hi, i’m amr. a lead score is one number in a crm, and teams argue about it as if it meant one thing. hubspot’s help page shows it can mean three different things, depending on how you build it.
what hubspot says, in its own words
- “The default maximum for each score is 100 points, but you can set a custom minimum and maximum.” the listed ranges run from -100 to 100 up to -10,000 to 10,000
- a fit score uses property values. an engagement score uses events: for contacts, the contact’s own actions, and for companies and deals, the actions of associated contacts
- a combined score uses both property values and events
- each rule can add or subtract points, so a bad-fit signal can pull a score down
- groups can have their own point cap. the page’s use case caps one group at 40 points and another at 60
- “Each contact’s score property updates automatically as they take actions included in the score criteria.” score decay, such as the page’s example of 50% every three months, lowers scores based on how long ago an event happened
- “the types and number of scores you can create depend on your HubSpot subscription”
my reading, not hubspot’s wording: one combined number can hide whether a lead looks like your customer or is just clicking a lot, so keeping fit and engagement visible separately makes routing easier to explain.
what to check this week
- open your scoring setup and write down which type each score is: fit, engagement or combined
- check that fit rules include negative points for leads outside your icp, not only positive ones
- set a cap per group so one noisy activity, like repeated page views, can’t push a lead to the maximum alone
- decide whether old activity should fade, and whether decay is switched on
- if scores feed an ad platform or a sales alert, check what the crm sends. i covered how crm data reaches google ads in an earlier post
where this stops applying
the page gives no recommended threshold for calling a lead qualified, and no benchmark for how scores relate to closed deals, so this post names none. the 40 and 60 point caps and the 50% decay are the page’s own examples, not advice. i haven’t seen your account.
start scaling — if your sales team stopped trusting the lead score, a short scoring review usually finds which signal is doing the damage. let’s connect.
Sources: HubSpot Knowledge Base, “Build lead scores” (knowledge.hubspot.com/scoring/build-lead-scores). Figures are published product documentation, not verified results from Amr’s own client accounts.