Lead Scoring 101: What’s a Lead Score and Why Does It Matter?

By: Jessica Scott

If you’re a financial advisor aiming to grow your practice, you’ve likely come across the term "lead scoring." But what exactly is lead scoring for financial advisors, and why should you use it? Lead scoring is a powerful tool that helps financial advisors like you rank and prioritize leads based on their behavior and engagement. In simple terms, it ensures you focus your energy on the prospects who are actively interacting with you and are most likely to be ready for a conversation—directing you to the leads who genuinely want to hear from you.?

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up lead scoring for financial advisors in your CRM, using Redtail as an example. And don’t worry, if you’re using another CRM, the principles still apply.

1 | Define Your Scoring Criteria

The first step in lead scoring for financial advisors is identifying the actions, behaviors, or traits that indicate a lead is more likely to become a client. For advisors working in the retirement income space, potential scoring criteria might include:?

• Attending a?webinar or seminar on retirement planning or tax strategies?

• Downloading content like a guide on mitigating risk in retirement or maximizing retirement income?

• Engaging with email campaigns (opening or clicking links)?

• Completing a Retirement Tax Bill Calculator analysis from your website?

• Proximity to retirement since someone planning to retire in the next few years may feel more urgency to meet

You can assign points to each criterion based on its importance. For instance, attending a seminar could be worth 10 points, while visiting your website might be worth 2 points. The actual point values don’t matter as long as the criterion you value the most has the highest point values, and the point values are proportionate to each other.

2 | Set Positive and Negative Attributes

Lead scoring for financial advisors involves positive and negative attributes, giving you a clearer picture of a lead’s readiness to engage. In Redtail and other widely used CRMs, you can set up these attributes easily. Here’s an example of how to categorize them:?

Positive Attributes:?

• Attending a seminar or webinar (+10 points)?

• Engaging with emails or downloading resources (+5 points)?

• Completing a tax bill calculation or requesting a consultation (+15 points)?

Negative Attributes:?

• Unsubscribing from emails (-10 points)?

• No engagement after multiple outreach attempts (-15 points)?

This combination of positive and negative factors will help you focus on the right leads and avoid wasting time on those who are unlikely to convert.

3 | Establish Lead Scoring Thresholds

Once your scoring criteria are set, define thresholds that will categorize leads into different levels of readiness. This can help you group your leads more effectively. For example:?

• Hot Leads (50+ points): These leads are highly engaged and ready for direct outreach,0 such as a meeting or call.?

• Warm Leads (20–49 points): These prospects are interested but may require more nurturing through email campaigns, webinars, or educational content.?

• Cold Leads (below 20 points): These leads need more time, education, or a different approach to move them further down the funnel.?

These thresholds will help you prioritize your follow-up actions and ensure your outreach aligns with the prospect’s current interest level.

4 | Automate Lead Scoring

Many CRMs make it easy to automate lead scoring, so you don’t have to track each lead manually. Once you’ve defined your scoring rules, many CRMs can automatically adjust scores based on actions leads take, such as:?

• Attending a seminar or webinar?

• Number of website visits?

• Engagement with an email campaign?

By automating these updates, you can stay on top of your leads without adding to your workload. Your CRM will handle the scoring in real-time, so you can focus on what you do best—advising clients.

5 | Refine Your Scoring System Regularly

Lead scoring for financial advisors isn’t a static process. You’ll need to regularly review and refine your scoring criteria based on what’s working and what’s not. For example, if you notice that leads who complete a Retirement Tax Bill analysis are converting at a higher rate, you may want to assign more points to that action.?

Similarly, if a particular action (like attending a webinar) isn’t leading to conversions, you may want to lower its point value or adjust your follow-up strategy for those leads.?

Applying This to Other CRMs?

This same process can be applied to many popular CRMs used by independent advisors, like Salesforce, HubSpot, or ACT. The specific steps may vary, but the core elements—defining criteria, setting thresholds, and automating scoring—will be the same. See if your CRM has a published guide on executing lead scoring - many have how-to guides posted online.

Lead scoring for financial advisors takes the guesswork out of your outreach, making it clear who’s ready for the next step. By focusing on leads that are already engaging with your content and most likely to convert, you’ll work more efficiently and effectively. It’s a simple, yet powerful way to grow your practice with precision—ensuring your time is spent where it counts the most.