Sick of chasing bad leads? You’re not alone. If your sales team keeps wasting time on prospects who’ll never buy, or you’re tired of manually sorting through spreadsheets, it’s time to automate your lead scoring. This guide is for sales ops folks, marketers, or founders who want their pipeline to run smoother—and aren’t afraid to get a little technical.
We’ll walk through setting up automated lead scoring workflows in Gan, a sales automation tool that’s powerful but not exactly magic. I’ll show you how to set up a system that actually works, not just one that sounds good in a meeting.
Why Bother With Automated Lead Scoring?
Let’s be honest: most “lead scoring” is gut feeling and wishful thinking. But when you automate it, you get:
- Consistency (no more arguing about what a “hot” lead is)
- Speed (your reps see the best leads first)
- Less busywork (set it and forget it—mostly)
But it’s not a panacea. Garbage in, garbage out. If your criteria are junk, your scores will be too. So, before you start, be clear on what a good lead actually looks like for your team. Don’t overcomplicate it.
Step 1: Define Your Lead Scoring Criteria
Automated lead scoring only works if you know what matters. Here’s how to get your criteria dialed in:
1.1 Get Input From Sales and Marketing
- Ask your sales team: “What makes a lead a slam dunk?”
- What traits do your best customers share? (Industry, company size, job title, geography?)
- What behaviors actually predict a deal? (Opened emails? Requested demo? Visited pricing page 5 times?)
Pro tip: Ignore vanity metrics. Someone downloading a whitepaper is not a hot lead. Focus on actions that actually lead to sales.
1.2 Keep Your Model Simple
You don’t need a PhD. Start with 3–5 traits or actions. For example:
- Company size (ideal: 50–500 employees)
- Job title (Director or above)
- Engaged with 2+ emails
- Requested a demo
Later, you can tweak or get fancier. But simple is better at the start.
Step 2: Map Your Data Sources
Gan doesn’t magically know everything about your leads. You need to tell it where to look.
2.1 Identify Where Your Data Lives
- CRM (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce)
- Marketing automation tools (Mailchimp, Marketo)
- Website analytics
- Spreadsheets (hey, we’ve all been there)
2.2 Connect Data to Gan
Gan can pull in data from most major CRMs and some marketing tools. If you’re stuck with custom sources or CSVs, that’s fine—just expect a little extra setup.
What to ignore: Don’t try to sync every field. Only bring in the data you’ll actually use for scoring.
Step 3: Set Up Your Scoring Rules in Gan
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. Gan uses “workflows” to automate actions based on triggers and conditions.
3.1 Navigate to Workflow Automation
- Log into Gan.
- Find the “Workflows” or “Automations” section on the sidebar. (If you’re lost, use the search bar—no shame.)
3.2 Build Your Lead Scoring Workflow
- Start a new workflow.
- Set your trigger: Usually “when a new lead is added” or “when a lead is updated.”
- Add conditions: For each criterion (e.g., “Job Title contains ‘Director’”), add a condition.
- Assign points: Give each action or trait a point value based on importance. Example:
- Job Title = Director/VP/CXO → +20 points
- Company size 50–500 → +15 points
- Clicked demo link in email → +30 points
Tip: Don’t go overboard with 20 different point buckets. Three to five is plenty.
3.3 Set Score Thresholds
- Decide what score range means “hot,” “warm,” or “cold.”
- Example:
- 60+ points: Hot
- 40–59: Warm
- <40: Cold
Set up workflow actions so that leads are tagged or routed based on their score. (E.g., “If score ≥ 60, assign to Account Executive and notify via Slack.”)
Step 4: Automate Actions Based on Lead Scores
Scoring is useless if you don’t act on it. The whole point is to make sure the right people see the right leads, fast.
4.1 Assign Leads Automatically
- Use Gan’s workflow actions to assign hot leads directly to your best reps.
- Set up notifications (email, Slack, whatever your team actually checks).
4.2 Trigger Follow-Ups
- Auto-enroll hot leads in a personalized email sequence.
- Flag cold leads for nurture campaigns or drop them into a slower drip.
What to skip: Don’t auto-enroll everyone in the same sequence. You’ll just annoy people and get ignored.
Step 5: Test and Tweak Your Workflow
Nobody gets it perfect on the first try. The good news is, Gan makes it easy to adjust your workflows.
5.1 Run a Dry Test
- Import a handful of leads and see how they score.
- Are your best leads showing up as “hot”? If not, adjust your rules.
5.2 Get Feedback
- Ask your sales team: “Are these scores actually useful?”
- Watch for “false positives” (junk leads marked hot) and “false negatives” (great leads marked cold).
5.3 Adjust and Repeat
- Change point values or add/remove criteria based on what you see.
- Don’t be afraid to scrap a rule that sounded smart but doesn’t work.
Step 6: Monitor and Improve Over Time
Automated scoring isn’t “set and forget”—at least, not if you want it to actually help.
- Check in monthly (or quarterly) to see if your top leads are converting.
- Update your scoring as your business changes (new markets, new product lines, etc.).
- Watch out for “score inflation”—if everyone’s suddenly a hot lead, your system’s broken.
What to Watch Out For (And What Not to Sweat)
- Don’t get fancy for fancy’s sake. Machine learning, AI, and other buzzwords won’t save you if your inputs are garbage. Manual rules work just fine for most teams.
- Don’t overthink the point system. A simple 10/20/30 scale is fine. You’re not building a credit score.
- Ignore “activity” that doesn’t correlate to sales. Some leads will click everything and never buy.
- Stay skeptical of “lead scoring best practices.” What works for a SaaS startup won’t always fit a manufacturing company.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
There’s no prize for the most complicated lead scoring workflow. Start with what you know, automate the basics in Gan, and only layer on complexity if you need it. Ask your sales team what’s working, and don’t be afraid to throw out what isn’t.
Automated lead scoring isn’t magic—but if you keep it simple and keep listening to your team, your pipeline will get a whole lot healthier.