted leads to sales. This builds trust, leads to more productive follow-up, and avoids the vicious cycle of ineffective lead handling.

Ultimately, lead scoring refines your lead generation process, aligning sales and marketing efforts and improving the overall success rate of turning leads into customers.

How to set up HubSpot lead scoring

There are two main ways to set up lead scoring in HubSpot: manual lead scoring and using HubSpot’s artificial intelligence tools.

Here’s how each approach works:

1. Manual lead scoring

Manual lead scoring allows for highly customised and specific scoring models, which can be tailored to different products, services, or customer segments.

For example, if your company offers multiple software solutions, you can create unique lead scores for each product based on how prospects interact with relevant content and marketing material.

An effective manual lead scoring system should include:

Demographic data

First, define a baseline score based on your ideal client profile (ICP), including factors like company size, industry, location, and job role. This helps ensure your sales team focuses on leads that fit your target market.

Behavioural data

You also need to use behavioural data when using HubSpot lead scoring.

This includes tracking how leads engage with marketing materials, such as clicking on specific content or opening emails related to certain products.

For instance, if a prospect frequently engages with content around “Product A,” they would receive a high score for that product, while interactions with “Product B” would have a separate score.

Product-specific scoring

This creates scores for both new and existing customers, tailoring outreach to their specific needs. For example, if a customer already owns “Product A” but starts showing interest in “Product B,” your sales team can leverage that data to cross-sell or upsell more effectively.

By assigning custom scores for each product and interaction, manual lead scoring helps you better align your outreach strategy with the interests and needs of prospects, leading to more relevant conversations and higher conversion rates.

2. AI-powered lead scoring

HubSpot’s recent AI-powered tools simplify lead scoring by automating much of the process. 
With just the press of a button, HubSpot’s AI analyses your existing customer data to identify patterns that lead to conversions. The system evaluates demographic and behavioural data to determine which factors contribute to high-value leads, such as:

• Which emails were opened
• Which content was engaged with
• How many sales calls were made
• What deals were closed

Based on this information, HubSpot automatically assigns reactive lead scores in real-time, adjusting as prospects’ behaviours change.

This AI-driven approach removes the guesswork and manual setup, providing dynamic and data-backed scores that adapt as prospects move through the funnel.

Combining manual and AI tools

Manual and AI methods can be combined, creating a more nuanced lead-scoring system.

While manual scoring allows for granular customisation, HubSpot’s AI tools can continuously refine and adjust lead scores based on real-time data. This hybrid approach ensures that your team consistently focuses on the most relevant and engaged prospects.

By setting up lead scoring in HubSpot—whether manually or through AI—your sales and marketing teams can prioritise leads that are both a good fit for your business and actively engaged, helping to streamline efforts and drive better results.

See our Success Stories

See how Axon Garside can support your HubSpot CRM implementation and lead scoring efforts with real-life examples of clients we've helped across multiple industries.

Updates to HubSpot’s lead scoring tools

HubSpot has introduced new intelligence-driven tools to improve the accuracy and efficiency of lead scoring.

These updates use advanced AI to analyse your customer, contact, and company data, allowing you to create more informed and dynamic lead-scoring models.

Instead of relying solely on manual scoring, HubSpot’s AI automatically examines the journey that customers take before converting.

It looks at key characteristics—such as behavioural patterns, interactions with marketing content, and engagement with sales efforts—that contributed to successful deals. HubSpot identifies which types of interactions are most likely to lead to a conversion and adjusts lead scores accordingly.

This provides a more accurate and data-driven representation of how prospects move through the sales funnel.

As a result, you can focus on the prospects most likely to convert, with your lead scoring model continuously evolving to reflect real-world outcomes, ensuring sales teams prioritise the highest-quality leads.

Maximise your sales potential with HubSpot lead scoring

Introducing HubSpot lead scoring can contribute significantly to sales and marketing alignment, optimise resource allocation, and increase conversion rates.

By combining demographic and behavioural data, HubSpot lead scoring allows you to prioritise high-value prospects and tailor your outreach accordingly.

Whether you choose to set up manual lead scoring for greater customisation or leverage HubSpot’s advanced AI tools for a more dynamic and automated approach, lead scoring encourages your sales team to engage with leads that are most likely to convert.

With HubSpot’s continuous updates, the integration of AI-powered tools further refines the lead-scoring process by analysing real-time data and customer journeys, helping your business stay competitive.

By using these tools effectively, your team can focus on the right leads at the right time, improving overall efficiency and driving revenue growth.

At Axon Garside, we’ve supported companies in various industries with HubSpot implementation and strategy. Explore our success stories and learn how our specialist expertise has helped deliver tangible results to our customers.