Definition: Lead distribution is the process of strategically assigning leads to specific sales reps.
You’re probably already familiar with lead generation, where you draw people in and get them actively interested in whatever your business sells. And you may have also heard of lead nurturing, which is where you continue marketing to leads until they’re ready to buy.
But you may not have heard of lead distribution, which happens in between lead generation and lead nurturing. This is the step where you assign leads to salespeople, who will then nurture those leads. But if you want to do it right, you need a strategy behind how you assign those leads.
In this post, we’ll define lead distribution, the steps involved in the process, and the various strategies that sales managers can use for optimal lead assignment.
Plus, learn how you can use automated lead distribution with Nutshell CRM to enhance your closing rates.
Lead distribution is the process of matching up specific leads with certain sales reps at your company. There are numerous ways you can do this, but most of them focus on assigning leads to the sales reps most qualified to convert them.
For example, a sales rep who specializes in airline company clients would be the perfect person to manage an airline lead. Lead distribution can be done manually, but it is often made simpler with sales automation tools.
Why is lead distribution important?
Lead distribution is a great way to help your business drive more sales (and ultimately more revenue). Why? Because it’s all about assigning leads to the people with the best chance of converting them. That means a higher percentage of your leads become clients, which results in higher earnings.
In other words, it’s essential to distribute leads strategically if you want your lead nurturing process to be as successful as possible. Otherwise, you risk losing out on a lot of potential clients.
Steps in the lead distribution process
When distributing your leads, there are a few steps you can expect to take. Here are some of the most common steps involved in the lead distribution process:
Lead generation: The first step is to bring in fresh leads that you can distribute to your sales representatives.
Quality screening: Once you’ve generated new leads, the next step is to figure out which ones are worth targeting. Filter out any types of businesses you don’t serve and then use a system like lead scoring to help you prioritize the most important leads.
Criteria setting: When you’ve narrowed down your list, you should clearly establish what criteria you’ll use to assign leads to sales reps. Decide on a lead distribution strategy (which we’ll come back to in a moment).
Sales rep communication: Finally, communicate with your sales reps. Give them as much information as you can on each of the leads you assign to them, so you provide them with the best chance of converting those leads.
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A moment ago, we mentioned that you should decide on a specific lead distribution strategy for your business. That means you should have a system for determining which sales reps receive which leads.
You can distribute leads however you like, but there are various established lead distribution strategies to consider. Here are some of the most common methods:
Manual lead distribution is one of the most straightforward methods, but it’s also the most involved. This strategy involves assigning each lead to a sales rep on your own. The reason it’s called the manual method is that the other strategies listed here are at least partially automated.
This strategy is straightforward, but as lead volume increases, it becomes more difficult and time-consuming to manage. This method may work well for businesses with relatively few leads and the personnel to manually assign those leads. However, for many companies, this approach requires too much time investment to be worthwhile.
2. Round-robin
The round-robin method automatically and evenly distributes leads across all your sales reps. This eliminates the manual effort required to assign leads and ensures all reps get a fair number of leads.
The simplest round-robin approach involves assigning each lead to a random sales rep without considering factors like industry, territory, or company type. This random approach may work well for companies where all leads are similar and all sales reps have similar skills.
You can also use the round-robin method in combination with these kinds of criteria. For example, if you get a lead in a given industry, you could randomly assign that lead to one of your three sales reps who work with people in that industry.
3. Criteria-based
Criteria-based lead assignment involves assigning leads to reps based on the type of leads without the round-robin element.
For example, you might assign all leads interested in a certain product to one specific sales rep.
Criteria you might use for lead assignment include:
Industry
Company type
Market
Territory
Products
Value
Sources
4. Shotgun
A third approach to the lead distribution process is the shotgun method. With this method, you divide your sales reps into groups based on their strengths. You then assign leads to specific groups rather than specific individuals. From there, the reps in each group divide the leads amongst themselves.
Needless to say, this method requires a sales team with integrity. No one will gobble up all the leads for themselves and leave the rest of their group hanging out to dry. Done well, though, it’s a great way to ensure your leads are going to the right sales reps.
5. Cherry-pick
The cherry-pick method is a more hands-off version of the shotgun method. Just like in the shotgun method, you let sales reps pick their leads. In this method, though, you skip the first step of dividing reps into groups and assigning leads to each one. You don’t assign the leads at all — you just pour them out on the table and let your sales reps snatch them up.
Again, this method requires sales reps with integrity. It also requires those reps to have a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses so they know which leads are best suited for them. Ultimately, whether this is a good method comes down to how much you trust your sales team to choose the right leads.
6. Region-specific
Finally, we have the region-specific method. As the name suggests, this method assigns leads based on their location. Certain sales reps work on teams dedicated to specific regions and receive leads based on their assigned region.
This can be a good system, but you do need to be careful — some regions may receive more leads than others, so you need to make sure you account for that with how many sales reps you put on each team.
Using lead distribution software to optimize the assignment process
No matter which lead assignment strategy you prefer, you can make lead assignment simpler with automated lead distribution software.
As we mentioned earlier, most lead distribution strategies are at least partially automated. For example, with the region-specific method, you might use a sales automation tool to divide your sales reps into groups and then automatically assign leads based on their location.
When you understand the criteria for your lead distribution, you can automatically assign the right leads to the right sales rep. This means you can spend time on more valuable tasks.
Benefits of automated lead distribution
Sales lead assignment automation cuts your administrative task time drastically and also allows for benefits such as:
Enhanced lead nurturing: With the right sales reps encountering leads that match their skills and knowledge, you can be assured that new leads are taking a smooth customer journey.
Increased sales team productivity: No more time spent guessing which lead gets assigned to which sales rep. Instead, reps can focus on tasks that move the needle for your business.
Better lead qualification and scoring: You can use automated lead distribution criteria to find patterns in the leads that close and those that fade. This allows you to create more precise lead confidence scoring criteria for incoming leads.
One of the best types of tools for lead distribution is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. A CRM already contains all your data about your leads and clients, so it’s the perfect tool for distributing those leads to different sales reps. With Nutshell CRM, automated lead distribution is easier than ever.
Use Nutshell to help you distribute your leads
If you’re looking for a CRM to use in your lead distribution strategy, consider Nutshell. With Nutshell, you can put time-intensive sales tasks on autopilot, including lead assignment.
Assign leads automatically to your sales team, either in groups or as individuals, depending on specific criteria.
Stage-based assignment
In the pipeline creation process, you can automatically assign new leads to a specific sales rep when the lead enters a new stage in the pipeline.
This makes it easier to assign leads based on your team’s strengths. For example, if you have a sales rep who tends to get the best results in the introduction stage, you’d likely want to assign brand-new leads—leads that have just entered the sales pipeline—to that rep.
Automated round-robin assignment
Take the guesswork out of lead distribution with automated round-robin assignment. In Nutshell, you can evenly distribute leads amongst a group of selected sales reps.
Using the same steps that you’d use to assign individual reps, you can select the option to create a round-robin distribution with the simple click of a button.
Automated lead distribution based on special criteria
Create special cases and rules with your lead assignment. Nutshell lets you create assignment rules that allow you to pick the best sales rep for the task based on criteria such as:
Company type
Industry
Market
Territory
Value
And more!
Unlock the sales benefits and possibilities of CRM automation with Nutshell. With a Pro account, you can automate your lead assignment with advanced rules and add automated tasks to make your sales process more efficient.
And, once the sale is made, you can even create rules for post-sale lead management, allowing you to nurture your new hard-won leads on autopilot.
Looking for an easy-to-use CRM with all the features you need to boost sales?
Not only can you use Nutshell CRM to automate your lead distribution, but you can also more easily manage, automate, and track your entire sales process, customer relationships, and marketing efforts with features like sales automation, reporting and analytics, and email marketing.
With affordable pricing plans and a top-tier customer support team, Nutshell is the perfect CRM for all your business needs. If you’re interested in trying out our platform, check out our 14-day free trial today!
