Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Leads, whether obtained directly by phone, web or trade shows or indirectly from lead brokers, are the lifeblood of business. And, reports TARGUSinfo, which provides lead-focused information services, there is growing momentum from both lead buyers and sellers to have increased transparency and collaboration in the lead-scoring process. 

Online lead buyers need to know answers to a number of questions, such as, “what drives a lead score?” Or “What leads are being turned away because of that score?” and “What is the impact to my lead-generation program if I turn to a black box score that is outside my control?”

TARGUSinfo is now working with top lead buyers and sellers to spearhead the charge to foster collaboration and data transparency across the lead generation ecosystem when determining a lead score.  

“All free markets evolve toward efficiency,” said Frederick Goff, CEO, Percipio Group. “Lead scoring will be a driving factor toward efficiency in the lead generation market but only if the process, means and economics are transparent and understood by market participants. Full access to the underpinnings of scoring models allows buyers to better manage acquisition costs and suppliers to generate higher quality leads: A win-win result.”

TARGUSinfo, along with a number of its clients and industry partners, believes that the promise of lead scoring is significant, but only if executed through a collaborative and transparent approach. 

“Lead buyers and sellers should not make decisions in a vacuum when utilizing lead scoring,” says Dave Wengel, general manager, interactive markets, TARGUSinfo.  “For the past five years, we have not only improved the quality of leads via verification and scoring, but have also helped facilitate broader collaboration and more innovation for the entire industry: something that would be dramatically hindered if a narrower view of lead scoring took hold.”

TARGUSinfo customers have access to analytics to deliver a real-time score for inbound leads. By automatically scoring leads when identifying and verifying potential customers, organizations can increase their marketing velocity, boost conversion rates and increase customer lifetime values.

“We believe transparency plays an invaluable role in the lead generation process,” says Christel Mosby, senior vice president of marketing, Grand Canyon University. “TARGUSinfo’s scoring methodology eliminates the ‘black box’ approach and instead promotes collaboration and open communication between partners and providers and ultimately aligns everyone’s goals for the greater good. It’s an approach we think works better in determining lead quality: and one that keeps our acquisition costs at a manageable level.”

“So much of what we do is based on attaining, analyzing and sharing reliable lead scoring data,” adds Matt McLaughlin, chief operating officer of CUnet. “Working with top colleges and universities, combined with the actionable intelligence we receive from TARGUSinfo, CUnet is in a powerful position to create our own rules to verify, score and analyze the value of potential students for our customers.”