If you’re generating leads for a team and still manually distributing or assigning them, you might be losing out on a lot of high quality leads and also sales. It’s not just costing you conversions but also productivity as you allocate a significant amount of your time and effort on distributing leads. So why not automate the process so you can be more accurate, approach every single lead on time, save time and effort?
You can certainly improve your conversion rate by automatically distributing leads and ensuring prompt and effective follow-up. So what is automated lead routing, how does it help your lead management process, and how to incorporate it?
👉 Check out this article for tips to improve your lead outreach process
In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about lead routing. We’ll discuss the benefits of using automated lead routing for small businesses along with tips for choosing the right automated lead routing solution and implementing it successfully.
Table of Contents
What is Automated Lead Routing?
How to automate lead routing
Benefits of using Automated Lead Routing for small businesses
Choosing the right Automated Lead Routing solution
Conclusion
What is Automated Lead Routing?
Automated lead routing refers to distributing leads automatically and instantly to the relevant salesperson or team so they can follow up with new leads as quickly as possible. It removes manual work and the delays associated with it, maximising your chances of connecting with a lead and making a sale.
Whether you’re an agency generating leads for your clients or a business with a sales team that follows up on leads, assigning new leads to the relevant person as fast as possible is crucial. It ensures the right person contacts the leads and that they do it fast.
Automated lead routing software makes sure the right lead gets to the right person in real-time. The software can be a CRM or a connector tool that integrates with your lead sources and sales tools.
How to automate lead routing
If you have been assigning leads to your sales team for a while, you probably know how important it is to distribute leads to the right people. However, you should also balance your team’s individual workload at the same time. Installing a tool can help you automate the lead distribution process but it’s still you who will design how it will be done. Here are some ways you can consider.
Broadcast leads to as many people on your team as possible
Broadcasting leads to as many members as you have is useful when you have a large sales team and want to ensure that all team members have an equal opportunity to follow up with leads. It can be done through email, text messages, or notifications on your team’s CRM. This method allows your team members to claim leads they want to follow up on.
Distribute leads in a round-robin format
Round-robin distribution ensures leads are assigned to team members in a rotating sequence, ensuring no one is overloaded with leads while others have none. This method is extremely useful for small sales teams. Round-robin distribution can be done through your automated lead routing tools or CRM. You can customise it according to your team member’s availability and lead status.
Custom lead assignment-based on rules
You may also set up rules within your tools to automatically assign leads based on specific criteria, such as geographic location, lead source, or lead value. A perfectly planned lead distribution can be effective in ensuring the right team member is assigned to each lead, increasing the chances of a successful sale.
Benefits of using Automated Lead Routing for small businesses
Assigning leads to the right person at the right time is extremely important if your sales process involves contacting and nurturing leads. It not only streamlines your steps but also improves your chances of converting more leads into customers. Here are some benefits of automated lead routing:
- Getting leads to the right person quickly: Automated lead routing allows you to set up the distribution of leads to specific sales reps based on predetermined criteria, such as geographic location, product or service interest, and lead score. This ensures the most qualified sales rep is assigned to each lead, increasing the likelihood of a successful sale.
- Reducing response times: By distributing leads to the team members fast, automated lead routing ensures the sales representatives can contact leads fast. This is particularly important in industries where the competition is high and response time can be one of the deciding factors to making a sale.
- Increasing productivity and lead conversion rates: Automated lead routing allows sales reps to focus on their assigned leads without wasting time on unqualified leads or waiting for leads to be assigned. This allows them to spend more time in sales, and therefore, increases productivity.
- Reducing manual work and effort: Automated lead routing eliminates manual work, helping sales reps to focus on selling instead of looking after administrative tasks.
- Mimimising mistakes: Manual tasks come with high potential for human errors, especially when things should be moving fast. Automated lead routing ensures that leads are assigned correctly, eliminating the possibility of human error.
Choosing the right Automated Lead Routing solution
Automated lead routing tools streamline the lead management process of a sales team. And there are so many options available on the market for different needs. Therefore, it’s important that you incorporate the right tool into your workflow. Here’s your guide to choosing the right automated lead routing solution for your business.
Factors to consider when choosing an Automated Lead Routing solution
Now that you’ve understood the concept of automated lead routing, you’ll want to integrate a system that’s designed to meet your business requirements. If you’re a small business with a busy sales team, you may want to consider using a simple, cost-friendly tool that’s also easy to use. However, there are other important factors that you should look into too. Here are a few:
- Integration with your existing sales tools: Your sales team may already have a few tools in place. It could be a simple spreadsheet software or a CRM that takes care of some of your steps. Selecting an automated lead routing solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing sales tools will ensure that your team can easily manage and track leads without having to switch between multiple systems.
- Difficulty in setting up and ongoing use: There are different lead routing tools for different needs on the market. Therefore, it’s important to ensure a lead routing solution doesn’t make your process more complicated. For instance, a complex tool built for big enterprises may not serve small businesses the best as it may require a dedicated team and a lot of training to run. Your solution should be user-friendly and require minimal training to ensure that your team can quickly adapt to the new system.
- Customisation options: Each business is unique, and your lead routing solution should be able to accommodate your specific needs. Therefore, look for a solution that allows for customisation of lead routing rules.
- Price and scalability: Consider the cost of the solution and whether it fits within your budget. Also, consider the tool’s scalability as your business grows. Keep in mind that a higher-priced solution may offer more features and better support, but it may not provide your business with an efficient lead routing solution.
Popular Automated Lead Routing software options
If you have been using a CRM, keep in mind that not all CRMs offer automated lead routing. Some CRMs require another system to connect to your lead source in order to distribute leads. Nevertheless, some CRMs like Privyr also provide automated lead routing functionalities. Privyr is one of few tools that lets you run your sales process directly from your smartphone.
Some of the most popular automated lead routing software include Zapier, LeadsBridge, LeadSquared, OhMyLead, etc. They are mostly connector tools that help your CRM automatically receive leads from sources and distribute them to appropriate salespeople. Depending on how they are designed, these tools may or may not run on all devices.
Tips for implementing Automated Lead Routing successfully
Here are some important tips for implementing automated lead routing more effectively.
- Set clear goals and objectives: Before diving into the process, it’s essential to set clear goals and objectives in regard to what you want to achieve with the tool. It could be increasing lead conversion rates, reducing response times, or both. Analyse what your team lacks and how automated lead routing will help you fix them. Setting specific goals is also essential to measure the effectiveness of the tool and make adjustments as needed.
- Keep it simple and usable: When selecting an automated lead routing tool, choose one that is simple and easy to use. Ensure that your team can easily understand and coordinate with the tool. Complicated tools or processes may lead to confusion and reduce efficiency.
- Involve your team (or agency) in the process: Involving your team or clients (in the case of agencies) in the automated lead routing implementation process ensures everyone understands the benefits of the tool and how to run it. Encourage feedback and suggestions from your team to ensure that the tool is customised to your entire team’s needs.
- Measure and analyse results: Make sure you track metrics, such as lead conversion rates, response times, and sales pipeline velocity after including automated lead routing tools. These data will help you identify areas for improvement so you can adjust your lead routing process accordingly.
Conclusion
Automated lead routing can definitely change your lead management game. Automatically distributing leads to the right salesperson at the right time helps make your sales process more efficient and effective. And you have many options for tools to help you easily automate your lead routing. That being said, make sure you understand your needs before installing or subscribing to a new tool. Maybe you already have a CRM that has the functionalities you need that you aren’t aware of yet. Or maybe your sales process doesn’t even require a fully functioning CRM at all.
If you’re looking to automate your lead routing from your smartphone, give Privyr a try. It’s a lightweight yet powerful tool that helps you distribute leads across individuals and teams seamlessly, even if they don’t have an account on the platform. It’s also incredibly easy to use.
Try Privyr for free today.
