# Lead Scoring > Rank prospects by fit and intent so sales works the leads most likely to buy first. - Type: Calculator: Ranking prospects by likelihood to buy - Tags: Metrics - Growth levers: Acquisition (primary), also Activation - ~1014 words --- **Lead score builder.** Lead scoring is a way of ranking prospects from 0 to 100 by adding up points for two things: how well they fit your ideal customer (job title, company size, industry, budget) and how much intent they have shown (booked a demo, started a trial, visited pricing). A higher score means a higher chance they buy, so your team calls the right people first instead of working the list top to bottom. The calculator above is a model, not a verdict. It splits the signals into two columns. Fit answers "should we sell to them?" and intent answers "are they ready now?". A prospect can score high on one and low on the other, which is the whole point: a perfect-fit account that has done nothing is a different play than a tiny account that just booked a demo. ## How a lead score is calculated Each attribute carries a weight. You add the weights for every box a prospect ticks, and the sum is the score out of 100. Fit attributes are worth up to 50 points and intent attributes are worth up to 50, so a lead that is both a great fit and clearly shopping can max out the scale. > **Formula:** lead score = sum of the weight of every attribute the prospect has. Fit: job title +15, company size +15, industry +10, budget authority +10. Intent: booked a demo +20, started a trial +15, visited pricing +10, repeat visits +5. Tier: A (sales-ready) 70+, B (nurture) 45 to 69, C (early) 25 to 44, D (cold) under 25. Worked example. Take a prospect whose title matches your ICP (+15) at a company in your target size band (+15), who booked a demo (+20), started a trial (+15), and visited the pricing page (+10). Add those up: 15 + 15 + 20 + 15 + 10 = 75. A score of 75 lands in the A tier (70 and above), so this lead is sales-ready and should jump the queue. Tick the same five boxes in the builder above and you will see the exact 75. ## How to read the score and use the tool The tier matters more than the raw number. The builder buckets every score into four bands so you know what to do next, not just how big the number is: - **A, sales-ready (70+):** strong fit and real intent. Route to a human and reach out the same day. - **B, nurture (45 to 69):** promising but not there yet. Keep them warm with targeted content and watch for the next intent signal. - **C, early (25 to 44):** some fit or a single action. Low-touch automation only, no sales time. - **D, cold (under 25):** little fit or activity. Leave them in the background until they do something. Treat the weights and thresholds as starting points, not gospel. The honest way to set them is to pull your last few hundred closed deals, see which signals the winners actually had, and weight those higher. If half your A-tier leads never convert, your bar is too low; nudge the 70 threshold up. If sales complains the pipeline is thin, it is probably too high. Two traps worth naming. First, intent without fit is a tire-kicker: someone who clicks everything but works at a company you cannot serve will inflate their score, which is why fit and intent stay in separate columns here. Second, a score is a snapshot. A lead that was cold last month can warm up fast, so re-score on every new action instead of grading once at signup and forgetting. ## Related calculators - [Product-qualified lead (PQL) rate](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/product-qualified-lead-pql) for scoring leads on in-product behaviour, not just form fills. - [Cost per lead (CPL)](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/cost-per-lead-cpl) to see what each scored lead costs you to acquire. - [Conversion rate](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/conversion-rate) to track how many scored leads turn into customers. - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/customer-acquisition-cost-cac) for the full spend-to-customer math behind your scoring. #### What is a good lead scoring? A good lead scoring model is one where the A-tier leads actually close at a higher rate than the rest, not one that hits some universal number. There is no industry benchmark score to chase, because every team weights signals differently. The test is simple: pull your closed-won deals and check whether they scored high before they bought. If your top tier converts well above your average and sales trusts the ranking enough to work it in order, the model is good. If A-tier leads convert no better than C-tier, your weights are off. #### How is a lead score calculated? You assign a point weight to each signal that predicts a sale, then add the weights for every signal a given prospect has. In the model above, fit attributes (title, company size, industry, budget) and intent attributes (demo, trial, pricing visit, repeat visits) each contribute up to 50 points, for a 0 to 100 total. A prospect with an ICP title (15), a target company size (15), a booked demo (20), a started trial (15), and a pricing visit (10) scores 75. #### What is the difference between fit and intent in lead scoring? Fit is who the prospect is: title, company size, industry, budget. It answers whether they are worth selling to at all. Intent is what they have done: booked a demo, started a trial, kept coming back. It answers whether they are ready now. Keeping the two separate stops a high-intent prospect who is a bad fit from looking like a hot lead, and it tells sales which play to run. High fit, low intent gets nurtured. High intent, low fit gets a quick filter. #### What is the difference between lead scoring and a PQL? Lead scoring is a weighted ranking that mixes profile data with any behaviour, including form fills, email opens, and site visits. A product-qualified lead (PQL) is narrower: it is a lead that hit a specific usage milestone inside your product, like inviting a teammate or crossing a usage limit. In a product-led motion, PQL signals are usually the heaviest-weighted intent inputs in your overall lead score. See the PQL calculator for that piece. --- All posts: https://www.productgrowth.blog/archive ยท Site: https://www.productgrowth.blog