Traditional lead scoring asks: "How likely is this person to buy from us?"
Value-First Scoring asks: "How healthy is our relationship with this person, and what do they need to realize more value?"
The difference transforms everything about how you engage with people throughout their journey with your organization.
People don't want to be scored as "leads." They want to be understood as humans with real challenges, opportunities, and goals. They want relationships that create value for them, not just for you.
When you shift from scoring leads to scoring relationship health, you align with how people actually want to engage. You measure what matters: the strength and trajectory of relationships with real humans who are on a journey toward greater value realization.
Your customer success colleagues already understand this. They don't score "leads"—they track relationship health, engagement patterns, and value realization because it works. They've proven that measuring relationship quality predicts success better than measuring qualification criteria.
It's time to bring this same thinking to your entire revenue operation.
The traditional lead scoring approach treats people as objects to be processed through a system. You score demographic fit, track activities, and create barriers to determine "readiness" for the next stage.
Value-First Scoring recognizes that business is fundamentally about relationships between humans. Instead of scoring leads, you track relationship health across multiple dimensions:
This isn't revolutionary thinking—it's how customer success teams have been operating successfully for years. The revolution is applying this proven approach to your entire customer journey.
Your prospector, buyer, and customer are all the same human being on a continuous value path. Relationship value scoring recognizes this reality and tracks relationship health consistently across authentic human experiences:
Audience ("I am learning!"): How effectively are you enabling their natural curiosity and gentle exploration without pressure to commit?
Researcher ("I am researching!"): How thoroughly are you supporting their focused determination to build a comprehensive understanding and thoroughly evaluate?
Hand Raiser ("I am buying!"): How seamlessly are you responding when they're ready to engage in serious conversation with expert guidance?
HERO ("I am building conviction!"): How collaboratively are you helping them develop compelling cases and build organizational support for transformation?
Value Creator ("I must create value!"): How authentically are you supporting their implementation success and celebrating their achievements?
Adopter ("I realize your value!"): How naturally are you enabling their desire to optimize and expand successful practices?
Advocate ("I tell others about you!"): How genuinely are you supporting their enthusiasm for sharing value and helping others succeed?
Champion ("I am a raving fan!"): How powerfully are you enabling their commitment to advancing industry-wide transformation?
Just like customer health scoring, relationship value scoring works best when it measures multiple dimensions simultaneously:
Beyond basic demographics, this measures how well individual contacts align with successful collaboration patterns. Are you connecting with people who have the authority, interest, and capability to engage in meaningful partnership? Contact fit scoring helps you identify the humans most likely to benefit from and contribute to genuine value creation.
More than firmographic matching, this evaluates organizational readiness for collaborative success. What's the company's capacity for partnership? How well does their environment support the kind of relationship development that leads to mutual value creation? Company fit scoring helps you understand the context that will influence relationship success.
Not "lead behavior" but authentic signals of growing interest and trust. Are interactions becoming more meaningful? Are they proactively sharing challenges and opportunities? Engagement scoring captures the quality and trajectory of relationship development over time.
HubSpot's recent updates to lead scoring—particularly the addition of deal scoring across Sales and Marketing Hub—create a perfect opportunity to implement relationship value scoring across your entire revenue team.
For the first time, you can:
The traditional lead scoring approach is becoming less effective because:
Organizations that master relationship value scoring will create sustainable competitive advantages because they'll attract higher-quality partnerships, accelerate value realization, and build lasting relationships that compound over time.
This week, Casey Hawkins will be presenting the technical implementation of Value-First Scoring to the HubSpot Admins HUG. She'll show exactly how to configure HubSpot's new scoring capabilities to track relationship health rather than lead qualification.
If you're responsible for HubSpot implementation, this is your chance to see how the customer success approach can transform your entire revenue operation.
The concept makes perfect sense. The technical implementation in HubSpot is now possible. The missing piece? Most teams need practical guidance on how to make this transformation successfully.
Traditional lead scoring is deeply embedded in most organizations' processes, technology, and mindset. Moving to relationship-based scoring requires more than just changing a few formulas—it requires rethinking how you engage with people throughout their entire journey.
That's why Casey Hawkins has launched the Value-First Scoring Masterminds—an 8-week intensive program that helps HubSpot teams implement relationship value scoring with the same success customer success teams have achieved with account health scoring.
What You'll Master:
Who Should Apply:
The Transformation Promise: By the end of 8 weeks, you'll have a functioning relationship value scoring system that enables natural progression, improves team collaboration, and creates better customer experiences than traditional lead scoring ever could.
Kickoff
Wednesday, July 9 | 12:00 – 1:00pm ET
We're kicking things off by unpacking what's broken about traditional lead scoring — and why HubSpot's new tools open the door to a better approach. You'll get an overview of the Value-First framework, set your 8-week goals, and walk away with a self-audit to uncover what needs fixing first.
Contact Fit Scoring
Thursday, July 17 | 3:00 – 4:00pm ET
This session helps you define your Ideal Contact Profile and assign meaningful score values to the individuals most likely to convert. Learn how to score based on titles, seniority, behaviors, and buying intent — and leave with a clear Contact Fit scoring model.
Company Fit Scoring
Monday, July 21 | 3:00 – 4:00pm ET
Company context matters — and this week, we'll look at firmographics, technographics, and segmentation strategies that power better account-based scoring. You'll map out your Company ICP and draft your scoring logic to reflect the quality of accounts, not just contacts.
Engagement Scoring
Thursday, July 31 | 9:30 – 10:30am ET
Engagement is often the best indicator of readiness — but most scoring models don't capture it well. This week, we'll build time-bound, behavior-based models that separate noise from signal and identify contacts who are truly active (not just accidentally clicking).
Working Session 1
Friday, August 1 | 12:30 – 2:30pm ET
Bring your broken (or nonexistent) scoring system and rebuild it live with expert help. We'll workshop structure, setup, and calculated scores together so you walk away with real progress — not just theory.
Scoring Architecture
Wednesday, August 6 | 7:00 – 8:00am ET
A smart scoring system is only as good as the data behind it. This session focuses on building modular scoring structures, identifying data you can trust, and building fallbacks for unreliable or missing inputs — especially when enrichment or integrations are in play.
Score Based Automation
Thursday, August 14 | 7:00 – 8:00pm ET
Your scores are only useful if they trigger action. We'll walk through how to use scoring logic to automate sales handoffs, update lifecycle stages, and route leads dynamically — all while keeping your lists clean and your team in sync.
Reporting
Tuesday, August 19 | 10:00 – 11:00am ET
This session discusses how to build dashboards and reports that actually help teams prioritize and measure impact. You'll align on shared definitions, equip sales with context, and turn your scoring system into a true enablement tool.
Working Session 2
Tuesday, August 26 | 2:00 – 4:00pm ET
This is your final check-in to troubleshoot, refine, and launch with confidence. Whether you're polishing workflows or need help pressure-testing scores, this session ensures your system is ready before the deadline hits.
Final Tune-Up
Thursday, August 28 | 3:00 – 4:00pm ET
We're wrapping up the cohort with a final Q&A and polish session. You'll share progress, get peer and expert feedback, and prepare your system for rollout — with documentation, alignment, and confidence heading into the August 31 sunset.
Learn More About Value-First Scoring Masterminds
The question isn't whether relationship value scoring will become the standard for high-performing revenue teams—it's whether your organization will be among the pioneers who establish the new paradigm or the followers who adapt to it later.
Customer success teams have already shown us the way. HubSpot has given us the tools. Now it's time to transform how we think about scoring across the entire customer journey.
The choice is yours. The opportunity is now.
Ready to transform your approach from lead scoring to relationship value scoring? Join the conversation and see how organizations are implementing this paradigm shift successfully.