What lead scoring is for
Scoring answers one question: who gets called first when five leads land in nine minutes. It is a triage tool. It is not a verdict on whether someone deserves service.
Any scoring system that results in leads never being contacted has stopped being triage and become silent disqualification.
The four inputs that matter
- Intent: did they describe a specific problem and ask for a price or a visit?
- Fit: is the requested work inside your trade, size range and service area?
- Urgency: emergency, this season, or exploring?
- Source quality: what has this source historically closed at?
How to weight the score
Start with intent and urgency carrying the most weight, fit as a hard gate, and source quality as a tiebreaker. Fit should not be scored at all if it is disqualifying — it belongs in the qualification rules instead.
Keep the total on a ten-point scale. Anything more precise implies a confidence you do not have.
Why source quality must come from your own numbers
Every lead source claims high intent. The only honest measure is what that source has closed for you, at what average ticket, over a meaningful sample.
Referrals and repeat customers usually sit at the top. Shared and resold leads usually sit at the bottom, because speed to contact is the only differentiator and everyone else is racing too.
Re-scoring on behavior
A lead who replies, opens a quote, or answers a scheduling question has told you more than any intake form. Behavior should move the score immediately.
The reverse is also true. Three unanswered attempts should lower the score and move the lead into a slower cadence instead of consuming the same effort as a live conversation.