How to set a lead score threshold for a service business

A lead score threshold is the score where you change what you do with an inquiry. Above it, you call fast. Below it, you reply another way. These five steps set your thresholds from the jobs you actually won.

Who is this for?#

This is for a small service business that scores its inquiries, or is about to. Think of a design studio, a plumber, a wedding venue, or a cleaning company. Inquiries arrive through a form on your website, faster than you can call them all. You want to know which score should mean "call now."

You need three things:

1. A form that gives each inquiry a score out of 100.
2. A few weeks of inquiries scored by the same questions.
3. A list of which of those inquiries turned into paid work.

If you have not decided what to ask yet, start with the guide to qualifying leads from your contact form. If scoring is new to you, read what lead scoring is first.

Why not use a threshold from a sales article?#

A score only means something on the form that made it. It comes from your questions and from how much each one counts. A software company's form asks about team size and contract length. A plumber's form asks where the job is and how soon. A 70 on one has nothing to do with a 70 on the other.

So a number like 60 or 90, copied from a guide written for software sales, is a guess, not a rule. If it is too high for you, good jobs wait in your inbox. If it is too low, you spend your week calling people who were never going to book.

Your own close rate fixes this. The close rate is the number of inquiries that became paid jobs, divided by the number that came in. It shows which scores turn into work for your business. A threshold set from it is one you can explain and check.

1. How long should you collect scores first?#

Keep the cut-offs your form already has, and leave them alone while you collect. You need scores that all come from the same questions.

In Qualiform, a new form already has cut-offs. The Design or web studio template, for example, starts Hot at 85, Warm at 70, and Cool at 55. Treat these as a place to begin.

While you collect, do not change your questions or how much each one counts. If you do, the scores before and after mean different things. In Qualiform, every lead records which version of your scoring produced it. If you change something, only compare leads scored by the same version.

How long to wait depends on how many inquiries you get. You want enough in each score range to see a pattern. With a few inquiries a day, that might take four to eight weeks. With a few a week, it takes longer.

2. How do you write down what happened to each inquiry?#

Keep a simple list, such as a spreadsheet, with one row per inquiry:

Decide what "Won" means before you start, and stick to it. For most service businesses it means the customer paid, or signed and paid a deposit. A booked call is not a win, because plenty of calls end with no job.

Do not skip the Answered column. In Qualiform, Answered is the share of your scoring that got an answer, measured by how much each question counts. A 90 resting on one answer is not the same as a 90 resting on all of them. Under 50%, the score tells you very little, so you will set those rows aside in the next step.

3. How do you work out close rates by score?#

Group your inquiries into score ranges, then work out the close rate for each range.

1. Pick ranges. Ranges of about 20 points suit a small business, such as 80 to 100, 60 to 79, and 40 to 59. Smaller ranges leave too few inquiries in each.
2. Set aside any inquiry with Answered under 50%. Count them separately.
3. Set aside any inquiry marked Not scored. Count them separately too.
4. Divide the number won by the number of inquiries in each range. 4 won out of 8 is a 50% close rate.
5. Work out your average close rate across all the scored inquiries together.

Now read down the list. When scoring works, higher ranges close more often. If they do not, a question or how much it counts is wrong. Fix that first. No cut-off can save a score that does not follow your wins.

4. Where should the top cut-off go?#

Put your top cut-off at the lowest score range that closes clearly better than your average. A simple starting rule is one and a half times your average. If your average close rate is 18%, the top range should close at 27% or more.

Then check it against your time. Count how many inquiries would land above that cut-off in a normal week. Ask if you can really call that many quickly. If you can call ten a week and the cut-off sends you twenty, raise it. If it sends you two and you have time for ten, lower it to the next range and see how that range closes.

This is the cut-off that costs the most when it is wrong. Too high, and a ready customer waits. Too low, and the fast call stops being fast.

In Qualiform, cut-offs live on the Routing tab, under What happens at each score. Each of the five rules has a cut-off and an action. The top rule's cut-off is your Hot threshold.

5. Where do the lower cut-offs go?#

Each lower cut-off should mark a change in what you do next, not just a change in the number.

1. Warm: ranges that still win jobs, but less often than Hot. These get a call when you have time.
2. Cool: ranges that win now and then. An email reply often fits here.
3. Cold: ranges that almost never won. Reply politely, without a call.
4. The bottom rule: leave it off unless you have a clear reason.

In Qualiform, each rule also decides what the AI offers the visitor at the end of the conversation, such as a time to talk.

The bottom rule needs care. In Qualiform it is off until you switch it on.

The Routing tab also has a minimum Answered percent. A lead under that minimum goes to the fourth rule instead of getting the offer its score would earn. This keeps a high score built on one answer from getting your fastest call.

What does a worked example look like?#

This example is invented, and so are its numbers. A plumbing company took 60 inquiries over eight weeks through one form. Four were Not scored. The other 56 looked like this:

The average is 18%. One and a half times that is 27%. The 60 to 79 range closes at 29%, so it clears the bar. That puts the Hot cut-off at 60. Over eight weeks, 22 inquiries scored 60 or more. That is about three a week, which this business can call the same day.

Three things to notice. First, the top range has only eight inquiries. One more inquiry in it moves its close rate by about 6 points, so check again in a month. Second, nothing under 40 won a job, so Cool and Cold both get an email, not a call. The split at 25 can be checked again once there is more to count. Third, one of the four Not scored inquiries became a job. That is why they are counted apart and never treated as the lowest scores.

What are the common mistakes?#

1. Copying another business's number. A cut-off only fits the questions that produced the score.
2. Setting it once and never checking. Your prices, your busy season, and your questions change. So does what a score means.
3. Treating Not scored as a low score. It means nobody knows yet. Someone who left a phone number and two sentences may be your best job of the week.
4. Reading the score without Answered. A 90 with Answered at 25% is mostly a guess. Read what they said.
5. Changing questions halfway through counting. Then you are comparing two different scores. Only compare leads scored by the same version.
6. Turning people away for a low budget. A low budget from someone who has not seen your prices yet is a starting point. Let it score low instead. In Qualiform, check the turn-away amount on your money question. Type 0 there to turn nobody away.

When is this not worth doing?#

Skip the close-rate work if you already call every inquiry yourself, quickly, and still have time left. A threshold decides who waits. If nobody waits, it changes nothing. The starting cut-offs are fine until your inbox gets busy.

It is also not worth doing while your scores do not follow your wins. If the top range closes no better than the bottom one, moving the cut-off only moves the problem. Fix the questions first. Ask about what really decides a job for you, such as where it is, how big it is, and how soon. The guide to lead scoring for small businesses covers that. Then count again.

Be honest about small numbers, too. If you get a handful of inquiries a month, it takes a long time to fill each range. Use the close rates as a rough guide, lean on how many calls you can make, and do not fine-tune to a single point.

How do you know the threshold is working?#

Run the same count after the next four to eight weeks, with the new cut-offs in place. Check three things:

1. Inquiries above your Hot cut-off still close at the best rate.
2. The number above that cut-off each week still matches how many calls you can make quickly.
3. Wins do not keep turning up in your Cool and Cold ranges.

If wins show up low, read what those people said and find the answer that pulled their score down. That points to the question or setting to change. In Qualiform, the lead score distribution on the analytics page shows where your scores bunch up, and it counts Not scored leads beside the chart instead of inside it. To decide what each range should get, see the guide to lead routing rules for a small service business.