Salesforce offers a complex suite of solutions that aims to tackle a number of facets of your sales funnel and capture information from many data points. However, adding lead sources to Salesforce can be a cumbersome process, especially for businesses dealing with large volumes of leads.
We often hear from existing Salesforce customers who are struggling with the ability to get leads to the right person and have them acted on in a reasonable time. This article will guide you through setting up lead routing in Salesforce, improving efficiency, and automating inbound lead management using tools like Bluebird.
Understanding Lead Routing in Salesforce
Salesforce’s platform allows businesses to capture leads from various sources, including web forms, email campaigns, and manual inputs from sales reps. While Salesforce makes it easy to collect leads, the real challenge is routing these leads to the right salespeople in a timely manner. This is crucial to ensure quick responses, capitalize on warm leads, and boost overall sales performance.
Salesforce’s built-in lead routing functionality allows you to create rules to distribute leads to your sales team based on predefined criteria such as geography, industry, or lead score. However, some users find the out-of-the-box functionality restrictive, which is where integrating advanced lead routing systems like Bluebird comes in.
Setting Up Lead Routing in Salesforce
1. Define Your Lead Assignment Rules
In Salesforce, lead routing starts with defining clear rules for how leads should be assigned. You can customize these based on geography, lead score, or specific team availability. To set up your lead assignment rules, navigate to Setup > Lead Assignment Rules and select the criteria to distribute leads. Keep in mind that the more tailored your rules are to your sales process, the better the results.
Pro Tip: Keep it simple at first. Start by routing leads based on availability and capacity, then gradually introduce more detailed criteria as needed.
2. Combine & Assign Leads with Bluebird
For more complex lead routing needs, Bluebird’s engine integrates with Salesforce to help you assign leads based on real-time data. Bluebird can dynamically evaluate whether a lead already exists in your Salesforce system.
If the lead does, it will update the record; if not, it will assign the new lead to the most qualified sales rep based on predefined criteria. With Bluebird’s AI engine, Salesforce users can automate and streamline their lead distribution. Leads will be intelligently assigned to the best-matched sales rep, significantly reducing manual input and ensuring leads get the attention they deserve quickly.
3. Use Salesforce Appexchange for Enhanced Routing
Salesforce AppExchange offers several add-ons that enhance lead routing capabilities. Tools such as Salesforce’s Combine and Route or Distribution Engine add even more layers of automation to your routing rules. With features like geographic mapping and round-robin distribution, these tools allow for more sophisticated inbound lead management without requiring constant supervision.
Pro Tip: Always monitor and review the performance of your routing rules. Data from the Appexchange solutions can provide insights into how well your routing strategy is performing and highlight areas for improvement.
Advanced Lead Routing with Bluebird
Bluebird doesn’t just assign leads—it optimizes the entire process by evaluating your sales reps’ performance and capacity in real-time. Once integrated with Salesforce, Bluebird can help you:
- Automate Lead Scoring: By using predictive analytics, Bluebird assigns a score to each lead, ensuring that higher-quality leads are prioritized.
- Update Lead Records Dynamically: Bluebird automatically searches and updates lead records in Salesforce, providing continuous feedback to your sales team.
By sending all leads to Bluebird first (follow the lifecycle here), you can intelligently assign them to your team, ensuring no lead is missed. This method improves response times and provides key insights for future campaigns.
Integrating Other Tools for Lead Routing
Here are other key platforms and tools that integrate seamlessly with Salesforce to boost your lead routing capabilities:
- HubSpot Lead Scoring: HubSpot can pass leads into Salesforce, and using HubSpot’s lead scoring capabilities, you can ensure that only the most qualified leads are routed to your sales team.
- Zapier: Automate lead capture by using Zapier to connect Salesforce with thousands of apps, ensuring leads from any source are funneled into your Salesforce system.
- Oracle and Pipedrive: Both of these CRMs can work alongside Salesforce to ensure seamless data transfer and lead routing across multiple platforms.
- Power BI: Use Microsoft’s Power BI to visualize your Salesforce data and track the performance of your lead routing processes. The visual dashboards can give you a clear picture of your team’s response times and conversion rates.
- Facebook: If you’re running ads on Facebook, make sure your lead routing is set up to capture and distribute those leads automatically in Salesforce. Using Facebook’s lead forms, integrate with Salesforce to pull in leads instantly.
Optimizing Reporting & Analytics
After setting up lead routing, the next step is tracking performance. Salesforce offers robust reporting tools to monitor lead assignment speed, reps’ deal closures, and any bottlenecks. Use tools like Salesforce Combine and Route with Bluebird to gain insights into your lead process. This allows you to continually optimize for better results.
Bottom Line
Lead routing in Salesforce can transform your sales process, but it’s vital to use the right tools and integrations. By leveraging integrated tools like Bluebird, you can automate lead assignments, reduce errors, and ensure your sales team is working on the highest-priority opportunities.
Integrating Bluebird’s engine ensures leads are routed intelligently, improving your sales cycle and customer satisfaction. Don’t leave your lead management to chance—invest in systems that streamline your process and drive results.
Ready to optimize your lead routing in Salesforce? Book a demo with Bluebird today!
