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7 Top-Rated Lead Scoring Software

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Barkha Bali

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For your marketing and sales team, identifying the most promising leads is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. But with lead scoring software, they can adopt a data-driven approach to lead prospecting to identify, engage, and convert the most valuable prospects.

However, finding the right tool requires your business to consider various aspects, including cost, compatibility with existing systems, and long-term benefits. To help choose, we’ve highlighted, in alphabetical order, the top seven lead scoring software based on verified software reviews. Read more.

Each featured software has a unique specialization: Drift and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are lead generation tools; Outplay, Outreach, and Salesforce Sales Cloud are sales engagement and enablement tools; Brevo is a CRM suite; and Mailchimp is an email automation tool. Irrespective of their specialty, all tools include the core features of lead scoring software—lead qualification, lead segmentation, behavior tracking, lead source tracking, and nurturing.

1. Brevo

Brevo is a CRM suite with lead qualification and scoring capabilities. It helps qualify leads by assessing their engagement with your products or services. You can map the customer journey and assign scores to leads based on their actions, such as clicking a link and opening an email. You can also set up a marketing automation workflow to trigger specific actions based on lead activity. For instance, if a lead downloads an e-book on a particular topic, the workflow can send automated follow-up emails with related content or offers.

Product features of interest:

  • Lead segmentation: Segment contacts or leads based on criteria such as demographic information, behavioral data, lead source, and lead score. This feature helps categorize leads and tailor marketing and sales efforts to specific audience groups.

  • Personalized sales pipeline: Customize your sales workflow by adding or deleting lead stages per your business requirements. This feature helps track leads through stages aligning with your sales journey.

  • Automated communications: Send automated communication to your contacts, such as abandoned cart reminders, welcome messages, and upcoming feature updates. This functionality lets you personalize content and communications based on lead preferences and actions.

Customer support options: Message and knowledge base

Who should consider Brevo?

Marketing and sales managers who want an automated lead scoring model or flexibility in lead scoring criteria can consider Brevo. The software allows users to design and implement automated workflows for scoring leads, thus standardizing the lead qualification process. Users can define specific actions, events, and engagement criteria to trigger the assignment of lead scores. This feature provides the flexibility to adjust lead scoring criteria, allowing businesses to adapt to changing objectives or unique campaign requirements.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Starting price

$12 per user, per month (billed monthly)

Device compatibility

2. Drift

Drift, an AI-powered lead management platform, uses intelligent chat functionality to identify website visitors, understand their intent, and engage them with tailored communications. The software analyzes visitor data, demographics, referral sources, content preferences, and buying journey positions to personalize conversations and content. It leverages account-based marketing to target high-value accounts or leads that are most likely to convert.

Product features of interest:

  • AI engagement score: Assign AI-based engagement scores to leads based on interactions such as site visits, video and email activity, and conversational intent. This feature helps shortlist the most engaged accounts or leads more likely to purchase. 

  • Personalized messaging: Create tailored messages and content for different segments of your target audience. This feature leverages customer data insights and preferences to cater content and communications that resonate with individual leads and accounts. 

  • Custom routing: Direct leads to the most appropriate team or individual to minimize response time and improve customer experience. This feature also facilitates lead distribution, preventing potential customers from being overlooked.

Customer support options: Chat, call, email, and knowledge base

Who should consider Drift?

Drift is worth considering for sales teams that want to leverage chat functionality to capture high-quality leads. The software uses a conversational AI-powered intelligent chatbot to identify website visitors, comprehend their intent, and understand what they seek. When a visitor's behavior indicates potential interest (for example, spending time on the pricing page), the chatbot triggers an automated chat invitation or message. The visitor can then choose to interact by responding to the message. The chatbot also provides insights into visitor behavior and preferences, enabling sales reps to target the right leads at the right time.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Starting price

$2,500 per month (billed annually)

Device compatibility

/ Pro tip

Look for software tools that allow you to customize the lead scoring model to align with your lead qualification criteria. Your lead scoring tool must offer the flexibility to add new lead attributes or adjust the weightage of existing ones, such as demographics and engagement actions.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

As a lead generation tool, LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers search filters to target leads from specific industries, job titles, and geographies. It can integrate with your existing CRM platform to directly import contacts and create custom lists to save and track priority accounts. Its recommendation algorithms evaluate lead behavior, demographics, and engagement levels to suggest contacts most likely to convert. The tool also provides actionable sales insights, including suitable communication channels (e.g., email, phone, social media) and the best time to contact.

Product features of interest:

  • Connectivity data: Identify leads associated with companies connected to your business network on LinkedIn. This data helps prioritize leads with whom you may have an existing business relationship or a shared connection.

  • Customer insights collection: Gather and analyze data on lead behavior, preferences, and interactions with your business. These insights allow more accurate scoring based on prospects’ engagement levels and interests.

  • Buyer intent detection: Identify signals that indicate a potential buyer’s intent or interest. This includes monitoring online activities such as website visits, content interactions, or other behaviors that signal a lead's readiness to engage.

Customer support options: Query tickets and knowledge base

Who should consider LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be a suitable option for B2B companies that want to identify leads within their LinkedIn network. The tool’s connectivity feature suggests leads within a user’s business network on LinkedIn. It also highlights accounts with whom the user shares common connections, making it easier to establish initial contact. By enabling marketing and sales teams to target leads that are already connected to their network, the software helps increase the chances of conversion, as connected leads are more likely to be familiar with a company and its offerings.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

4. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a marketing automation software suite with lead scoring capabilities. It uses predictive segmentation to categorize your audience based on their anticipated behavior and characteristics. The tool analyzes their past interactions and purchase history, among other factors, to identify patterns and relationships and predict how they’ll likely engage with your brand in the future. Additionally, the software offers customer insight filters, such as interests, to build user segments. It also automates communication in response to specific actions; for example, sending welcome messages to new email sign-ups.

Product features of interest:

  • Customizable tags: Create custom labels, such as new customers, referrals, and local customers, to categorize your contacts. By using customizable tags, you can create highly targeted marketing segments and ensure your messages reach the right individuals.

  • Activity feed: Get real-time insights into how a lead engages with your marketing campaign. This feature tracks metrics such as website page views, link clicks, and in-app activities to help assess lead engagement levels.

  • Customer journey builder: Use pre-built customer journeys or build one from scratch to track how prospects interact with your brand. You can add a starting point—an action or event that starts the customer journey (e.g., an email sign-up)—and then define the rules and actions that make up the rest of the journey .

Customer support options: Call, knowledge base, and support tickets

Who should consider Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a viable option for email marketing teams that want to prioritize leads based on their response to email campaigns. The tool’s email management capabilities let marketing teams monitor how leads interact with email content by tracking metrics such as email open rate and click-through rate. Additionally, the software helps create custom segments within the email distribution list based on various criteria, including engagement metrics.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

5. Outplay

Outplay is a sales engagement and automation platform with lead scoring features. It helps identify hot or high-quality leads based on user interactions and positive outcomes. You can set scores for various lead actions, such as email open, link clicks, and website visits, and evaluate lead behavior over a specific period. You can also use custom tags or labels to categorize leads based on criteria such as industry, company size, and behavior. By tagging leads with relevant information, you can segment and prioritize them for tailored outreach.

Product features of interest:

  • Automation and sequences: Create customized outreach sequences to nurture and engage leads based on their behavior and actions on your website or their response to your marketing efforts. For example, you can set up automated follow-up messages or tasks triggered by lead actions.

  • Engagement tracking: Track and monitor engagement by analyzing how leads interact with your communications. This includes tracking email opens, click-through rates, and responses to messages. 

  • Chrome extension: Use Outplay Connect, a Chrome extension that helps capture prospects from various sources, including social media pages, websites, or anywhere online. You can also make calls directly through the extension, eliminating the need to switch to a separate phone application.

Customer support options: Chat, call, email, and knowledge base

Who should consider Outplay? 

Outplay is worth considering for sales teams that do a lot of cold calling and want real-time updates on lead activity. It includes a Chrome extension that tracks lead interactions and engagement in real time. When a prospect interacts with an email or clicks on a link, it sends instant notifications, allowing sales teams to respond promptly. This also enables sales reps to prioritize their effort by knowing which leads are actively engaging.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Starting price

$79 per user, per month (billed annually)

Device compatibility

/ Pro tip

Check whether your shortlisted software offers predictive lead scoring to forecast the likelihood of conversion. In lead scoring tools, predictive analytics leverages historical data and statistical algorithms to forecast the likelihood that a particular lead will convert into a customer. This results in more accurate lead scores, as the software can identify patterns and correlations that might get overlooked.

6. Outreach

Outreach is another sales engagement platform with lead scoring capabilities. It can capture leads from various channels, such as website forms, content downloads, and email sign-ups. Once captured, you can score the leads based on their responses to and engagement with your outreach efforts. You can also define customized scoring rules. For instance, you can assign higher scores for actions that are strong indicators of interest, such as requesting a product demo, and lower scores for less significant actions.

Product features of interest:

  • Account-based sales development: Identify a select group of high-quality target accounts for your outreach effort. These accounts are often chosen based on their potential revenue, alignment with your ideal customer profile, or strategic importance to your company's growth.

  • Activity tracking: Monitor and analyze various lead engagement activities, such as email opens, click-through rates, and response rates, to get insights into lead interest levels and prioritize leads more effectively.

  • Reporting and analytics: Use reports to assess the performance of your outreach campaigns. You can identify which messaging templates, sequences, communication channels, and campaigns are most effective in driving lead conversion and engagement. 

Customer support options: Call

Who should consider Outreach? 

Marketing and sales teams looking for a sales engagement platform to build tailored outreach campaigns and improve communications with prospects can consider Outreach. Its sequences feature allows marketers to create automated email campaigns, webinars, and content distribution plans. This ensures prospects receive timely and relevant information. Predefined actions and sequences also help sales professionals automate outreach to potential leads and existing clients, ensuring no prospect falls through the cracks.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

7. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud is an AI-powered sales enablement tool with lead scoring capabilities. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automatically assign lead scores based on defined criteria, including lead behavior and engagement. These scores help prioritize leads, allowing your sales team to concentrate on the most promising prospects. The software also helps create custom lead scoring models tailored to specific marketing needs. For example, you can assign higher scores to leads from specific industries.

Product features of interest:

  • Automation rules: Set up automation rules and workflows based on lead scores. For example, you can automatically route high-scoring leads to specific sales representatives for immediate follow-ups.

  • Lead prioritization: Rank and organize leads or prospects based on their conversion likelihood. This process involves assigning a priority or score to each lead to determine which ones should receive immediate attention and which can be nurtured or engaged with later.

  • Conversion insights: Track lead scores over time to get insights into the effectiveness of your lead generation and nurturing efforts. By identifying trends and patterns related to lead quality, you can make data-driven adjustments to your outreach strategy.

Customer support options: Chat, call, email, and knowledge base

Who should consider Salesforce Sales Cloud? 

Sales and marketing teams that deal with large volumes of leads can use Salesforce Sales Cloud to automate their lead scoring process, ensuring the most promising leads are quickly identified and routed to appropriate sales representatives. The software uses AI to identify opportunities and gather account insights by analyzing data from various sources, including news articles and social media. The software also analyzes email communication patterns to suggest the best time to send emails for higher open and response rates. These insights enable sales and marketing teams to tailor their outreach strategy for high-value leads or accounts.

Analysis accurate as of September 2023

/ Pro tip

Check the compatibility of the lead scoring software with your CRM system and other data sources. Integrating CRM software improves data flow and helps create detailed lead profiles that include demographic and behavioral data. Some lead scoring tools enrich lead data by pulling additional information from external sources such as social media profiles and industry databases. This enrichment process enhances your team’s understanding of each lead and improves scoring.

How much does lead scoring software cost?

Lead scoring systems can cost as low as $4.61 per user, per month, or more than $2,500 per month, depending on various factors such as software complexity, the number of users or leads, the number of lead generation channels, integrations, and the range of features included. Most lead scoring software tools typically offer the following pricing plans:

  • Free trials: No-cost plans range from a week to a month and offer access to all or limited software features. These are ideal for businesses that want to try a tool before investing.

  • Free versions: Free plans offer limited access to basic software features. These are ideal for small-business owners on a budget.

  • Entry-level plans: Start at $4.61 per user, per month, and offer limited features. These are suitable for marketing teams that need basic features such as lead data entry, lead scoring, contact management, and basic reporting.

  • Mid-tier plans: Range from $6.88 to $45 per month and offer advanced features such as lead segmentation, automated lead nurturing workflows, predictive lead scoring, and integration with CRM and marketing platforms. These are suitable for marketing and sales teams that have outgrown entry-level lead scoring software but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.

  • High-end plans: Advanced plans can cost more than $2,500 per month and offer a range of advanced features, including unlimited lead tracking and alerts, custom scoring models, deep CRM integrations, advanced predictive insights, and dedicated customer support. These plans are suitable for businesses with cross-functional marketing and sales teams.

Hidden costs associated with lead scoring software

Besides the software license price, additional costs associated with purchasing lead scoring software may include: 

  • Data integration: Costs related to integrating the lead scoring software with your existing CRM systems, marketing automation tools, and other data sources.

  • Training and onboarding: Expenses for training your team to use the software and onboard new users effectively.

  • Infrastructure: If you're using on-premise software, there may be infrastructure costs for hardware, servers, and IT resources.

Frequently asked questions when selecting lead scoring software

Here are some questions to ask vendors before shortlisting any lead scoring tool:

Does the software offer real-time lead scoring?

Real-time lead scoring allows you to prioritize leads based on their current behavior and engagement with your content or products. Select a tool that can instantly analyze lead interactions and update lead scores in real time. This feature enables your sales and marketing team to focus on the most promising leads, boosting conversion rates.

How does the software handle lead segmentation and targeting?

Lead segmentation and targeting allow you to categorize leads based on various criteria, such as demographics, behavior, and engagement history. Your shortlisted software should provide tools for creating targeted marketing campaigns tailored to each segment. This ensures you can deliver personalized content and offers to leads, increasing the chances of conversion.

Are reporting and analytics tools available?

Reporting and analytics tools track lead scoring performance, assess the effectiveness of your lead management strategies, and offer insights into metrics such as lead sources, follow-up rates, and the average time it takes for leads to move from initial interaction to conversion. Reporting capabilities help you optimize your lead scoring and targeting efforts for more efficient lead management.


Methodology

To be considered for this list, products had to:

  • Feature in 2023 Capterra Shortlist for lead management software. We selected the top seven products with the highest ratings to include in this article.

  • Show evidence of offering lead scoring, interaction tracking, behavioral tracking, and lead generation functionality as demonstrated by publicly available sources, such as the vendor’s website.

  • Meet our lead management software market definition: “Lead management software enables the forecasting, collection, and tracking of sales leads.”

Read more about our editorial independence.

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra's lead management software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Capterra directory that offer them. Only products with publicly available pricing information (as of Sep. 18, 2023) were considered for the pricing calculation.


Looking for Sales Force Automation software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Sales Force Automation software solutions.

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About the Author

Barkha Bali profile picture

Barkha Bali is a writer at Capterra, providing expert insights to help small businesses identify the right software for their needs by analyzing user reviews data for the highest rated products in relevant software categories. She has worked in finance, lifestyle, education, and medical. With expertise in marketing and content strategy, Barkha’s work has been featured in Medium and educational websites. When not working, she can be found re-watching “The Office” or “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

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