Every lead deserves a fast follow-up. Lead routing makes sure each new lead goes to someone on your sales team, fairly and automatically, so nobody falls through the cracks. Here's how to set it up.
Every contact has an Owner field. The owner is the user responsible for that lead or customer. By default, new contacts are owned by the account owner. A lead router changes that by setting the owner to one of your sales reps.
The owner matters in other places too. Your team's permissions can limit a role to the records it owns, and you can assign tasks straight to the contact owner.
There are two kinds of router. Round Robin spreads leads evenly, so every rep gets the same number. Use it when your reps are equally ready and you want leads covered fast.
Weighted Random lets you set a percentage of leads for each rep. Give experienced reps a bigger share and newer reps a lighter one while they learn. For example, two veterans could each get 40 percent and a new rep 20 percent. As the new rep gets up to speed, you can raise their share.
To create one, go to Contacts, then Settings, then Lead Routing. Click New Lead Router, and choose Round Robin or Weighted Random.
Give the router a name, and add the users who should get new contacts. Each person needs to be a user on your account.
For Weighted Random, also set the percentage of leads for each user. Then click Save.
A router only works once leads are sent to it. The usual way is an automation. Go to Automations, then New Automation, or open a map that already handles new leads. If you've turned on other objects, like Companies or Deals, you'll find Automations under Contacts instead. Add the Add to Lead Router action, pick your router from the drop-down, and click Done.
To route every new lead, start the map with the Contact is created trigger. Add a condition, like a tag that marks someone as a lead, if you only want leads routed.
Or wait until a contact reaches a certain lead score, so reps only get leads that are ready to talk. Lead scoring is available on Plus and above.
You can also route straight from a form. In the form's settings, find the Notification and Routing section, and choose your router in the contact owner drop-down. Every new contact who submits that form goes to the router.
Next, let reps know when a lead is theirs. Create an automation with a trigger that fires when the Owner field is updated to one of your users.
Then add a notification, by email or SMS, and an Assign Task action, so the rep has a clear next step, like a first call. Save and publish the map. The Tasks lessons in this course cover tasks in detail.
So: create a Round Robin or Weighted Random router under Contacts, Settings, Lead Routing, send leads to it from an automation or a form, and tell each rep when a lead lands with them. Next up: lead scoring, so you can spot your hottest leads and reach them first.