# Lead scoring in Google Sheets without a CRM

You have a sheet of lead notes and no time to read them. Two columns rank the list: who can buy, and who fits. Both come from one formula each, written in plain English.

Updated 22 September 2026. Source: https://hunchsheet.app/formulas/lead-scoring-google-sheets

## Column B: can this person buy?

```
=HUNCH(A2:A2000, "Can this person approve a software purchase for their team without asking someone else?")
```
In Excel: `=HUNCH.ASK(A2:A2000, "Can this person approve a software purchase for their team without asking someone else?")`

The answer is a probability from 0 to 1. The question carries the definition, which is what makes the number mean something: "decision maker" alone would leave the model guessing what you count.

## Column C: does this person fit?

```
=HUNCHSCORE(A2:A2000, "ICP fit: B2B software company with 20 to 500 employees that sells to sales or support teams, based in the US or Europe", "no fit|weak|good|perfect")
```
In Excel: `=HUNCH.SCORE(A2:A2000, "ICP fit: B2B software company with 20 to 500 employees that sells to sales or support teams, based in the US or Europe", "no fit|weak|good|perfect")`

Write your ideal customer as one sentence and paste it into the question. Change the sentence and the whole column re-scores.

## Real outputs

| Lead notes | Can buy? (0–1) | ICP fit (0–3) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maria K., VP Sales at Northwind Logistics (300 employees, Chicago). Owns the sales tooling budget. | 0.67 | 2.34 |
| Tom R., SDR at a 12-person agency in Leeds. Asked for a free trial for himself. | 0.17 | 0.84 |
| Priya S., Head of Customer Support, Lumen Health (180 staff, Austin). Signs off on tools under $50k. | 0.79 | 2.36 |
| Student building a side project, wants API access for a hackathon. | 0.11 | 0.07 |
| Jonas W., CTO and co-founder of a 40-person B2B SaaS in Berlin. | 0.80 | 2.74 |
| Procurement analyst at a 5,000-person bank. Cannot say who decides. | 0.09 | 0.24 |
| Director of Revenue Operations, 250-person fintech, New York. Asked for pricing for 20 seats. | 0.53 | 2.62 |
| Elena P., Support Team Lead at a 90-person SaaS in Amsterdam. Her manager approves purchases. | 0.07 | 2.46 |

Elena fits the profile (2.46) but cannot sign (0.07); Jonas does both. That is exactly the split a single "lead score" hides, and why two columns beat one.

## Rank and cut

```
=SORT(FILTER(A2:C2000, B2:B2000 >= E1, C2:C2000 >= 2), 2, FALSE)
```

Put the threshold in E1 (start at 0.5) so you can tune it without editing the formula. Rows above the line get a call this week; the rest get a nurture email.

> Tip: Probabilities near 0.5 are the model saying it cannot tell from these notes. Read those rows yourself or add a line to the notes; do not round them to yes or no.

## Questions

### Does it read the company website or LinkedIn?

No. It judges the text in the cell. Put what you know in the notes column; a one-line summary per lead is enough.

### How many rows per formula?

A range formula handles about 1,000 rows within Google's 30-second limit. For bigger lists use Hunch menu › Ask about selection, which runs up to six minutes and writes values.

### Will the score change when I reopen the sheet?

Results are cached for six hours. When a column is final, select it and use Hunch › Freeze selection to values.