Score Leads In A Spreadsheet Before You Automate Anything
A two-column scoring sheet beats an unreviewed automation. Here is how to build the sheet and when to move it.
Automating a bad scoring model only makes the bad decisions faster. Build the score by hand first, on a sheet you can read in one screen.
Pick Two Kinds Of Signal
Fit tells you whether the company could buy: size, industry, the role you are writing to. Timing tells you whether they might buy now: a hire, a funding round, a new tool on their site, a job post that describes your problem. Give each kind its own column.
Keep The Points Small
Use whole numbers from zero to three. Three means a strong match, zero means no evidence. Avoid decimals and weights until the plain version has run for a month.
Add The Totals And A Line
Add fit and timing, then draw a line. Above it, a person writes the message. Below it, the lead waits or goes into a slower sequence. Choose the line so that the top group is a number you can actually work in a week.
Check It Against Replies
After two weeks, sort by score and look at who replied. If low scorers answer as often as high scorers, the model is not measuring anything. Change one signal and test again.
When To Automate
Move the sheet into your tools when the signals are stable and each one can be pulled without a person copying data. Keep the sheet as the reference. When the automation and the sheet disagree, the sheet is where you find out why.
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