What is Lead Routing?

DEFINITION
Lead routing is the process of distributing incoming leads to your sales staff; each business will likely have their own lead routing system based on a number of different factors. 

💡Understanding Lead Routing

When a new lead pops up in your CRM database, how does your business determine who gets that lead?

Very, very few businesses have a “free for all” approach, where the most-obsessive salesperson with the fastest refresh button gets to claim all the leads; most utilize a lead routing system, which is clearly documented within their organization.

Lead routing can be as simple as having a list-based rotation. Every time a new lead comes in, they go to the next person on the list. Everyone gets a turn, and in theory, it’s fair and equitable. 

Other businesses may have a more complicated lead routing system, assessing factors like a salesperson’s availability, location, or experience. They also may consider a particular lead’s quality, intent, or estimated value. 

Lead routing can be done manually, with a manager assigning out leads as they come on, but there’s also software that can automate this process based on the lead distribution process that you want to employ for your team. 

🖋 Takeaway

Since lead routing determines which sales staff is assigned to which leads, it’s an important part of the selling team’s process. It’s important for the system to be well-documented so that everyone understands how it works, and it’s important for the system to be equitable.

 Lead routing software— which may be available with some CRMs or even in lead scoring software— can automatically distribute leads to sales staff in a process that works best for your organization. When you use lead routers, this process can become automated, which can get the leads to sales team members faster and actually reduce the response time. 

In many cases, lead routing software and lead scoring software can help identify high-intent and sales readiness amongst individual leads, ensuring that they’re on the sales team’s radar and assigned to a salesperson who will be able to best serve that customer. 
Breadcrumbs offers integrations with multiple CRM tools, including HubSpot, Salesforce, and ActiveCampaign.

Our lead scoring software can analyze lead data for both fit and activity qualifiers, create a co-dynamic lead score, and send it back to your CRM tools to optimize lead routing. You can learn more about how our lead scoring works.

What is lead routing? 

Lead routing is the process is assigning incoming leads to individual salespeople, potentially depending on factors like the lead’s needs, location, products of interest, or the team member’s availability. 

Why is lead routing important? 

Lead routing is important because it ensures an organized and equitable distribution of leads across your sales teams, giving everyone as equal of an opportunity as possible while taking steps to partner up leads with the team members who can best help them. It also can reduce the response time, engaging leads faster and driving more conversions. 

How does routing work? 

Lead routing can work in a number of different ways. You may have someone manually assigning leads, though in many cases, software is used to distribute leads automatically. 

Most lead routing software allows you to choose what process you want to use for lead assignment. Some use a simple rotation, taking turns, and going down a list. Others will look at multiple factors to assign leads to a salesperson with the availability, experience, and knowledge needed. 

What is lead routing in marketing cloud? 

Lead routing in marketing cloud utilizes decision splits or completion actions to automatically assign leads to different members of your sales team. You can set up rules to determine which leads are assigned to which team members in specific circumstances. 

What is an example of routing in leading scoring? 

In lead scoring, routing software may identify high-value, high-potential leads. The lead router would assign these high-intent leads to a sales team member immediately who had the availability to get in touch and the experience with the products the clients were most likely to be interested in. 

What are common lead assignment rules? 

Common lead assignment rules include the following:

  • Lead routing by territory 
  • Lead routing by customer/product use case 
  • Lead routing by estimated deal value 
  • Lead routing by lead score 
  • Lead routing by salesperson availability