So you want to stop wasting time chasing dead-end leads, and actually help your sales team focus on prospects who might buy. Smart move. Automated lead scoring is supposed to do just that—but only if you set it up right. This guide shows you how to build a lead scoring workflow in A-leads that actually works for real humans, not just for the marketing team’s weekly report.
If you’re a sales manager, a marketer who actually likes salespeople, or someone who’s just tired of sorting spreadsheets by hand, this is for you. I’ll walk you through everything—what settings matter, what’s just noise, and how to avoid common traps that make automated scoring more trouble than it’s worth.
1. Understand What (and Who) Matters
Before you even log into A-leads, step back and get clear on what a “good lead” looks like for your business. Not every workflow should treat all leads the same way.
What to do: - Meet with your sales team and ask what actually defines a hot lead. Don’t just copy a template. - List out the traits that matter: company size, budget, job title, industry, behavior (like opening emails or booking demos). - Decide what’s a “must-have” vs. a “nice-to-have.”
What to skip: - Don’t bother scoring based on info you can’t reliably get (like “decision-maker’s birthday”). - Ignore “vanity” signals—like Twitter follows—unless you know they correlate with conversion.
Pro tip: If you can’t explain why a data point signals intent, don’t include it.
2. Nail Down Your Scoring Criteria
Now you’ll translate those traits into actual scores. A-leads lets you assign points to different lead attributes and actions.
How to set up your scoring logic: - Open A-leads and head to the Lead Scoring section. - You’ll see options for Demographic (who they are) and Behavioral (what they do) scoring.
Demographic examples: - +20 points if job title contains “Director” or “VP” - +15 if company size is 100-500 employees - +10 if industry matches your target sector
Behavioral examples: - +25 if they booked a demo in the last 30 days - +10 for clicking a pricing email - -10 if they unsubscribed from your newsletter
Dos and don’ts: - Do: Start simple. Three to five rules per category is plenty to begin. - Don’t: Overcomplicate with dozens of micro-rules. You’ll just create noise and confuse everyone.
Pro tip: Negative points are your friend. Not all activity is good—mark disengagement or “bad fit” signals so they don’t clog your pipeline.
3. Build (and Test) Your Workflow
Now for the automation piece. In A-leads, you can set up workflows that trigger based on lead scores.
Step-by-step: 1. In A-leads, go to “Workflows” and hit “Create New Workflow.” 2. Set your trigger: “Lead score crosses X threshold.” Figure out what “hot lead” means—maybe 70 points? You can always tweak it later. 3. Choose your actions: - Assign lead to a sales rep - Send an internal notification/email - Move the lead to a new stage in your CRM - (Optional) Kick off a nurture campaign for “warm but not hot” leads
What works: - Routing high scores to real humans—don’t just drop them in a generic bucket. - Notifying reps in real time. If it takes a day to follow up, your workflow isn’t helping.
What doesn’t: - “Spray and pray” nurture campaigns for everyone above zero points. Segment, or don’t bother. - Relying on automation without spot-checking. Garbage in, garbage out.
Pro tip: Run your workflow in “test mode” for a week. See who actually gets flagged as hot, and gut-check the results with your sales team before you go live.
4. Integrate With Your Existing Tools
Automated scoring is only useful if it fits into your actual sales process. A-leads can push lead scores and actions to other tools.
Connect A-leads to: - Your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot): Sync lead scores, notes, and statuses. - Email tools: Trigger tailored outreach sequences. - Slack or Teams: Send alerts to sales or SDR channels.
What to watch out for: - Check that fields in A-leads match those in your CRM. Mismatches = lost data. - Beware of duplicate notifications—nobody wants five emails for every hot lead. - Don’t get sucked into “integrating everything.” Start with what your team actually uses.
Pro tip: Ask your reps where they want alerts. If they live in Slack, don’t rely on email notifications.
5. Monitor, Adjust, Repeat
No lead scoring model is perfect out of the gate. The only thing worse than not scoring leads is trusting a broken score that nobody believes.
How to keep your workflow healthy: - Every month, check how many “hot leads” converted. Are you flagging too many, or missing real deals? - Meet with sales regularly—ask if the leads being flagged are actually worth their time. - Adjust your scoring weights and workflow triggers as you learn. Don’t be afraid to nuke a rule that’s not working.
What to ignore: - Don’t obsess over every tweak. Big changes matter more than 1-point adjustments. - Don’t keep rules nobody understands.
Pro tip: Turn off “set-it-and-forget-it” autopilot. Schedule a quarterly review to purge useless criteria.
A Few Pitfalls to Skip
Even smart teams fall into these traps:
- Overfitting: If your model is too tight (“only CEOs in Seattle who clicked three emails”), you’ll miss real opportunities.
- Chasing vanity metrics: Engagement is nice, but not all clicks are a buying signal.
- Ignoring rep feedback: If your sales team hates your “hot leads,” they’ll just ignore the whole system.
Keep It Simple, and Iterate
Automated lead scoring is supposed to make life easier, not turn into a second job. Start with a basic workflow in A-leads, keep your rules simple, and tune things as you go. Don’t wait for perfection—just get something live, see how it works, and adjust.
Remember: the best scoring system is the one your team actually uses. So build for them, not for a dashboard.
Happy scoring.