Salesforce has several powerful features that are designed to streamline sales processes and boost revenue – lead assignment rules is one of them.
When implemented correctly, lead assignment rules can change the way your business manages and converts leads.
In this blog, we will provide you with the basics of this feature and show you how to set these rules up.
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What are Lead Assignment Rules?
Lead assignment rules define who should receive specific leads and customer cases based on the criteria you determine.
The average lead assignment rule is also generally made up of multiple rule entries. For example, a base rule could be that all inbound leads from your website are assigned to your sales team. However, additional rules will dictate the types of leads or customer queries individual salespeople should be assigned.
Different rules will also apply to the different flows a business has. Leads who are interested in a product or service wouldn’t be in the same flow as a customer who has a question.
Criteria for Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce
If you feel that assigning leads in Salesforce will work for your organization, you next need to determine whether your version of Salesforce is compatible with your needs.
Salesforce lead assignment rules are available in the following editions:
- Group
- Essentials
- Professional
- Enterprise
- Performance
- Unlimited
- Developer
If you also want to be able to process customer cases, this function is only available in the following editions:
- Professional
- Enterprise
- Performance
- Unlimited
- Developer
Then there’s the actual setup. If you are not the Salesforce administrator, you will need to make sure you have access to Customize Application to create and change lead assignment rules. The administrator can give you access via the View Setup and Configuration menus.
Planning Lead Assignment Rules
Before you start assigning leads in Salesforce, there are a few key discovery questions you should answer first.
- What are my lead sources? You will need to be able to access the platforms that are sending leads during setup. Examples of sources could be a form on your website or a platform such as HubSpot.
- What information are leads and customers providing? Next, you want to consider what details someone would submit when completing a form. The more detailed a form is, the easier it is to sort leads and cases in Salesforce.
- What are your sales territories? Make a list of the members of your sales teams and the territories they cover. You also want to make sure that you know what you want to do with leads that don’t fall under any reps’ territories.
- What are the criteria for my leads? Lastly, you want to get an idea of the criteria a lead will need to meet before it is filtered through to a particular salesperson.
Steps for Setting Up Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules
This brief Salesforce lead assignment rules guide will outline the general steps you would take to assign leads and set up Salesforce lead routing.
Step 1: Access Your Salesforce Account
Use the credentials you selected when you set up your Salesforce account to login.
Step 2: Find the Setup Menu
To access the Setup menu, click on the gear icon. It’s located in the upper-right corner of the window.
Step 3: Click on Lead Assignment Rules
Within the Setup menu, there should be an option for Leads and within that, Lead Assignment Rules.
Step 4: Create a New Rule
You are now ready to create your first rule. You can do this by clicking on the button labeled: New Lead Assignment Rule.
Next, you want to give the rule a detailed name and specify the rule’s entry criteria. This will outline the conditions a lead or customer case would need to meet to trigger the rule.
This is one step you want to take your time with. As you start creating multiple rules, you want to make sure your rule criteria are not overlapping, which would route the lead or case to the wrong person or multiple people.
Step 5: Assign Your Rules
This is where Salesforce lead routing comes into play. The platform offers a few assignment options such as placing a lead or query into a queue or sending it directly to a specific salesperson. Use the answers to your discovery questions to decide where a lead should go.
In this step, you will also be able to select an email template that will be used to pass the customer case or lead to the correct person.
Step 6: Activate Your Rule
Once you are happy with all your rule settings, click Save and then Activate to make your rule operational.
Step 7: Test It
Even if you’re certain that your rule criteria are on point, it’s always a good idea to test the rule and ensure a lead is reaching the intended person. You can also create a test where a lead doesn’t meet the necessary criteria to make sure it doesn’t go into the wrong flow.
Examples of Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce
Here’s a simple example of what a lead assignment rule might look like.
Let’s say a consulting company has a lead form embedded on its website. Here are examples of criteria that would determine where a web lead would go:
- Criterion 1: If Country = Ireland, assign to Belinda
- Criterion 2: If Country = Germany, assign to Clive
- Criterion 3: If Number of Employees = 20 <, assign to “Medium Opportunity Queue”
- Criterion 4: If Annual Revenue is Greater than $1,000,000, assign to “Golden Opportunity Queue”
In this example, leads from certain countries would go to specific salespeople. However, leads that match employee numbers and annual revenue criteria may go into a specific queue that several different salespeople manage.
How Sweep Simplifies Salesforce Lead Assignment
There’s no denying that assigning leads in Salesforce is a powerful feature. However, many businesses still encounter problems during setup, particularly as they grow.
To help businesses overcome these unnecessary challenges, Sweep has developed an Assignment tool. It makes it possible to create rules and route leads in Salesforce without the need for coding – the solution is all visual.
Some of the benefits of using Sweep’s solution include:
- Comprehensive overviews. With the help of Sweep’s Assignment tool, businesses can enjoy a more comprehensive view of their processes and refine them accordingly.
- Assign any object. Sweep simplifies assignment logic across multiple Salesforce objects, including contacts and opportunities.
- Optimize territory management. The better territories are managed, the more motivated your sales team will be.
- Distribute leads fairly. By adding weights to control lead assignments between reps, there is more fairness and comradery within an organization.
- Seamless lead routine. To provide customers with a memorable buying experience, Sweep has features such as Lead Deduplication and Lead-to-Account Matching.
Conclusion
If you already have a Salesforce account and are not yet taking full advantage of lead assignment rules, this is the time to change it.
Careful implementation will ensure that your business can reach its revenue goals and sales team are working more efficiently.