How is agent matching different from lead scoring?
A lead score ranks leads by how likely they are to buy or how much they are worth, so the floor knows which to call first, or at all. Agent matching, which BestPair calls predictive pairing, takes the leads the floor has chosen to work and decides which agent calls each one. The two answer separate questions, so a floor can run both: the score keeps setting the order, and matching sets who is on the call.
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Two questions, answered by two different tools
A lead score is a number attached to each lead, from a vendor or your own team, that estimates how likely the lead is to buy or what it is worth. Floors use it to decide which leads to work, which to work first and which to drop.
Agent matching starts after that decision. The floor has its leads and its order. Matching decides which agent each lead goes to.
| Lead scoring | Agent matching | |
|---|---|---|
| The question | Which leads should we call, and in what order? | Which agent should call this lead? |
| What it decides | Which leads, in what order | Which agent takes each lead |
| What changes on the floor | The order of the queue, and which leads are worked | Which agent’s list each lead lands in |
| What stays the same | Who calls | Which leads are called, and when |
| Who decides it | The score, from you or your vendor | The floor’s own call and sales history, read by BestPair |
Why a good score leaves the agent question open
A score gives each lead one number, and that number is the same whichever agent picks up the phone. Two leads with the same score can do very differently with different agents, because each agent closes better on some kinds of leads than others. Why agents close at different rates on the same leads.
The common shortcut is to send the top-scored leads to the top agents on the leaderboard. That ranks both sides and pairs the tops. The top agents run out of hours, and the highest-scored leads are often the ones that would buy from whoever answers. The leads in the middle, which need persuading, go to whoever is next. Why the best agents should not get every lead.
The agent tends to matter least on leads that have already decided, and most on leads that need a conversation to decide. A score can tell you which leads are which. Matching decides who has that conversation. For collection floors, see how agent matching differs from a propensity-to-pay score.
How the two run together
- The score, or your current rule, sets which leads are worked and in what order. BestPair does not change it.
- Your routing rules pick the agents allowed to take each lead, by product, licence, territory or language.
- Matching picks the agent inside that group.
- Your dialer or CRM delivers the call the way it does today.
Your floor can change its score later, buy a new one or drop it, and matching keeps working on whatever order the floor uses. If your CRM already routes by rules, the same split applies: what CRM routing decides, and what it leaves open.
Testing each one fairly
Each change needs its own test, and running two changes at once makes neither result readable. To test matching, keep the score and the order exactly as they are in both groups. Split leads at random as they arrive, let matching assign one group and your current routing the other in the same weeks, and compare sales per contact on your floor’s own definition of a sale. Because both groups are worked in the same order, any gap comes from who made the call. How to prove a lead routing change raised sales.
If you plan to change your score as well, change it for both groups on the same date, and report the months before and after separately.
Common follow-up questions
Do we need a lead score before we can use agent matching?
No. Matching works with whatever decides the order on your floor today: a score, lead age, the time a lead arrived or a plain list. It takes that order as given and decides only who calls.
Will agent matching change which leads get called, or when?
No. BestPair decides only which agent works each lead. Which leads are called, when and how often, and what is offered, stay with your floor. People make every call, and BestPair never dials, calls, texts or contacts anyone.
Our scoring vendor says its score also routes leads. Is that the same thing?
Ask what it decides. If it sends the highest-scored leads to the agents ranked highest overall, it ranks leads and ranks agents, and still uses one leaderboard for the agents. Matching asks which agent does best with each kind of lead in your own history. Either claim can be tested the same way, against a control group in the same weeks.
Where to next
How it works
See what BestPair does
Which agent works each lead or account, decided from your own floor’s history. People make every call; the dialer, scripts and offers stay as they are.
Read the overviewProof
How to prove a routing change worked
Split leads at random, run both ways in the same weeks and compare. Written for collection floors; the method is the same for sales.
Read the methodYour floor
Talk it through
A fit call, not a demo. If your floor is not a fit, you will hear it on the call.
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Would it be a bad idea to spend 45 minutes finding out?
If your shop does not qualify, you will hear it on the call, not after you have paid for a report.
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