You see, this is the stage where you need to navigate the minefield of assigning leads to the wrong team member or taking too long to respond. One wrong step, and you lose the deal and, by extension, the revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To avoid blowing up into pieces, consider adopting lead routing to route inbound leads<\/strong> to the right team member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, we discuss lead routing, its importance to sales, top-performing lead routing strategies, and, most importantly, 5 best practices<\/strong> to help you make the most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing is the process of assigning leads to your sales team based on predefined criteria.<\/strong> It involves planning, strategizing, and analyzing inbound leads and salespeople to drive closed deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a truth universally acknowledged when it comes to B2B buyer behavior: They expect quick responses from companies<\/strong>, and they handsomely reward those who do respond the quickest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider this, a HBR study finds<\/a> that responding to inbound leads within the first 5 minutes<\/strong> can increase contact rates by a whopping 900%<\/strong>. Unfortunately, less than 5% of the companies are able to make contact within this short window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, a lead routing strategy is a foolproof way to ensure the lowest lead response time. By having the right rep connect to the lead in the shortest time possible, you ensure that you\u2019re capturing them at the peak of their interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the benefits of lead routing:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speed-to-Lead refers to how fast you respond to your lead.<\/strong> When it comes to sales, the quicker you respond to your lead, the higher the chances they\u2019ll convert. Lead routing helps you reach your leads before your competitors do, giving you a chance to boost their experience and guide them to completing a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High-quality leads are purchase-ready individuals who fit your ideal buyer criteria<\/strong> and are highly likely to convert. By connecting them to the most suitable salesperson quickly, you increase the chances of conversion with timely, personalized engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing speeds up the sales cycles by assigning leads to suitable sales reps, ensuring quick and effective engagement. This efficiency reduces your team\u2019s response time, helps them connect with leads before competitors, and allows them to guide leads better, shortening the sales cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing boosts your sales team\u2019s productivity by connecting leads to the most appropriate sales team members quickly. This targeted approach reduces delays and the chances of leads slipping through the cracks. Matching leads to the salesperson having the right expertise will improve better engagement and drive conversion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing optimizes and enhances revenue growth by connecting leads to the most appropriate sales team members<\/strong> based on aspects like expertise, availability, and location. This helps leads gain timely and relevant responses, improving their engagement, and maximizing their likelihood of making a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we have covered the what and the why of lead routing, it\u2019s time to look at the how of lead routing. Here are the steps that are typically involved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1: A potential customer visits your website<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your leads discover your website<\/strong> thanks to robust inbound lead generation methods such as SEO, social media marketing, and paid ads.<\/strong> If they like what they see and are interested in your offering, they follow the call to action and book a demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2: They fill your website form<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, they fill in particulars like contact details, convenient time for the demo, etc., on your website form<\/strong> and click submit. Once their request is registered successfully, they see a \u2018We\u2019ll get in touch soon\u2019 message on their screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3: Your CRM system creates a new lead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A CRM system helps you gather leads from multiple sources and track their progress<\/strong> through the sales funnel in a centralized location with ease, convenience, and accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, any lead who fills out your website form has their information automatically stored in your CRM system, which can then be viewed by all teams in your organization, from sales and marketing to product development teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 4: You assign the lead to a rep<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A CRM allows a sales manager to view all details regarding a lead, like company size, job designation, etc., to help distribute leads across the sales team. You can leverage specific predefined criteria, such as geography, product use case, rep availability, etc., to route leads to the most suitable sales rep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if your inbound lead volume is high, assigning leads manually to reps can be a challenge. So, consider automating it with lead routing software<\/strong>– we\u2019ll be discussing this in detail soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 5: The rep reaches out to the prospect<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the leads are assigned to your team, each rep will email or call their respective leads<\/strong> to book a meeting. Finally, the rep confirms a date and time for the virtual meeting, like a discovery call or demo, and sends a meeting link via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How to route leads depends on you. While some sales teams might want to assign leads based on their lead score, others might want to do so based on salesperson availability. And there might be those that might route leads based on both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help you find the one that works for you best, here are 7 examples of lead routing strategies:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If your prospects are scattered across multiple geographies, routing your leads based on territory is a good idea. This ensures comprehensive coverage of all locations while preventing reps from overlapping efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assigning sales reps to specific regions like APAC, EMEA, or NAM will allow you to offer a more personalized and targeted approach<\/strong> to your leads. Reps assigned to the leads\u2019 specific region will have a sound understanding of the local market, customer needs, regional preferences, and challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, assigning leads to reps within the same time zone simplifies scheduling meetings and connecting at convenient times. It also facilitates in-person sales pitches, reducing the need for extensive travel and enhancing the overall sales process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, a sales rep assigned to the EMEA region will be able to manage leads in Europe, understand cultural references and nuances, and connect during the lead\u2019s local business hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Company size refers to how big a company is, and this is typically ascertained based on its revenue or employee count.<\/strong> Broadly speaking, they can be classified into:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the fact that each of these will naturally face unique challenges and pain points, you need to route them to leads who have the right expertise and experience in managing them. For instance, where SMBs might have to work with a restricted budget, enterprises might have an extensive number of decision-makers who need to sign off on the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A rep who knows the challenges that come with running a mid-market company might not know how to navigate an enterprise-level company, jeopardizing the chances of closing the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another lead routing strategy is assigning leads to reps based on their industry vertical, such as automotive, SaaS, finance, manufacturing, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales reps well-versed in the leads’ pain points, motivations, goals, and industry realities can guide the leads more confidently and build a relationship of trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This involves directing leads to sales reps who specialize in a specific product within your offering. This is especially beneficial if you offer a software suite that has a collection of programs and applications,<\/strong> each offering a distinct functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take Google Workspace as an example. It comes with various offerings such as custom email for your business and collaboration tools like Calendar, Meet, Gmail, Drive, etc. In this case, a lead routing strategy based on the product line would mean routing leads to the rep who is well-versed in the relevant product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lead interested in Google Calendar will be assigned to a rep specialized in it, while another curious about the custom email for businesses might be routed to a separate rep knowledgeable in that particular product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doing this helps ensure leads receive detailed and informed guidance personalized to their individual needs. It leverages the expertise of specialized sales reps to highlight the value of your offerings and address lead queries effectively, improving engagement and conversion rates.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This involves assigning leads to sales reps based on your offering\u2019s specific application or use case. In this case, routing leads based on use cases would translate to connecting leads interested in using Trello for website development with a rep specialized in this use case. Similarly, a lead curious about how Trello can help them in event organization would be connected to another rep well-informed on this particular use case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This ensures your leads get targeted and relevant insight specially customized to their unique challenges and goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another popular lead routing strategy involves lead scoring, or assigning quantifiable values to indicate how good your leads are<\/strong> for your business. This score is calculated by assigning value to actions taken by your lead or the characteristics they have. Doing this allows you to quickly decide which leads to pay more attention to and how to follow up with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this case, you would assign leads with high scores to experienced reps, driving the chance of a conversion. Alternatively, a lead with a high score could also prompt you to assign them to the next available rep to shorten your response time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A study shows<\/a> that inbound SDRs can manage an average of 15 leads per day.<\/strong> With this workload, they might not find time to get back to all leads, especially if the inbound lead volume is high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In such a case, routing leads based on the availability of each rep in your team is a good idea. This ensures leads don\u2019t go ignored and helps you maintain a high speed to lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing allows you to connect leads with suitable reps instantly, in the process ensuring your sales pipelines run smoothly, generating steady revenue. That said, there are ways you can optimize your lead routing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are 5 lead routing best practices<\/strong> that will help you make the most out of this effective sales technique:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lead routing process that brings together speed and accuracy can help drive efficiency and conversions. After all, as we mentioned earlier, connecting to leads quickly can prevent the loss of high-value leads and drive conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, leads are people with varying preferences, goals, and pain points. And so, while a straightjacket response might help you reduce response time, it can cost you meaningful engagement. Doing this is especially beneficial if:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Measuring your sales performance against your team\u2019s response time can help you find a realistic balance between speed and accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Effective lead generation is the bedrock of your sales pipeline. Creating a robust lead routing process can help boost this by ensuring every lead is assigned to the right sales rep. For this, factor in elements such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reassignment refers to rerouting your leads when the most suitable sales rep can\u2019t get to the lead in time. <\/strong>This is a very plausible scenario and must be factored into your lead routing strategy to ensure the process works effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyze how much time should trigger a reassignment<\/strong> (30 seconds, 1 minute, etc.). Then, add it as a criterion in your lead routing software. Doing this will help you respond to leads quickly, allowing for faster conversion and an improved customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, you can also consider sharing short introductions for each of your sales reps online and allowing the lead to access their calendars to schedule calls. This will allow them to select the sales rep they want to talk to and reduce instances of reassignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep checking in and re-evaluating your lead routing process from time to time. This is because your sales process will develop with dynamic customer needs and business growth. Reviewing your lead process periodically will help you edit or tweak it to ensure it remains relevant and effective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some benefits of regular revision:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Balancing speed with accuracy, optimizing your routing process, keeping lead reassignment rules consistent and reviewing your process on a regular basis will help you get the most out of your lead routing efforts. But it all works only when you automate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Executing all these manually will be time consuming and load up your already heavy day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, consider integrating a lead routing tool into your sales tech stack. This convenient software allows you to automate the assignment of leads to the right sales rep, promoting speed and efficiency while eliminating the chance of human error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SchedX<\/a> by Klenty is an AI Inbound SDR<\/a> that offers flexible routing techniques, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to these flexible routing techniques, SchedX is also the only platform to offer a drag-and-drop workflow builder that allows sales teams to quickly visualize, review, and edit their lead routing strategy. You can make changes to your routing logic in seconds and easily see how your routing strategy looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, SchedX offers capabilities like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long story short, SchedX by Klenty can help you supercharge your sales pipeline and drive revenue by facilitating the seamless allocation of leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To check out SchedX in action, book a demo now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead routing refers to the process of matching leads to specific salespeople based on predefined criteria. Lead scoring involves assigning a quantifiable value to leads based on aspects such as readiness to buy, location, company size, etc. A smart lead routing strategy involves leveraging lead scoring to route inbound leads to the right sales team member.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This is a set of predefined criteria that determines the assignment of leads to specific sales reps. For instance, Schedx by Klenty offers different lead routing techniques, such as owner-based, form-based, CRM-based, and IP-based, to help assign leads to the most suitable sales rep.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inbound lead generation is a technique that has proven its worth time and time again, making it essential to every business. After all, it facilitates a steady stream of high-quality leads, driving your revenue consistently. However, once the leads are in, what then? You see, this is the stage where you need to navigate the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15504"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15723,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15504\/revisions\/15723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Is Lead Routing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Is Lead Routing Important for Sales?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SchedX-Inline-Banner.png\")
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How Does Lead Routing Work? (5 Steps)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"5](\"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/What-is-Lead-Routing-Image-1-1024x660.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n7 Examples of Lead Routing Strategies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"7](\"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/What-is-Lead-Routing-Image-2-877x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Geographic Territory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Company Size<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3. Industry Vertical<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Product Line<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. Use Case\/Specialization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For instance, Trello is a web-based project management application that has several use cases such as website development, daily task organization, editorial calendars, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n6. Lead Scoring<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
7. Rep Availability<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5 Best Practices To Keep In Mind for Lead Routing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"5](\"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/What-is-Lead-Routing-Image-3-1024x982.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Balance Speed and Accuracy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Depending on your sales process, it might be beneficial to prioritize accuracy over speed.<\/strong> Precision-routing leads to the most suitable and available reps ensures that each lead is matched with the best fit for their needs, even if it takes a bit more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
2. Make Your Routing Process Robust<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3. Keep Lead Reassignment Rules Consistent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Review Regularly to Improve Your Routing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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5. Use Lead Routing Software<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"schedx](\"https:\/\/www.schedx.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SchedX-5.png\")
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FAQs<\/h2>\n\n\n
What Is Lead Routing and Scoring?<\/h3>\n
What Is the Lead Routing Rule?<\/h3>\n