Not all prospective LPs are created equal. There are different degrees of “equal”-ness: some can become LPs just over a couple of months, while others can take years before they are invested in your fund.
It is important then, to measure not just the quantity of leads, but the quality of your prospective LPs in order to help you cut through the noise and identify which prospective LPs are more equal. You can do that by ‘Lead Scoring’. Essentially, LPs that are “more equal” and “more high quality” are those that are more likely to become active investors.
WHAT IS LEAD SCORING?
Never heard of it? By definition, Lead Scoring is the art of ranking prospects against a pre-determined set of criteria to help identify which opportunities are most valuable to pursue. The higher the score, the more qualified the lead. The more qualified the lead, the higher priority for outreach.
The score given to each lead is usually founded on a set of guidelines drawn up by you. This is computed based on how closely your prospective LPs match the historical of past LPs who were converted to active investors in your fund.
HOW DO I CALCULATE LEAD SCORES?
Building a scoring system is both an art and a science, but keep in mind it’s best to score actions that are taken proactively by the prospect. The following are some of the factors that can go in a scoring system:
- Forms – Plant forms on various parts of your website i.e. ‘Monthly Update’ sign-up forms, ‘Contact Us’ forms, ‘Request More Information’ forms.
- Referral/ Source Channels – Some referral channels are more equal than others. A friends and family referral will likely be more significant than someone who’d stumbled across you on LinkedIn.
- Specific Page Visits – Give each page visit 3 points, but give people who visit your ‘How To Invest’ page 10 points. If they’d made it there, surely their interest is stronger than someone who’d only hit your homepage.
- Emails – Send out monthly performance updates? Many do, but are you scoring prospects who engage with your emails more than once, and those who download the PDF copy of your performance update? Those prospects are likelier conversions than those who’ve not opened a single email for 12 months.
- Downloadable Content – Have an interview on CNBC, or a white paper authored by you? Make it available on your website. Score them accordingly, and if they’d downloaded more than one item, they’re likely a better prospective LP than someone who’d only requested one item.
Scoring Leads doesn’t mean that you forget about prospective LPs who have a longer sales cycle. Pluck the low hanging fruit first with the help of lead scoring, but move them to a ‘Lead Nurturing’ category and stay in front of them on a consistent basis. There’s great value in these prospective LPs – because many of them will eventually become invested LPs in your fund.
Lead scoring is brilliant way for prospective LPs to present themselves to you. No longer are you thinking about who to call when you arrive at your desk each morning. You’ll focus your time and efforts on those that demand them, and skyrocket your ROI.
By Alan Chu