If you’re drowning in a sea of leads and tired of chasing tire-kickers, you’re in the right place. This guide is for sales and marketing folks who want to spend less time guessing and more time talking to prospects who might actually buy something. If you’re using Theswarm (or you’re considering it), I’ll show you how to cut through the noise and make its lead scoring work for you—not the other way around.
Let’s get into it.
1. Know What Theswarm Can (And Can’t) Do
First, a reality check: Theswarm isn’t a magic fortune teller. It’s a tool that scores leads based on rules and signals you define (or accept by default). If you’re expecting it to hand you a daily list of people desperate to buy, you’ll be disappointed.
What Theswarm does well: - Tracks user behavior (emails opened, links clicked, pages visited) - Scores leads based on these actions and demographic info - Integrates with your CRM so you don’t have to jump between tabs
What it won’t do: - Read minds or understand personal context - Fix bad data or sloppy sales processes - Replace actual conversations
Bottom line: Think of Theswarm as a filter, not a crystal ball. The more honest you are about what matters to your business, the better it works.
2. Set Up Lead Scoring (Don’t Skip This)
Most folks rush through setup and just use whatever default scoring model Theswarm suggests. That’s a mistake. Your prospects aren’t generic, so your scoring shouldn’t be either.
Start with these steps: 1. List your key buying signals. - What do your best customers do before they buy? (Request a demo? Visit pricing? Reply to an email?) 2. Assign points based on real value. - Not all actions are equal. Someone visiting your careers page isn’t the same as someone spending five minutes on pricing. 3. Decide what you don’t care about. - Some behaviors are just noise. Ignore them in your model.
Example scoring: - Opened marketing email: 2 points - Clicked product tour: 5 points - Visited pricing page: 10 points - Scheduled a call: 25 points
Pro tip: Don’t get fancy. Start simple, track what works, and tweak over time.
3. Clean Up Your Data Sources
Garbage in, garbage out. Theswarm pulls from your CRM, website, and emails. If those are a mess, your scores will be too.
What to look out for: - Duplicate contacts (merge or delete them) - Stale data (old leads, bounced emails) - Incomplete records (missing company size, industry, etc.)
How to fix it: - Run a deduplication tool or do a manual sweep - Set up required fields for new leads - Regularly audit your data (quarterly is fine for most teams)
Ignore: Any advice that tells you to automate everything before you understand your data. Automation only makes messes bigger if you’re not careful.
4. Integrate Theswarm With Your Daily Workflow
If your lead scores live in a dashboard nobody checks, they’re useless. Bake Theswarm into how your team actually works.
Ideas to make it stick: - Set up alerts when a lead crosses a score threshold (e.g., “Hot lead: 30+ points”) - Sync lead scores to your CRM so reps see them right in their pipeline - Use filters or views to sort leads by score every morning
What works: - Daily standups where reps pick a top lead to focus on - Sharing “why did this score jump?” stories—helps everyone learn
What doesn’t: - Relying only on lead scores to decide who to call. They’re a compass, not a GPS.
5. Prioritize (But Don’t Ignore) Lower-Scoring Leads
Obvious advice: call the highest scoring leads first. But don’t write off everyone else. Sometimes the system misses a gem—like the decision maker who’s lurking but not clicking anything.
A simple routine: - Tackle the top 10-20% of leads by score each day - Spot-check a few mid-range leads for patterns the model might miss - Make it easy for reps to flag “low-scoring, high-potential” leads for manual review
Pro tip: Ask your team to give feedback on the scoring model when they see something odd. That’s how you avoid tunnel vision.
6. Review and Tweak Scoring Regularly
No lead scoring model is ever “done.” Your buyers change. Your product changes. The market changes.
How to keep things sharp: - Once a month, look at your closed deals. What were their scores before they bought? - Ask, “Did we miss anyone?” and “Did we chase the wrong folks?” - Adjust points for actions that don’t predict buying as well as you thought
Skip: Complicated quarterly “scoring summits.” Just review, tweak, and move on.
7. Watch Out for Common Lead Scoring Pitfalls
A few traps to avoid:
- Scoring everything: Not every behavior is a buying signal. Don’t clutter your model with fluff.
- Ignoring recency: Someone who took action yesterday is more important than someone who clicked a link six months ago.
- One-size-fits-all scoring: Different segments (SMB vs. enterprise) might need their own scoring tweaks.
- Set-and-forget mentality: If you haven’t updated your model in a year, it’s probably stale.
8. Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Lead scoring with Theswarm isn’t rocket science, but it does take a little discipline. Don’t chase perfection. Start with a simple model, use it every day, and revisit it when you notice gaps.
You’ll never completely automate human judgment (and honestly, you don’t want to). The goal is to spend less time with dead ends and more time with people who actually want to buy. If you keep it simple and listen to your team, you’ll get there—no magic required.