What to do with a lead score: a simple playbook

Acting on a lead score means deciding, before an inquiry arrives, who replies to it and by when. These seven steps work for any small business that already scores its inquiries. You need a spreadsheet, a calendar, and your inbox. No new software or AI is needed.

Why does nothing happen after a lead is scored?#

A score is a number. It does not reply to anyone. Most businesses add a score and keep working the same way: whoever opens the inbox first answers whatever is on top. The score sits in a column nobody sorts by.

Three things are usually missing:

1. A next step for each score. Nobody wrote down what a 75 should get that a 40 should not.
2. A person for each step. "The team will follow up" means nobody in particular will.
3. A deadline. Without one, a strong inquiry waits as long as a weak one.

Scoring says how well an inquiry fits. Routing says what happens because of that. The steps below join the two with three things for every range of scores: a next step, an owner, and a reply deadline. Sales teams call that deadline an SLA.

Who is this for?#

This is for a business that already gives each inquiry a score and wants that score to decide something. For example:

• a design studio where two partners share one inbox
• a contractor whose office manager answers the phone and the email
• a venue with one events coordinator and a weekend team
• a solo owner who wants to know which inquiry to answer first

It assumes your score comes from your own criteria, such as budget, timing, and location. If you do not have a score yet, start with lead scoring for small businesses. For a short definition, see lead scoring.

It does not assume a sales team. Every step works with one person.

Step 1: Can you trust the score enough to act on it?#

Before you send work by score, check that the score agrees with what you already know.

1. Gather your last 20 to 30 inquiries.
2. Mark the ones that became customers.
3. Sort them by score.

If the customers mostly sit near the top, the score is ready. If a customer you were glad to win scored near the bottom, find out why first. Usually one question counts too much, or one answer is graded wrong.

Also check how many answers each score rests on. A score built on one answer out of four can look perfect and mean very little. Read those inquiries yourself instead of trusting the number.

The score does not need to be perfect. The top only needs to look better than the bottom. The weekly check in the last section will improve it over time.

Step 2: How do you split the score into ranges?#

Pick three to five ranges. Fewer than three is not much better than no score. More than five is hard to remember on a busy day.

Give each range a short name that everyone uses. For example:

These cut-offs are only a starting point. Move them after a few weeks if too many inquiries land in one range. A good test: Hot should be small enough that its owner can always meet its deadline.

Keep a separate label, such as "Not scored," for inquiries with no score at all. No score means you do not know yet. It does not mean a poor fit. Someone who left a phone number and two sentences may be your best call of the week, so read these yourself.

Step 3: What should happen at each range?#

Write down one next step for each range. One step, not a menu. If the owner has to decide what to do, the deadline slips.

Each step should be something a person can finish in one sitting:

• Hot: call, or offer the soonest open time in your calendar.
• Warm: reply by email with two or three times to talk.
• Cool: reply with a useful answer and an invitation to book if it suits them.
• Cold: send a short, helpful answer that does not need a call, such as a price guide.
• Not a fit: say kindly that it is not a match, and point them somewhere better if you can.

Every range gets a reply. A low score changes the kind of reply, not whether one is sent. A polite answer takes a few minutes, and that person may refer a friend next year. For wording ideas, see how to reply kindly to inquiries that are not a fit.

Save each reply as a template in your email. The owner edits the first line and sends it.

Step 4: Who owns each range?#

Give each range one owner, by name. Then give each owner one backup, by name.

The owner is the person who replies, not the person who "keeps an eye on it." If an inquiry in their range goes unanswered, it is their miss. Shared ownership feels fair, but it is how inquiries wait for days.

Match the range to the person:

• Hot goes to whoever can say yes to the work. In a studio, that is a partner. At a contractor, it may be the person who prices the job.
• Warm and Cool go to whoever books calls or writes quotes.
• Cold and Not a fit go to anyone who writes kindly and quickly.

A solo owner owns every range. The ranges still decide the order of replies.

The backup takes over when the owner is out. Write the rule down: "If Sam is out, Priya owns Hot." Agree on how the owner marks that they are out, such as a calendar entry.

Step 5: How fast should each range get a reply?#

Give each range a reply deadline. The better the fit, the shorter the deadline.

Count deadlines in working hours, so a Friday evening inquiry is not "late" on Saturday. Write your working hours down, for example Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

Pick deadlines your owners can meet every time, not only on their best day. A two-hour deadline missed half the time teaches everyone to ignore it. A next-morning deadline that is always met is worth more.

For example:

• Hot: within two working hours.
• Warm: by the end of the next working day.
• Cool: within two working days.
• Cold: within three working days.
• Not a fit: within five working days.

The clock starts when the inquiry arrives, not when someone notices it. So a short deadline only works if the owner hears about the inquiry quickly.

Step 6: How does the owner find out a lead has arrived?#

Each owner needs to hear about the inquiries in their range without checking a list all day.

The simplest way is email. If your form tool puts the score or range in its email, set up an inbox rule that sends each inquiry to the right person by that range. If your form tool can post to a chat app, put Hot inquiries in a channel the Hot owner sees on their phone. For one way to do this, see the Slack connection.

Then test it. Send a made-up Hot inquiry and time how long the owner takes to see it. If the alert lands in a folder nobody opens, the deadline is not real.

In Qualiform, you choose who hears about new leads on the form's Routing tab, under Who hears about new leads. A form with nobody to notify still saves every lead, but someone has to remember to go and look.

Lower ranges do not need instant alerts. Reading a daily list of Cool and Cold inquiries at the same time each morning is enough for a deadline of two or three days.

Step 7: How do you keep track without new software?#

Use one shared spreadsheet. Add a row for every inquiry when it arrives. Keep the columns few, so people fill them in.

"On time?" is the column that matters most. It turns "we are pretty quick" into a number you can check.

Keep "Outcome" to a few fixed words, such as Booked a call, Sent a quote, Won, Lost, and No reply. Fixed words are easy to count.

If your form tool can export a CSV file, paste new inquiries in once a day instead of typing them.

What does the whole playbook look like for one business?#

Here is an example for a small design studio with two partners and one project manager. The cut-offs, names, and deadlines are examples, not recommendations.

The whole playbook fits on one page. Pin it where everyone can find it, and give it to anyone new first.

What are the common mistakes?#

1. Giving a range to "the team." If no name is on it, nobody owns it.
2. Deadlines nobody can meet. Set them to what you manage in a busy week. Shorten them later.
3. No backup. The day the Hot owner is sick is the day the best inquiry arrives.
4. Alerts nobody sees. Test every alert. If it is not seen, the deadline is not real.
5. Skipping the lowest range. A low score changes what you say, not whether you answer.
6. Treating "no score" as a low score. An inquiry with nothing scored needs a person to read it.
7. Changing the ranges every week. Give each change two to four weeks, so you can tell if it helped.
8. Never filling in the outcome. Without outcomes, you cannot tell if the score is right.

When is this not worth doing?#

Skip most of it if you get only a few inquiries a week and answer all of them the same day. Ranges and deadlines help when replies compete for time. If they do not, one rule is enough: answer every inquiry today.

Wait if your score fails the check in Step 1. Sending work by a score that ranks your best customers low makes things worse. Fix the questions first, using the guide to qualifying leads from your contact form.

If you are the only person who replies, drop the owner and backup columns. Keep the ranges and deadlines, because they tell you what to answer first.

And keep using your judgment. If a Cold inquiry reads like work you would love, call them. The score sets the order. It does not make the decision for you.

How do you know it is working?#

Once a week, open the spreadsheet and look at the last seven days. Ask two questions.

Did each range get its reply on time? Count the "No" answers in "On time?" for each range. If one range misses often, the deadline is too short, the owner has too much, or the alert is not reaching them. Fix one of those at a time.

Did each range turn out the way its name says? Over a month, Hot should win more work than Warm, and Warm more than Cool. If a range does no better than the one below it, move its cut-off or check the questions that feed it.

Run this check for four weeks before you change anything big. To set up the rules that send each range to the right place, read lead routing rules for a small service business.