Lead routing is a necessary part of the sales process. Similar to lead distribution, this is the automated distribution of leads so that sales teams can get to work converting them into customers.
Without an effective lead routing process, your team will be left to fend for themselves, and opportunities will be missed. Every lead should be treated with the respect that it deserves. Yes, some leads might be more important than others, but each has the potential to do business.
When lead routing is in place, leads are seamlessly connected with the right sales team members. The speed and efficiency make for a positive customer experience and a higher conversion rate.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- The framework that all inbound marketing funnels are based on.
- Marketing and sales activities for every aspect of the funnel.
- Delivering value at every funnel stage.
The Basics of Lead Routing
Consider the origins of your leads. Likely, they emerge from a variety of channels. Whether through an email marketing campaign, your website, or an advertising effort, leads can originate from multiple sources. However, as they begin to accumulate, managing them can become overwhelming, resulting in some leads being neglected.
That’s especially true if you’re distributing leads through a manual system. Imagine that a lead comes in on a Friday afternoon. You don’t quite get to it, so you aim to pick it up on Monday. A team meeting runs late, and it takes you until the late afternoon to engage with the lead and send it to the appropriate sales member. By the time they sent an opening email, the lead had moved on and was now in a conversation with someone else.
That lead could have been the perfect fit for your business. They might have matched the qualification process 100%, but without swift action, the chance to do business is gone.
An automated lead routing process would have solved this issue. As soon as the lead entered their details, the CRM would automatically route the lead to the right salesperson. They can then follow up at their next convenience.
Lead Routing Automation
For a lead routing system to achieve automation, you need to have a dedicated CRM or sales engagement tool to which you can connect your lead sources. CRM providers such as HubSpot and Salesforce can collect lead data and route the leads using the same automation. If you’re using others, you may need to use a third-party tool such as Zapier to reach the required level of automation.
Examples of Lead Routing
The question is, what criteria do you set to route your leads? Is it in a round-robin way? Where sales team members receive leads in order regardless of the kind of lead. Or maybe you’re going to use a more sophisticated method. The following are some standard options that many businesses employ:
- Location-based: This is the most popular form of lead routing for national or global businesses. That’s especially true when meetings need to be held face-to-face.
- Availability: This is one of the fastest methods of lead routing. But, it is not the best because it ignores the salespeople's skills and the lead's nuances.
- Lead Size: Some members of the team might be better suited to dealing with smaller clients and others with enterprise ones. If that’s the case, this can be a successful routing option.
- Product or Service: If your salespeople have specialisms when it comes to the business's offerings, this can be a necessary routing option. This is especially the case when the products and services offered by the business vary enormously. Digital agencies often prefer this routing option.
- Lead Temperature: If a lead comes in and appears to be ready to sign on the dotted line, it will be routed to a salesperson immediately. Cooler leads may be shunted further down the queue.
Getting The Most From Lead Routing
The following best practices should be implemented into any lead routing process. If you adhere to these, you can be confident that your routing process is robust:
- Get Strategic: Setting appropriate criteria for the routing is one of the first steps. Spend some time considering what rules leads will be routed for. To achieve this, you’ll need a significant amount of data and specialist automation software.
- Use Lead Scoring: Lead scoring is a simple way to categorize leads based on some of the criteria you set. Depending on where leads fall on a scale, they score x number of points. They achieve a total score and are routed accordingly. This method is very useful if you’re routing by lead temperature.
- Gather Information at Source: Wherever you’re gathering leads, try to collect as much information as possible during that initial contact. Do be careful not to overwhelm your contacts. A form with endless input boxes could put them off altogether.
- Referrals Matter: If someone has been referred, consider routing them through a similar sales experience. Chances are they are expecting a certain experience, potentially even the same salesperson.
Key Takeaways
Routing leads as they enter your sales funnel is the best way of ensuring that your lead management process runs smoothly. It all but guarantees that you’re not missing worthwhile opportunities and that every lead has the chance to become a customer.
- Manual lead routing is onerous and can become overwhelming. Invest in automation.
- Choose from a number of routing options or combine them.
- Be open with your team. When you set up a lead routing process, they need to know why they get or don't get leads.
One of the best sources of leads is through email. Often, this is in the form of a cold email marketing campaign. As with lead routing, you need a powerful tool, Instantly can deliver. It’s easy to get started today.
