Welcome to this week’s edition of CMO Blueprint! Today, we’re diving into a highly effective automation I implemented at SESAMm that has transformed the way we validate and prioritize leads. The challenge? Reducing the time spent on manual lead validation while improving prioritization—without adding extra effort to the task. The solution? ChatGPT, combined with Zapier and HubSpot.
By leveraging ChatGPT’s reasoning skills and its vast knowledge of companies—plus the insights you already have about your prospects—you can create a killer combo for smarter lead scoring. Curious to learn exactly how we did it? Read on! And don’t miss the hack of the week at the end of the post—it highlights a powerful new ChatGPT feature you’ll definitely want to check out.
The Use and Value of a Lead Scoring System
If you're in the B2B world, you already know how crucial lead scoring is for prioritizing the right prospects. A sound lead scoring system allows you to allocate your sales team's time effectively, ensuring they focus on leads most likely to convert. But while traditional lead scoring systems work well to an extent, they're inherently limited by the information you have at hand. What if you could add a layer of intelligence and insight that goes beyond the data sitting in your CRM? Better yet, what if you could automate manual research tasks that eat up your BDR team's time, freeing them to focus on more impactful work? Enter ChatGPT—a game-changer in supercharging your lead scoring system!
The Challenge: Traditional Lead Scoring Systems Have Limits
While most CRMs have robust lead-scoring features, they can only assess the data you've input. Even with well-crafted criteria, traditional systems cannot fill in gaps or provide context. For example, your CRM might know that a lead downloaded an eBook and works in the finance industry, but it doesn't know if their company just received a major funding round—a critical factor in determining their readiness to buy. Without this added layer of insight, you're left with an incomplete picture.
Superpower Your Lead Scoring with ChatGPT
This is where ChatGPT steps in to elevate your lead-scoring game. By integrating ChatGPT with tools like HubSpot and Zapier, you can:
Expand your knowledge of each lead by leveraging ChatGPT's research capabilities to gather additional online information.
Score leads with a richer, more contextual approach that factors in internal data (what's in your CRM) and external insights (what's happening in the world).
Imagine a system that not only considers the actions your lead has taken but also evaluates their company's market activity, recent news, and industry trends. That's the power of generative AI at work!
How to Build the Automation
Here's how you can set up this smart automation in just a few steps:
The Tools You Need:
ChatGPT: For researching and rating leads based on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
HubSpot (or your CRM of choice): To store and manage lead data.
Zapier: To automate the workflow between your CRM and ChatGPT.
Define Your ICP: Start by outlining the characteristics of your ideal customer. What industries, company sizes, roles, or behaviors are most valuable to you? Be specific—this will guide ChatGPT in its analysis.
Set Up Your Workflow:
Step 1: Use an online form for inbound leads or have your team input key information into the CRM manually.
Step 2: Create a Zap in Zapier that triggers when a new lead is added to your CRM.
Step 3: In Zapier, use a ChatGPT integration to send a prompt that includes your ICP and the lead's details from the CRM. For example:
"Based on this lead's information [input details], and our ICP [input ICP criteria], evaluate how well this lead matches. Research the web for relevant information to help you understand if this lead is aligned with our ICP. Use an A-to-E rating system: A = perfect match, E = completely irrelevant. Rate C for inconclusive information."
Step 4: Capture ChatGPT's response and update the lead's record in your CRM with the rating.
Calibrate and Test: Before rolling this out across your organization, test the automation with a handful of leads. Compare ChatGPT's ratings with your sales team's assessments to fine-tune the prompts and ensure consistency.
Incorporate into Your CRM's Lead Scoring System: Add the ChatGPT rating to your lead scoring model. For inbound leads, you might assign significant weight to these ratings. For example, an "A" lead could be auto-qualified as an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), triggering immediate follow-up from your sales team.
Pro Tip: Enhance Lead Prioritization
Once your system is up and running, you can continuously refine it by analyzing patterns. Are certain industries more likely to convert when rated "A"? Does an inconclusive "C" rating correlate with longer sales cycles? Use these insights to improve your scoring model and provide even more value to your team.
Unlock the Future of Lead Scoring
With ChatGPT, HubSpot, and Zapier, you're not just automating—you're innovating. This powerful combination allows you to make smarter decisions, save time, and focus on leads that matter most. So why settle for basic when you can superpower your lead-scoring system with the intelligence of generative AI? Get started, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the CMO Blueprint team! Happy scoring!
Hack of the Week: Organize Your ChatGPT Projects Like a Pro
If you’re a regular user of ChatGPT like I am, I’m sure you’ve been frustrated when trying to find old chats. Well, that frustration is finally over! ChatGPT just released (as in this week) a feature that allows you to organize your chats per project. And that’s not it—it also lets you add instructions specific to the project, like tone of voice, formatting preferences, and more.
The new project organization feature in ChatGPT allows you to group related conversations, documents, and reference materials together under a single “project” umbrella. You can create a project and then attach relevant chat sessions, notes, and files so they’re all stored in one convenient place. This makes it easier to revisit specific topics without losing context, keep track of ongoing work, and quickly find the information you need. Essentially, it’s a way to manage your ChatGPT resources more efficiently, ensuring that everything connected to a particular goal or subject is neatly organized and easy to access.
The "Add Instructions" feature within a project lets you set specific guidelines or directives that apply to all conversations under that project. Once you add these instructions, ChatGPT will take them into account whenever it responds within that project’s environment. This can help maintain consistency, ensure that particular formatting or style rules are followed, or enforce certain constraints across all related chats. It’s essentially a way to customize ChatGPT's behavior to better match the goals and standards of a given project.
