Pro Tip: Default Lead Scores to Zero Using the New HubSpot Lead Scoring Tool

The new HubSpot lead scoring tool is a powerful way to evaluate and prioritize contacts and companies in your CRM, but there are important nuances to keep in mind. One common issue is that if none of the scoring criteria are met, the lead score defaults to NULL rather than zero. This can disrupt workflows that rely on lead score values, preventing contacts from enrolling as expected. Fortunately, there’s a simple fix to avoid these errors.

The Problem

In HubSpot's updated lead scoring tool, scores default to a (null) value if no scoring criteria are met. This can be problematic if you're using lead scores to trigger workflows. For instance, if you use “Lead Score is known” as a trigger for a routing workflow and want to include options for leads with a score of 0, unscored leads will not be enrolled in the workflow because the lead score property will be unknown for that record due to it not being scored by the criteria at all. TLDR: An unknown or (null) score in HubSpot is NOT a score of 0.

The Solution

To include unscored contacts in these types of workflows, we needed to force lead scores to be set to zero by adding a universal criterion. This required choosing criteria that would catch all records, even if they did not receive points elsewhere. Here are the criteria we set for both Demographic and Behavior scores:

• Demographic Score: We chose to add 0 points when the Record ID is known due to this being a universally required property within HubSpot.
• Behavior Score: We chose to add 0 points when a contact was enrolled in any of our lifecycle stage workflows. Since all contacts will be enrolled in at least one of these workflows, this was a clean way to default all records to 0.

While there are many universal criteria that you can choose for your own lead scores, these are a couple that we found useful for eliminating potential workflow errors. While these criteria were meant to be universal, it is still possible to exclude records by including them in your scoring exclusion list. 

Even with these fixes in place, it’s important to monitor for any records that still have a (null) lead score to ensure ongoing data quality. A simple way to do this is by creating a report that displays contacts or companies where "Lead Score is unknown", excluding your scoring exclusion list. If records appear in this report unexpectedly, it may indicate missing scoring criteria or were mistakenly added to your exclusion list. 

Do you need help developing an effective lead scoring strategy for your organization? Schedule a meeting with the Pros!