Your lead scored 97 points. Perfect demographic fit. Ideal firmographic profile. High engagement score. Downloaded everything. Attended every webinar. Sales called them 14 times. Result? They were never buying. Meanwhile, the 12-point lead you ignored just signed a 7-figure deal with your competitor.
Welcome to the lead scoring theater—where marketing builds elaborate models to predict something that can't be modeled: human buying behavior.
You've assigned points to everything. Job title: 10 points. Company size: 15 points. Email open: 5 points. Webinar attendance: 20 points. You've created a mathematical model so complex it would make a data scientist weep. And it's completely, utterly, catastrophically wrong.
74%
of Revenue Marketing leaders have abandoned traditional lead scoring for actual buying signals—while others keep perfecting models that don't work.
Source: Revenue Marketing Index 2025
Here's what your lead scoring model actually measures:
That person who downloaded 10 whitepapers? They're not evaluating solutions. They're avoiding their actual job.
"Vice President" doesn't mean what it used to. Half your "decision makers" can't approve a coffee purchase.
Webinar attendance during work hours? That's not interest. That's a meeting they're avoiding.
They match your ICP perfectly! Except for the minor detail that they have no problem to solve.
Multiple page visits? That's not research. That's someone desperately trying to understand what you actually do.
Your lead scoring model is a random number generator with extra steps
A "VP of Innovation" at a Fortune 500 scores high. They have zero budget and no influence. A "Manager" at a startup scores low. They're the founder's right hand with signing authority.
Downloads don't mean interest. They mean someone's building a research folder they'll never open. Real buyers call you. Tire kickers collect PDFs.
Your highest engaged leads are often students, competitors, and consultants doing market research. Your lowest engaged leads? Actual buyers who already know what they want.
Just because someone engaged yesterday doesn't mean they're buying today. Some buyers research for months then go dark. Others buy within hours of first contact.
Your 70-point threshold for "sales-ready" is arbitrary. You're sending garbage to sales at 71 points and ignoring gold at 69.
You've added 47 scoring criteria. Now you're precisely wrong instead of approximately right. Complexity doesn't equal accuracy.
Your scoring model is based on opinions disguised as data. "CMO thinks webinars are worth 20 points" isn't science. It's guessing with spreadsheets.
Every scoring fantasy creates pipeline friction
Multiple people from the same company suddenly appear. That's not coincidence. That's a buying committee forming.
They describe a specific problem, with specific consequences, and specific timeline pressure. That's pain, not curiosity.
They're asking about you vs. specific competitors. They're not exploring. They're deciding.
ROI calculators, business case templates, implementation guides. They're building internal buy-in.
"What about security?" "How does implementation work?" "What if...?" They're solving for objections.
Sales Trust: Gone
After the 50th "hot lead" that wasn't, sales stops believing marketing. They work their own leads and ignore yours.
Real Buyers: Ignored
While you chase high-scoring phantoms, actual buyers with "low scores" go to competitors who respond.
Speed: Destroyed
Buyers wait while leads accumulate points. By the time they're "sales-ready," they've already bought elsewhere.
Resources: Wasted
Sales chases false positives. Marketing nurtures false negatives. Everyone's busy. Nobody's selling.
Bad lead scoring doesn't just miss opportunities. It creates anti-pipeline.
Stop scoring leads. Start recognizing buyers.
Every lead you score wrong is a deal you lose.
The 20% who focus on buying signals close deals. The 80% perfecting scores close spreadsheets.
Lead scoring is astrology for marketers.
You're looking at meaningless patterns and pretending they predict the future. Your buyers aren't points on a spreadsheet. They're humans with problems, timelines, and budgets.
Revenue Marketing leaders have abandoned the scoring fantasy for buying reality. They don't calculate who might buy. They recognize who is buying.
Stop scoring. Start selling.
Learn how Revenue Marketing leaders identify real buying signals, not arbitrary points