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Leandata showcases power of modern revenue orchestration at opsstars 2022, leandata announces winners of the 2022 opsstars awards, what are lead assignment rules in salesforce.

Assignment rules are a powerful feature within Salesforce to assist your team’s automation of its lead generation and customer support processes. Assignment rules in Salesforce are used to define to whom your leads and cases (customer questions, issues or feedback) are assigned based on any one of a number of specified criteria you determine. 

An organization would typically develop a rule for its GTM process or flow – for example, a lead assignment rule for inbound, website-generated leads, or a lead assignment rule for importing leads from an event, and so on. For case assignments, a company might establish one case assignment rule for weekdays and another assignment rule for weekends and holidays. 

A lead or case assignment rule often consists of multiple rule entries to specify exactly how leads and cases are assigned throughout your go-to-market teams. For example, related to customer service inquiries, a standard case assignment rule might have multiple entries – cases with “Type equals Gold” are assigned to the Gold Level service queue, cases with “Type equals Silver” are assigned to the Silver Level service” queue, and so on. 

Here’s the thing, though: As organizations grow and scale, they operationalize multiple GTM motions – inbound, outbound, account-based, upsell/cross-sell, and hybrid – but are limited to having just one rule in Salesforce. As a work-around, many organizations resort to creating one massive lead assignment ruleset and then wedging all of their rule entries into that one big ruleset, regardless of how many different motions that represents (e.g., entries 1-15 are for the inbound motion, 16-23 are for event follow-up, 24-37 are segment-based, 38-60 are territory-based, etc.). Over time, the machinations in Salesforce can quickly become unmanageable.

This post covers the best practices for Salesforce lead and case assignment rules to get your team more fully engaging your hard-won leads and quickening your organization’s time-to-revenue.

How to Define Assignment Rules

Your Salesforce administrator can only have one rule in effect at any particular moment in your go-to-market motions, and that assignment rule is intended to both automate lead generation processes and other customer-facing processes routed through your CRM. 

Lead assignment rules specify how leads are assigned to users or queues as they are created manually, captured from your website, or imported via SFDC’s Data Import Wizard. Case assignment rules determine how cases are assigned to users or put into queues as they are created, either manually or through the use of Web-to-Case, Email-to-Case, On-Demand Email-to-Case, the Self-Service portal, the Customer Portal, Outlook, or other data generation applications.

Criteria for Lead Assignment Rules

Okay, so you’ve decided that lead assignment rules in Salesforce make sense for your revenue operations team – now what? Well, first, you’ll need to determine the edition of your Salesforce instance. Lead assignment rules are available in the Group, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions of SFDC. Case assignment rules, conversely, are available only in the Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

With regard to User Permissions, to view assignment rules, you’ll need View Setup and Configuration permissions. However, to create or change assignment rules, you’ll need Customize Application. If you are not your organization’s Salesforce administrator, you should check with her/him before attempting to head off on your own.

How to Create Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules

Creating lead and case assignment rules in Salesforce is a relatively straightforward process. 

• Login to Salesforce and select Setup in the upper right corner of the horizontal navigation bar.
• In the Setup search box , type “assignment rules” and then select either Lead Assignment Rules or Case Assignment Rules.
• Select New to create a new assignment rule.
• In the Rule Name box, type a name and specify whether it should be active for leads or cases created manually and by those created automatically by web and email. When done, click Save .
• Click open your newly created rule and select New in the Rule Entries to specify your rule criteria.
• Step 1 in the “Enter the rule entry” window requires you to enter an Order for your new rule (the Order is the order in which the entry is processed, like a queue).
• In Step 2, you determine whether your new rule is based on meeting a set of criteria or a formula. In the Run this rule if the dropdown box, select either “criteria are met” or “formula evaluates to true.”
• Lastly, in Step 3, select the user or queue to whom your rule will assign your new lead or case (use the lookup feature to find specific users or a queue). After completing Step 3, select Save .

Why Are Your Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules Not Working?

If you discover your lead or case assignment rules are not working, there are a couple of tips to follow to quickly troubleshoot the root cause.

First, check to ensure the assignment rule is active. Remember, only one case or lead assignment rule can be active at one time. Secondly, ensure the record is assigned to the correct user or queue and make certain the checkbox Assign using active assignment rule has been selected. In support of this step, you can enable field History tracking on case or lead owner, as well as add object History (case or lead) in your page layout. 

One common problem is overlapping rule entries, or rule entries in the wrong order. With dozens of rule entries, many will overlap, causing records to get assigned unpredictably. For example, if entry #1 assigns California leads to John, and entry #2 assigns Demo Request leads to Jane, then John might wonder why he’s receiving Demo Requests leads who are supposed to go to Jane. 

Assignment Rule Examples

The image, below, shows sample rule entries being entered into Salesforce for a variety of “what if” situations:

• Junk leads containing “test” are sent to an unassigned queue
• Demo requests are routed directly to SDR 3
• Leads at accounts with over $100 million in annual revenue are routed to AE 1
• Leads in certain states are sent to their respective representatives

How LeanData Simplifies Salesforce Lead Assignment

Creating lead and assignment rules in Salesforce is relatively straightforward, but with limitations on having just one rule, as your GTM motions become more and more complex, it becomes necessary to populate that one rule with multiple defining rule entries. As you grow and scale, your rule threatens to become unwieldy, and is subject to the following:

• Difficulty in both comprehending and managing
• Poor visibility, making it difficult to troubleshoot and validate
• Restrictions allowing only the criteria on the routed record

LeanData’s lead routing flow and assignment solution is a native Salesforce application that allows users to create flows in an easy-to-understand visual graph. It’s visible representation of an organization’s desired lead flow affords many benefits to users, including:

• Easier ability to visualize and understand complex flows
• Real-time visibility of the routing of leads and the ability to quickly troubleshoot and make adjustments
• At-a-glance ability to use information on matched records for routing decisions and actions

Assignment rules in Salesforce are a relatively easy-to-learn feature that can be very quickly implemented, delivering a flexible and powerful logic to your CRM processes. Automating your lead and customer processes will accelerate your GTM motions and deliver your organization a sustainable competitive advantage.

For more best practices in the burgeoning field of revenue operations, read the eBook, “ Best Practices for a Winning B2B Marketing Data Strategy .”

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Ray Hartjen

Ray Hartjen is an experienced writer for the tech industry and published author. You can connect with Ray on both LinkedIn  &  Twitter .

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How to use Salesforce lead assignment rules

When your organization gets to the point that you have a) leads coming in on a regular basis and b) multiple sales reps, you quickly realize you need a way to divide up those leads among your reps. If you're using Salesforce, you may have noticed a built-in feature called Lead Assignment Rules. Sounds perfect, right? Sort of. We'll walk you through it.

Here's our agenda:

• The basics of lead assignment rules

Matching and assigning with rule entries

• Issues and challenges with lead assignment rules

The basics of lead assignment rules in Salesforce

Let's take a look at lead assignment rules in Salesforce. Go to your Salesforce org's Setup section and search for "lead assignment" in the Quick Find box. You'll find these buried under Feature Settings > Marketing > Lead Assignment Rules. If you don't see it, make sure you have permissions for "View Setup and Configuration" and "Customize Application".

• Unique names - Every lead assignment rule has a unique name [1].
• A lead assignment rule is really a list of "rule entries" - Salesforce calls each of the individual rules in the list a "rule entry" [2]. Each rule entry allows you to say something along the lines of: "if a lead meets these criteria, assign it to this user (or queue - more on that in a moment)".
• Rule entry order matters - The list of rule entries [2] is processed in a specific order you define. Salesforce will process each rule entry until it finds a match. Once it finds a match, it will assign the lead based on how the rule entry is configured.
• Only one active rule at a time - You can only have one lead assignment rule set to active [3].

Now that we've got a decent idea about what a lead assignment rule looks like, let's dive into rule entries.

Every rule entry has three parts:

• Order - This is a number that indicates where the entry exists in the list. Rule entries are evaluated starting at 1 and then processing until one of the rules matches.
• Matching Criteria - Leads are compared to the matching criteria for each rule to determine if the lead matches. The first rule that matches is used to determine assignment.
• Assignment - This tells Salesforce what you want to do once a lead has matched the matching criteria. Usually, you'll tell Salesforce to assign it to a user or a queue.

Order is pretty straightforward. The complexity really lies in matching criteria and assignment. let's spend some time on those.

Matching criteria

There are two types of matching criteria: filter criteria and formulas. You'll probably use filter criteria the most, so let's start with that one:

One key limitation is that you can only configure criteria using fields from the lead, the current user, and the campaign associated with the lead.

Here's what it looks like to create a formula rule entry:

hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(8216850, 'e84fc167-06c5-4b7b-bb34-42ccff0e2db4', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

Let's go back to the rule entry screen and focus on the assignment section:

So, what's the difference between a user and a queue?

• User - In business terms, this is a particular sales rep who will be responsible for managing the lead. In technical terms, this is an active Salesforce user configured in your Salesforce org.
• Queue - A Queue is a list of records (usually Leads, but not always) that are accessible to a specific group of users. Each of those users can take ownership of a record from the queue, removing it for the others. When you assign ownership of a Lead to a Queue, you're effectively making it first-come, first-serve for a group of users. This is not the same as a "round-robin" assignment where you assign the Lead to one person from a list of users.

There's one last thing to know about assigning ownership. Note the checkbox labeled "Do not Reassign Owner"[3]. This controls what happens when a lead is updated and matches the criteria. If this is checked, the assignment will essentially be ignored. Use this to prevent toggling users back and forth.

The last field, "Email Template" [4] allows you to specify a particular email template to use for notifying the new assignee when the assignment is complete.

Issues and challenges

Lead Assignment Rules are a reasonable choice for a small team with simple rules. They work and the only cost to you is the administrative overhead of creating and maintaining them. Unfortunately, they're extremely limited and don't cover many common use cases. They also become very brittle as your team size and lead velocity increase. Here are a few common issues and challenges:

• Leads only - They only apply to the Lead object (there are Case Assignment Rules for Cases, but that's it). This may make them a poor fit for your sales process if you need to do lead-to-account matching or you're pursuing an account-based strategy . If you need to assign other things besides Leads, you'll need to try a more flexible automation solution like Flow .
• Hard to test - Unlike Process Builder or Flow, your Lead Assignment Rules don't provide any form of versioning or debugging so it's hard to test them without just doing it live.
• Hard to audit  - There's no record of  why a lead was assigned in a particular way. You'll have to go look through your rule entries to figure it out. This can quickly get painful as the number of rules increases.
• One rule at a time - If your company has very different rules for different leads (e.g. from different campaign sources or applicable to different product lines), it can be very challenging to craft your rule entries in a way that handles more than one lead routing flow.
• No round-robin - It's technically possible to do a very poor version of round-robin with Lead Assignment Rules, we don't recommend it. It's extremely brittle and will break without lots of maintenance.

Where to go from here?

If you've got a small team with simple processes, give Salesforce lead assignment rules a try; they may give you just what you need. If you find yourself needing to assign other objects besides Leads, perform round-robin rep assignments or maintain a full audit trail, you might want to consider Gradient Works.

Hayes Davis

Hayes Davis is co-founder of Gradient Works. Previously, Hayes was SVP of Revenue Operations at Cision, where he ran a global team of 50 supporting nearly 600 sellers. He was also co-founder and CEO of Union Metrics until its successful acquisition by TrendKite in 2018. Hayes has a background in computer science.

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Getting Started with Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce

Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce are a powerful tool that allow your GTM (Go-To-Market) teams to automate the process of generating leads and assigning them to the most suitable sales representatives based on specific criteria. Managing and assigning leads becomes key, particularly when dealing with high daily volumes and considering the priority of leads based on various factors. And, as we all know, speed to lead is crucial : if you waste even one minute, your conversion plummets by a shocking 391%.

Ideally, your organization should employ different lead assignment rules tailored to your go-to-market strategies and motions. For instance, the assignment rules for leads generated from a demo request on your website may differ from those for leads obtained through downloading an ebook.

A lead assignment rule consists of a prioritized set of rule entries that dictate how leads are assigned throughout your go-to-market motions, either to a specific user or to a Salesforce Queue. These rules are automatically triggered when leads are created and can also be applied to existing records.

However, there is one significant constraint with Salesforce assignment rules: only one can be active at any given time. This means that as your business scales and you implement multiple business processes, you'll need to consolidate all the complex logic into a single comprehensive assignment rule with multiple rule entries. As you can imagine, managing, maintaining, and updating such an operation can become increasingly challenging over time.

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules Examples

• Leads from Enterprise Accounts with ARR greater than $200M are assigned to Enterprise SDR Queue.
• Leads from accounts with ARR greater than $50M (and less than $200M) are assigned to Mid Market SDR Queue.
• Leads reaching Nurture Lead Status are directed to SDR 1.
• Irrelevant leads with a ‘gmail.com’ domain are routed to a dummy user and disregarded.
• Distribute leads to reps based on their respective sales territories.

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules: A step-by-step guide

Here is a step-by-step guide to help you set up Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules in keeping with your business needs and sales strategies.

Step 1: Log in to Salesforce:

Access your Salesforce account using your credentials.

Step 2: Navigate to Setup:

Click on the gear icon in the screen's upper-right corner to access the Setup menu.

Step 3: Access Lead Assignment Rules:

In the Setup menu, search for "Lead Assignment Rules" in the Quick Find box. Click on "Lead Assignment Rules" under the "Leads" section.

Step 4: Create a New Rule:

Click on the "New Lead Assignment Rule" button to create a new rule.

Step 5: Define Rule Entry Criteria:

Enter a suitable name for the rule and specify the rule's entry criteria.

You can decide whether to write a formula or build a prioritized set of rule entry criteria. The logic you define determines the conditions that need to be met for the rule to trigger.

Step 6: Specify Rule Assignments:

Choose the desired assignment method for your leads. Salesforce provides different assignment options, such as assigning leads to Queues or specific users. Select the appropriate option based on your business requirements, and (optionally) choose an email template to be sent to the new owner of the lead.

Step 7: Save and Activate the Rule:

Once you have configured all the necessary settings, click the "Save" button to save the lead assignment rule. After saving, activate the rule to make it operational.

Step 8: Test and Validate:

It is essential to test the rule and ensure that leads are being assigned as expected. Create test leads and verify their assignments based on the defined criteria. Make any necessary adjustments or refinements to the rule if required.

Salesforce editions and permissions for Lead Assignment Rules

After gaining an understanding of how lead assignment rules can benefit your business and determining their suitability, you may wonder, "Do I have the appropriate Salesforce edition?" The short answer is, “Yes.” Salesforce has now made this feature available in every edition.

In terms of user permissions, certain requirements must be met to view and edit lead assignment rules in Salesforce. Users must have the "Manage Leads" permission and the ability to "View Setup and Configuration" in order to access lead assignment rules. For editing purposes, users need the "Customize Application" permission along with either the "Modify All Data" or "Modify Leads" permission. If you are unable to locate this section in Salesforce or encounter difficulties with viewing or editing assignment rules, reach out to your Salesforce administrator to verify that you have the necessary permissions in place.

Assignment rules limits and challenges

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, while suitable for small teams with straightforward rules, come with significant limitations that can hinder efficiency for larger teams. These limitations become more apparent as the volume of leads increases and more complex use cases arise.

One major drawback is the stringent limits imposed by Salesforce on the number of rules, entries, and actions allowed per rule. These limits are illustrated in the following table:

However, there are additional factors to consider when utilizing assignment rules in Salesforce. It is crucial to be aware of the following challenges before embarking on building your entire logic using Salesforce's native functionality:

• Limited to Leads and Cases: Assignment rules only apply to the lead and case objects. While this may suffice for simple and initial use cases, it falls short when implementing ABM (Account Based Marketing) strategy or when the need to route Opportunities arises.
• Complex QA and Audit: Salesforce's native functionality lacks versioning or debugging tools, making testing and troubleshooting assignments a laborious task. Additionally, there is no built-in record of why a lead was assigned in a particular way, further complicating the auditing process.
• Limited Assignment Options: When using assignment rules, you can only assign a Lead record to a specific user or a Salesforce Queue. Managing more intricate assignments, such as round-robin distribution, becomes challenging and costly to implement within the confines of assignment rules.
• Single Active Rule: As mentioned previously, Salesforce restricts the use of only one active lead assignment rule at a time. This means that despite having multiple processes with distinct underlying logic, you are forced to consolidate them into a single, busy rule, making management and updates cumbersome.

Considering these challenges, it becomes evident that relying solely on assignment rules may not provide the flexibility and functionality required for more complex lead management scenarios.

How Sweep Simplifies Salesforce Lead Assignment

Although assignment rules in Salesforce offer a powerful solution with a short learning curve, we recognize that the drawbacks can become a significant pain point as businesses grow and the native Salesforce tools may not fully support your team's needs.

To address these challenges, we have developed Sweep's Assignment tool, a visual no-code solution designed to simplify the implementation of assignment logic within Salesforce. This empowers organizations to build their go-to-market motions while maximizing assignment efficiency. The benefits of using Sweep's Assignment capabilities include:

• Assigning any object: From Opportunities to Accounts & Contacts and custom objects, you can apply assignment logic across various Salesforce objects.
• Achieving full visibility: Gain a comprehensive understanding of your business processes and easily track where assignments are taking place.
• Managing round-robin groups: Distribute leads equally among sales representatives using round-robin assignment to ensure fairness, or add weights to better control assignments between reps.
• Simplifying territory management and assignment: Streamline the process of managing territories and assigning leads based on specific territories.
• End-to-end lead routing capabilities: Enhance the lead routing process with advanced features such as Lead Deduplication and Lead-to-Account Matching, ensuring that leads always receive a seamless buying experience.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how Sweep Assignment can assist your business as it scales, please don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. I would be delighted to show you around or provide further insights into Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules.

Speed Up and Sell More: Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules Best Practices

When a lead comes in, an opportunity should come knocking.

But there’s a lot more under the hood. You need solid lead assignment rules in place, and one key variable to keep in mind.

Time. According to LeadSimple, responding to a lead in the first 5 minutes is 21x more effective.

No surprises here. If you’re a scaling business, you know that responding first to a lead is mission-critical.

If you’re manually triaging leads or waiting for IT to make business-critical changes to your lead assignment rules, it’s not scalable. Nor fast.

As an operations leader, you feel this pain across your entire organization. 

Demand teams work hard to generate incoming leads, so it doesn’t make sense to abandon them just because they’re not getting to the right rep in real-time. Your leads, after all, are directly tied to sales revenue.

Automating the process doesn’t solve the problem alone, either. It’s an important piece to speeding up, but not the only piece to the lead assignment puzzle.

You’re inundated with the notion often – speed is everything!

Well, we’re here to tell you:

Respond right is the new respond first.

Shotgun responses don’t help if your lead happens to work for a target enterprise account of yours. You definitely want your Enterprise sales rep, Rachael putting her best foot forward.

Setting the right lead assignment rules also helps with what ‘future you’ couldn’t know ahead of time.  Say a lead comes in from a territory that doesn’t have a rep assigned – It’s going to sit in a queue. A potential quality lead slipped through the cracks of time because there’s no accountability or rule in place.

Complex business processes and go-to-market efforts add additional layers of friction. How can you get it right if you’re constantly evolving at scale?

Your lead assignment process could be stunting your growth potential.

It’s time to speed up, starting with smarter lead assignment rules. 

Give your operations teams their sanity back, and set your sales reps up for speed-to-lead success.

Go ahead and skip the next section if you’re already aware of the challenges to overcome as a scaling business, and want to get right to Salesforce lead assignment rules for success.

Businesses Quickly Outgrow Native Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules

Asana, a project management platform, was scaling fast.

They were grappling with increasing volumes of leads, lagging response times, and complex assignment rules that became impossible to keep up within Salesforce.

As more leads came in from a variety of sources, and with complex territory assignments and hundreds of sales reps that change frequently, lead assignment became a nightmare to manage in native Salesforce.

That’s because creating and changing lead assignment rules can quickly become very complex:

Only a dozen or so lead assignment rules are implemented here, primarily basic rule sets like location, company size, industry, or lead quality. You can imagine how cluttered your rules would get as you continued to add more criteria.

Asana knew that not having a more sophisticated Salesforce workflow automation process meant they didn’t have the flexibility to adapt at scale.

There were two problems Asana needed to overcome:

1. Complex, evolving go-to-market rules

You wouldn’t want sales reps responding to a lead that’s not in their sales territory. You also wouldn’t want junior reps following up with your largest target accounts.

But it happens.

Typical go-to-market (GTM) models are unique by company and can vary by:

• Named account
• Role or product focus
• Partner channels and more

How a company sets up their go-to-market strategy informs how they need to route or assign leads to reps. SaaS sales teams are regularly selling into different territories, market segments (SMB, mid-market, enterprise), verticals, and industries.

What’s more, lead assignment rules often require changing daily with large enterprise businesses. 

Asana, for example, consistently had leads assigned to reps that no longer worked with them.

Imagine juggling complex territory assignment rules and hundreds of sales reps that change frequently?

It can take weeks or months for IT to get involved whenever a Salesforce lead assignment rule needs to be changed:

• IT has to define the required changes, scope them, slot those into a sprint, which may occur weeks or months later
• During the sprint, the team will make the changes, validate them, test them
• Push them from the development environment to the QA environment, and perhaps a staging environment, and then finally into production

Doing things manually, or not at all, is not a scalable alternative.

You can automate to help you move faster, but speed is sidelined when you don’t have the flexibility to adapt to your changing assignment or routing environment.

And it only gets worse as your lead volume climbs.

2. Massive volumes of incoming leads and lagging response times

When too many cars are trying to get to various destinations, traffic jams occur, with some drivers giving up and going somewhere else altogether.

If companies are slow to respond, the chances of those leads sticking around drops with every. passing. minute. Someone else will hop on a plane instead and get facetime sooner.

You need to move faster.

On average, it took companies 42 hours, or almost two days, to respond to a lead .

That’s basically a lifetime:

Dramatics aside, it means most B2B companies are still falling behind and not responding to leads within the five-minute-or-less sweet spot. But it’s there for the taking.

In the past, we had people manage catchall queues, trying to figure out who should own each lead. – Jim Maddison, Veracode

In Xant’s Lead Response Study 2021 of 5.7 million inbound leads at 400 plus companies, they found that 57.1% of first call attempts occurred after more than a week of receiving a lead.

So why are most companies lagging behind? They need to automate and create more adaptable lead assignment rules that actually reflect their go-to-market.

Speed might be serving up the silver platter, but you’re only going to get the deal if you implement effective salesforce lead assignment rules.

Here are some best practices to help set yourself up for success.

Lead Assignment Rules Best Practices For High-Growth Companies

You’ve got massive volumes of incoming leads and ultra-complex go-to-market rules. You’re in the right place.

First things first.

Automate, automate, automate. 

Let’s get to that golden window of 5-minutes. Picture Tesla’s “Come to Me” app (it comes to you and eliminates a long trek to your parking spot).

It requires one tap.

Once a lead enters Salesforce, they follow the defined rule roadmap according to lead assignment rules that you set and ultimately land with the correct salesperson in record time.

You’re giving back those precious minutes to your revenue and sales operations teams.

Now about those rules.

Define Your Go-To-Market Rule Baseline

Carving out territories based on geography, segments, verticals, industries, named accounts, or whatever your go-to-market strategy is, is the first step. This is your baseline.

Any lead that falls into a sales rep’s territory should be assigned to them based on these defined rules, but that’s easier said than done. They’re constantly changing based on several factors.

You need to define your criteria  

In other words, the set of criteria that you will be implementing – you know the drill. To do so, you ask all the necessary questions:

• Which rep will take on what territories?
• What happens if new reps are hired and old ones leave?
• What happens if someone goes on vacation? Or doesn’t work on Fridays?
• A lead comes in from a partner, where do you want this to go?

The beauty is that the sky is the limit.

But how do you get there with native Salesforce constraints lacking the required sophistication?

We had about 800 or 900 rule criteria. We needed something flexible and something that could change, or help us change as we change our business a year to year. – Jim Maddison, Veracode

The next step:

Create customer rule criteria 

Veracode, a security company, had incredibly complex criteria. They had to hire a developer to manually code changes to lead assignment rules. Things changed daily for them, and they grappled with how to adapt.

Ditching the code for the intuitive drag and drop Complete Lead’s interface gave Veracode more flexibility to create assignment rules on the go.

Remember when we said the sky’s the limit?

Implement Nested Flows to Tackle Ultra-Complex Rule Sets

If there were a way to make it easier, you do it right?

Nested flows keep your rules organized. 

At a high level, think of it like nesting dolls: each “nested” or child assignment flow sits within a bigger, or parent assignment flow.

These parent-child relationships can span far beyond just one or two levels, giving you the freedom to allow each business unit to oversee their own GTM processes and territories.  This is a huge win for Rev Ops organizations looking to simplify and speed up ultra-complex lead management.

Department Managers can even set and keep track of rules for their own set of assignment flows, for different GTM teams and within different nested flows. That means lines are drawn in the sand but teams still have visibility and control of how a lead is tracked for their particular team.

Your business depends on data getting where it needs to go, fast. That’s why no matter how complex, your assignment rules should never feel out of hand.

Leverage Powerful Account-Based Assignment

Account-based strategies should be a cornerstone to your go-to-market strategy, and you want to know that your strategic investments are being implemented successfully.

• In a survey conducted by ITSMA , 87% of B2B marketers said that ABM initiatives outperform their other marketing investments.
• COVID-19 caused companies t o rush to create ABM strategies to respond to an increased need for a strong digital presence.
• 56% of the 800 B2B marketers that LinkedIn surveyed said that they are using ABM. Over 80% said that they plan to increase their ABM budget over the next year.

Use account-based assignment.

Account-based marketing targets specific companies, so setting up account-based rules in your lead flow process allows you to route leads from these target accounts to your most experienced reps quickly and easily.

The rule of thumb is that leads from target accounts need to go to the account rep that owns the account. The account owner has the deepest knowledge of the account and the highest chance to convert. Simply put, account based routing  has a positive impact on your bottom line.

With a more robust lead assignment solution to align with their account-based selling and marketing strategies, Alfresco was able to increase their close/won rate by 10%!

Enterprise hierarchy assignment is a no-brainer for account selling.

Imagine if you could automatically visualize all the related customer accounts including subsidiaries, and assign one strategic rep to the parent enterprise account?

You can and you should. Complete Hierarchies gives you the ability to automatically build and visualize complex account hierarchies, so that you’re able to route leads to the right rep no matter how complex the account structure.

Let’s say a new lead comes in from Hulu, but you’ve no idea that it’s a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Chances are the same rep won’t be assigned the account if other go-to-market rules are in place.

Also, you’ve already given a discount to The Walt Disney Company, and this information is not available to the rep who gets the new lead. Account Hierarchies can be a trick up the sleeve when it comes to account-based assignment.

But what happens if a lead comes in and it’s not associated with any account or go-to-market territory?

Set Up A Sophisticated Round Robin

You’re leaving revenue on the table when you let leads sit and die without a timely response.

Native Salesforce just isn’t sophisticated enough to handle more complex round-robin criteria that’s required to keep your leads flowing when they hit a snag.  It’s limited and cumbersome to manage – major setbacks when it comes to your speed-to-lead.

For certain territories or situations, you may have multiple reps covering the territory or a catch-all queue for leads that don’t have enough information to assign properly.

In those cases, businesses often have someone dedicated to manually triaging and assigning leads. This is an incredibly time-consuming operational nightmare and a good way to tank your response times.

And with a lack of accountability, reps often cherry-pick the ideal leads and leave others to the crows.

To avoid these assignment pitfalls you need to push leads to a chosen pool of sales reps and evenly distributed to your sales team, giving everyone an equal opportunity to generate a sale. But you also need more flexible options.

Use sophisticated dynamic round-robin assignment to:

• Set sophisticated criteria like rep speciality or languages
• Use availability settings to ensure leads can be responded to immediately (e.g. office hours)
• Automatically notify reps when new leads are pushed through
• Enforce SLAs on response times to make sure leads are responded to as quickly as possible
• Pair with a rep response dashboard that gives you a complete view to help you monitor how fast a rep is following up with their round-robin leads

Weighted round-robin:

Give your best-performing reps more leads, and improve your overall chance at generating more pipeline. Based on:

• Performance
• On their speciality
• Any desired field

If you’ve found that reps have hit their max capacity for being able to manage any more leads, you can cap the number of records assigned to your team members in the round-robin.

Hit a snag? Re-route your leads:

If reps aren’t responding within their SLA, you can reroute the lead and assign it to someone who will respond. This helps prevent further roadblocks and keeps data flowing, even when there’s a bottleneck.

It’s typical for our team to get four to five requests a week to change territories for a user. Onboarding and offboarding now takes just a few minutes to run all our leads back through the system and automatically get reassigned. – Jim Maddison, Veracode

The ultimate speed-to-lead tactic to keep in your back pocket.

Go Beyond Leads, Assign Any Object

Just imagine that feeling you get if you could create assignment flow, beyond leads. It’s a whole new world.

Assign any object

Go beyond leads and create any assignment flow across any object. You can assign any record, update any field, and trigger any action.

It works similarly to the assignment flow you create for leads, so define your goals and determine your set of criteria for each particular object.

No more manual effort!

This presents endless opportunities to customize your assignment flows, resulting in streamlined processes and less manual administrative time spent manually sifting through information.

What Are You Waiting For?

It’s time to speed up and sell more. 

Speed is crucial, but there’s so much more than that underpinning your speed-to-lead. You need the flexibility to handle your go-to-market complexity and to keep your leads flowing to the right reps in real time.

When you’re scaling fast, you can’t afford to let good leads slip through the cracks.

Interested in hearing more?

We’re happy to talk you through how you can elevate your lead assignment rules in Salesforce, and dramatically improve your speed-to-lead game. Book a personalized demo with one of our experienced team members today.

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• Account-Based Marketing
• Automated Account Hierarchies
• Lead Management
• Lead Routing
• Lead to Account Matching
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Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules: How To Manage The Salesforce Lead

You're busy, and managing leads in Salesforce is a pain. You want to use the system but there's just too many hoops to jump through. This blog post will help you understand how salesforce lead assignment rules work and show you how they can make your life easier when assigning leads in Salesforce.

Lead assignment is a critical function in any sales organization and it has been our experience that many companies are not following these simple rules due to lack of understanding or poor training. 

We hope to help you avoid these mistakes by sharing some of the most common mistakes made when assigning leads in Salesforce with you.

What Are Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules

Salesforce lead assignment rules allow a user to specify rules that pick up a specific value from a custom object and assign it to the Contact Manager field of the Lead.

Lead assignment rules are created based on your business requirements, for example: If a prospect fills out an interest form or email marketing survey , you can automatically add their information as Leads in Salesforce, which makes them available for sales reps to follow up with.

Or maybe your company is growing rapidly and you need opportunities to be auto-assigned every time one is updated by an internal team member. In all these cases, lead assignment rules come in handy .

A lead assignment rule can be executed when a custom object record has been created, updated or deleted. It starts with a trigger and ends with an assignment rule.

For example: whenever a user updates the 'Lead Status' field on the 'Opportunity' object, update or delete (depending upon whether Lead Status is set to Closed/Lost or Reopened) the associated Contact record on the 'Cust Team' custom object.

To create this Lead Assignment Rule

• Navigate to Setup
• Leads  and click on New Assignment Rule. Give your lead assignment rule a name and select Sub Object as Opportunity then choose Trigger as Updated Opportunity Status.
• Leave Conditions as Blank and click Save.

The moment you save the lead assignment rules, Salesforce creates a picklist of Available Values with two options – Yes and No.

This is because a lead assignment rule can either create or update a record on another object, depending on the condition that you set.

Now, let's say you want to automatically create a new Lead record whenever the 'Lead Status' field on the 'Opportunity' object is set to Closed/Lost. To do this, we'll need to add an Assignment Rule. Select Assignment Rule as New Lead and choose the action as Create.

Under Object Type , select Lead and under Field Name , select Status . Leave Conditions blank and click Save .

You've now created a lead assignment rule that will automatically create a new Lead record whenever the 'Lead Status' field on the 'Opportunity' object is set to Closed/Lost.

But wait, this rule will create Leads for Closed/Lost Opportunities only. What if you also wanted to automatically create a lead whenever the Status is set to Reopened? 

Well, all you need to do is add another Assignment Rule and choose both rules as New Lead . Select the action Create under the object Salesforce creates a picklist with three options – Yes , No , and No Match. This signifies that it will either update or create records depending upon its conditions.

To edit an existing assignment rule, follow these steps:

• ‍ Navigate to Setup | Customize | Leads | Assignment Rules. The Assignment Rules page displays all of your existing rules together. You can filter this list by selecting a particular object, such as Accounts or Contacts, and then clicking on the Edit button.
• ‍ The Rule Details page for the selected rule displays. This page enables you to edit the rule's name, description, and conditions. You can also specify which objects the rule applies to, what type of action to take (such as Create or Update), and which fields on those objects to use.
• When you're finished editing, click Save.

You can also delete a lead assignment rule by following these steps:

• ‍ Navigate to Setup | Customize | Leads | Assignment Rules. The Assignment Rules page displays all of your existing rules together. You can filter this list by selecting a particular object, such as Accounts or Contacts, and then clicking on the Delete button.
• ‍ The Rule Details page for the selected rule displays . This page provides information about the rule, including the rule's name, description, and conditions.
• ‍ Click Delete to remove the rule from Salesforce. There are many different ways to use lead assignment rules in Salesforce. By creating rules that automatically update or create records on other objects, you can save time and ensure that your data is always up-to-date.

The Seven Rules Of Compliance: Salesforce Lead Assignment Policy

Now that we have covered the basics of Lead Assignment Policy, it's time to get into the specifics. Below are the seven rules of compliance for Salesforce Lead Assignment rules:

Rule 1: All leads must be assigned to a user. 

This is a basic rule and should go without saying. All leads must be assigned to a user in order for them to be worked. If you're not sure who should receive a lead, consult your company's sales process and procedures.

Rule 2: Leads must be assigned in a timely manner.

Leads should be assigned as soon as they are created in order to ensure that they are worked promptly. 

However, there may be cases where a lead expires before it has any activity. In these cases, you can either let the lead expire or reassign it to another user who may work it later on.

Rule 3: A user cannot belong to more than one owner-recipient pair in a single Salesforce organization.

A lead must be owned by one person, but that same lead can be assigned to one or more users within your team using owner-recipient pairs. 

However, no single user should appear in multiple owner-recipient relationship fields for different leads in your database. If this happens, then all recipients will receive every opportunity created from every new lead that's assigned to the problematic user! 

To avoid this, create a new lead assignment policy with the problematic user excluded. Then, create a new lead assignment policy without the problematic user and re-assign all of your leads to the appropriate users using owner-recipient pairs.

Rule 4: A user cannot be a recipient in more than one owner-recipient pair within a single Salesforce organization.

As shown by Rule 3 above, you can have an owner for a lead as well as multiple recipients on that same lead record. However, no single user should appear as both an owner and a recipient on different leads that are under the same qualifying rules. 

If this happens, then all of those leads will route directly to your Salesforce Inbox ! To avoid this, simply create a new lead assignment policy with the problematic user excluded and re-assign all of your leads to the appropriate users using owner-recipient pairs.

Rule 5: A recipient cannot be a member of more than one owner-recipient pair in a single Salesforce organization.

This is another rule that should go without saying, but just like Rules 3 and 4 above, it's important to ensure that you're not setting up multiple recipient relationships for the same user within your Salesforce instance. 

To avoid this problem, simply create a new lead assignment policy with the problematic user excluded and re-assign all of your leads to the appropriate users using owner-recipient pairs.

Rule 6: Recipients must own at least one opportunity to be considered valid.

If you're looking for the most basic rule to begin with, this is it. If recipients are not set up to own one or more opportunities, then they won't have any activities in Salesforce automatically created for them when a lead is assigned. 

This means that Leads will need to route directly into your Salesforce Inbox until you either create some activities for your team or manually assign the lead back to the original owner. 

To avoid this problem, simply create a new lead assignment policy with all of your existing recipients included and re-assign all of your leads accordingly!

Rule 7: You cannot add existing users as recipients if their user records contain fields that are incompatible with assignment policy criteria.

There may be one or more cases where you have users who are already in your system but are not set up to receive leads through your lead assignment policy. 

If you try to add these users as recipients for this newly created rule, then their accounts will show up in red because they won't meet the criteria defined in the assignment policy's qualifications field. 

To fix this problem, simply create a new lead assignment policy by including existing recipients in your Salesforce instance. Then, re-assign all of your leads accordingly!

What Are The Drawbacks Of Using Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules?

Lead Assignment rules are an extremely powerful tool inside Salesforce. They enable business users to control who can view and respond to leads, while also streamlining workflows and ensuring that important leads aren't being ignored.

However, as with all features in Salesforce, there are several drawbacks or limitations that need to be taken into account when a lead assignment rule is put into use:

• A lead has to meet the criteria of all lead assignment rules assigned to it, which might not always be possible. Imagine a Business Development Manager using a Lead Assignment Rule so they receive all high priority leads from two queues - one for new accounts and one for existing customers. But what if the lead doesn't have an account? In this case both queues would be evaluated, even though the lead should only go to one of them.
• Rules can be time consuming and complex to set up. The business user has to have a good understanding of how the rule works in order to create it.
• Rules can be overridden by other users if they have access to the lead. This means that although the Lead Assignment Rule was supposed to ensure that a specific person received the lead, it could end up going to someone else if they're faster at responding or have more seniority.

Overall, Lead Assignment Rules are an extremely valuable tool for controlling workflows and ensuring that important leads don't fall through the cracks. 

However, it's important to be aware of the drawbacks and limitations when using them in order to make sure they're being implemented in the most effective way possible.

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules are an extremely powerful tool inside Salesforce. They enable business users to control who can view and respond to leads, while also streamlining workflows and ensuring that important leads aren't being ignored.

Himangi Lohar

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Table of Content:

Understanding lead assignment rules in salesforce.

Lead assignment rules play a crucial role in managing and optimizing lead distribution in Salesforce. In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of lead assignment rules, from understanding their importance to setting them up and troubleshooting common issues.

Introduction to Lead Assignment Rules

Before diving into the nitty-gritty details, let's clarify what lead assignment rules are and why they are essential. In Salesforce, lead assignment rules automate the process of assigning leads to the right sales representatives or teams, enabling efficient lead management and maximizing conversion rates.

Lead assignment rules play a crucial role in optimizing the sales process within an organization. They ensure that leads are distributed in a strategic and organized manner, taking into account various factors that can impact the success of lead conversion. By implementing effective lead assignment rules, businesses can streamline their sales workflows and increase their chances of closing deals.

What are Lead Assignment Rules?

Lead assignment rules are a set of predefined criteria that determine how leads are distributed within an organization. These rules analyze lead attributes such as geographic location, industry, or lead source, and based on these criteria, assign leads to specific users or queues in Salesforce.

For example, let's say a company operates in multiple regions and wants to assign leads based on the geographic location of the lead. They can set up lead assignment rules that automatically assign leads from specific regions to sales representatives who are familiar with those areas. This ensures that leads receive personalized attention from representatives who understand the local market dynamics and can effectively nurture the leads towards conversion.

Importance of Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce

Effective lead assignment rules are vital for streamlining sales workflows and ensuring a prompt response to leads. By automating the lead assignment process, organizations can ensure that the right sales representatives with the necessary expertise handle each lead, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Furthermore, lead assignment rules help prevent lead duplication. When leads are assigned manually, there is a higher chance of duplication, where multiple sales representatives might unknowingly reach out to the same lead. This not only creates confusion for the lead but also wastes valuable time and resources for the organization. With lead assignment rules in place, duplication can be minimized, and the sales team can focus their efforts on new leads rather than duplicating efforts on the same ones.

In addition to preventing duplication, lead assignment rules ensure fair distribution of leads among team members. By considering factors such as workload, expertise, or territory, the rules allocate leads in a balanced manner, ensuring that no sales representative is overwhelmed with an excessive number of leads while others are left with too few. This equitable distribution of leads promotes a healthy and collaborative sales environment, where team members can focus on converting leads rather than competing for them.

In conclusion, lead assignment rules are a critical component of Salesforce's lead management capabilities. By automating the lead assignment process, these rules optimize sales workflows, prevent duplication, and ensure fair distribution of leads. Implementing effective lead assignment rules can significantly enhance an organization's ability to convert leads into customers and drive business growth.

Detailed Overview of Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules

Let's take a closer look at how lead assignment rules work and the different components involved.

Lead assignment rules play a crucial role in automating the process of assigning leads to the right users or queues in Salesforce. When a new lead is created, the lead assignment rules are triggered, ensuring that each lead is handled by the most appropriate person or team.

So, how do lead assignment rules actually work? When a new lead is created in Salesforce, the lead assignment rules are triggered. These rules are evaluated based on the defined criteria, which can be customized according to your organization's specific needs. The lead is then assigned to the appropriate user or queue based on these rules.

Salesforce provides several options for evaluating lead assignment rules. One of the key considerations is the rule order. The order in which the rules are evaluated can have a significant impact on the assignment process. By setting the rule order strategically, you can ensure that the most important rules are evaluated first, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of lead assignments.

Another important aspect of lead assignment rules is the filtering criteria. These criteria allow you to define specific conditions that must be met for a rule to be triggered. By setting up filtering criteria, you can ensure that leads are assigned based on relevant factors such as geographic location, industry, or lead source.

Additionally, Salesforce offers owner-based rules, which allow you to assign leads based on the ownership of related records. For example, you can set up a rule that assigns leads to the owner of the account associated with the lead. This can be particularly useful in scenarios where leads are closely tied to existing accounts or contacts.

Components of Lead Assignment Rules

Lead assignment rules consist of three main components - rule entries, rule criteria, and assignment actions. Let's explore each of these components in more detail.

1. Rule Entries: Rule entries define the combination of criteria that triggers the rule. These criteria can be based on various fields and conditions, allowing you to create complex rules that accurately reflect your organization's lead assignment requirements. By defining multiple rule entries, you can create a hierarchy of rules, ensuring that leads are assigned based on the most specific criteria.

2. Rule Criteria: Rule criteria specify the conditions that must be met for the rule to take effect. These criteria can include both standard and custom fields, giving you the flexibility to tailor the assignment rules to your specific business needs. You can define criteria based on lead attributes such as lead source, industry, or lead score, as well as criteria related to associated records like accounts or contacts.

3. Assignment Actions: Assignment actions determine how the leads are assigned, whether to a specific user or a queue. Salesforce allows you to assign leads to individual users based on their roles, profiles, or territories. Alternatively, you can assign leads to queues, which are groups of users who share the responsibility of handling leads. By leveraging assignment actions, you can ensure that leads are distributed efficiently among your sales team, maximizing their productivity.

In summary, lead assignment rules in Salesforce provide a powerful mechanism for automating the process of assigning leads. By defining rule entries, criteria, and assignment actions, you can ensure that each lead is assigned to the most appropriate user or queue based on your organization's specific requirements. This automation not only saves time and effort but also improves the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your lead management process.

Setting Up Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce

Now that we have a better understanding of lead assignment rules, let's explore how to set them up in Salesforce.

Step-by-step Guide to Create Lead Assignment Rules

To create lead assignment rules, follow these steps:

• Navigate to the Lead Assignment Rule setup page in Salesforce.
• Click on "New Rule" and provide a name and description for the rule.
• Define the rule entries by specifying the criteria for lead assignment.
• Configure the rule criteria, such as lead attributes or field values.
• Set up the assignment actions, whether assigning to a specific user or a queue.
• Activate the lead assignment rule to make it operational.

Tips for Effective Lead Assignment Rules

Creating effective lead assignment rules requires careful consideration of your organization's sales processes and objectives. Here are some tips to optimize your lead assignment rules:

• Segment leads based on relevant criteria tailored to your business model.
• Regularly analyze and update your lead assignment rules to ensure they align with changing business needs.
• Consider implementing round-robin assignment to distribute leads evenly among team members.
• Leverage automated lead scoring to prioritize leads before assigning them.

Managing and Modifying Lead Assignment Rules

Once lead assignment rules are in place, it's important to know how to manage and modify them to adapt to evolving business requirements.

How to Edit Lead Assignment Rules

To edit existing lead assignment rules, follow these steps:

• Click on the rule you wish to modify.
• Make the necessary changes to the rule entries, criteria, or assignment actions.
• Save the changes and activate the modified rule.

Deactivating and Reactivating Lead Assignment Rules

If needed, you can deactivate a lead assignment rule temporarily. To do so:

• Locate the rule you want to deactivate.
• Disable the rule by unticking the "Active" checkbox.
• If required, reactivate the rule by ticking the "Active" checkbox again.

Troubleshooting Common Issues with Lead Assignment Rules

Despite careful setup, issues with lead assignment rules can arise. Let's explore some common errors and solutions.

Understanding Common Errors

Some common errors that may occur with lead assignment rules include leads not getting assigned, leads being assigned incorrectly, or no users being available for assignment. These errors often stem from misconfigured rule entries, criteria, or assignment actions.

Solutions for Common Lead Assignment Rule Issues

To troubleshoot lead assignment rule issues, consider the following solutions:

• Review the rule criteria and ensure they accurately reflect your desired lead assignment conditions.
• Check if there are any conflicts between different lead assignment rules.
• Verify the ownership settings for users or queues involved in the lead assignment process.
• Monitor system logs and error messages to identify any specific issues with lead assignment.

By understanding lead assignment rules and effectively leveraging them in Salesforce, you can optimize your sales processes and enhance lead management. Whether you are implementing lead assignment rules for the first time or fine-tuning existing rules, following best practices and regularly evaluating their performance will ensure efficient lead distribution and increased sales success.

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Salesforce lead assignment rules – Salesforce Tutorials

Creating and managing salesforce lead assignment rules .

In this Salesforce tutorial we are going to learn about What is an assignment Rules , How can we create and manage Salesforce lead assignment rules, and why should we create assignment rules in Salesforce.

What is an Assignment Rule?

Assignment Rules are used to assign Leads and Cases automatically to the assigned users based on criteria. There are two types of Assignment Rules in Salesforce they are

•  Lead Assignment Rules and
• Case Assignment Rules.

What are Salesforce lead assignment rules?

Salesforce lead assignment rules defines the administrators to assign a lead to users and queues based on criteria. A lead can be generated either by manually or generated from the web.

What are case Assignment Rules?

Salesforce lead assignment rules defines the administrators to assign a Case to users and queues based on criteria. A Case can be generated  by manually , generated from the web to case, Email to case etc.

How to create Salesforce lead assignment rules?

Creating and Managing Salesforce lead assignment rules are very important. Let us learn how to create lead assignment rules in Salesforce.com. To create assignment rules login Salesforce and navigate to Setup | Build | Customize | Lead | Lead Assignment Rules.

• Click on Lead assignment rules as shown above.

Click on New Button to create new Salesforce lead assignment rule.

• Enter Rule name.
• The assignment rule must be activated as shown above.
• Click on Save button.

There are only one standard rule in our salesforce. If we create new Assignment rule in Salesforce the first standard rule will be automatically deactivated. At a single point of time only one assignment rule is active. For a single rule there can be multiple rule entries.

• When creating Rule entry we have to learn about these three Order number, Criteria and Assigned to.

How to create New Rule entries in Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules.

In Salesforce we can create many rule entries for single Assignment Rule.

• Click on New Button to create new Rule entry.

• In step 1 :- Enter Sort order as #1.
• In Step 2 :- Enter rule criteria as shown above.
• In Step 3 :- Select the user or queue to assign the lead.
• Select user and Email template as shown above.

Learn how to create Email template in Salesforce.

We have created two Rule entries with order 1 and Order 2. In this Salesforce lead assignment rules, Generated leads will be automatically assigned to the country United State and Country United Kingdom.

Conclusion :

In this Salesforce Tutorial we have learned about What is Assignment rule and How to create Salesforce lead assignment rules. Like wise case assignment rules are also similar to lead assignment rules.

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No matter how much I dread Salesforce, I’ve got to admit Salesforce’s assignment rules are incredible.

Assignment rules in Salesforce help your team determine who gets what leads and cases based on specific criteria you set up. It's all about streamlining your GTM process and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.  

Picture this: your organization is rocking different GTM motions, right? Inbound leads, website-generated leads, event imports, you name it. Well, guess what? You can create assignment rules for each of these motions. 

For example, you can have a kickass rule for inbound leads and another one for event follow-ups. Oh, and don't forget about cases. You can set up rules for weekdays, weekends, and holidays. It's all about keeping things organized and making sure the right people are on the case.  

But here's the kicker. As your organization grows, things get messy. You're stuck with just one rule in Salesforce. One! 

Seriously, even your carbonated sugar water has more variety.

So, what do some organizations do? They create this massive assignment ruleset and cram every rule entry in there. It doesn't matter if it's for inbound, event follow-up, segmentation, or territories—they just shove it all in one place. Talk about a recipe for chaos!

In this post, I'm gonna share some best practices for Salesforce lead routing and assignment rules. We'll show you how to keep your team engaged with those precious leads and speed up your time-to-revenue. 

Ready? Let's do this!

How to define lead assignment rules for lead routing in Salesforce?

When it comes to assignment rules in Salesforce, your Salesforce administrator can only have one active rule at a time for your go-to-market motions. This assignment rule serves a dual purpose: automating lead routing when new leads enter your CRM and managing customer-facing processes within your CRM.  

Let's start with the lead assignment rules. 

Lead assignment rules define how leads are assigned to your sales reps. Whether they're manually created, captured from your website, or imported through SFDC's Data Import Wizard, these rules ensure proper allocation. Additionally, case assignment rules come into play when you want to assign support questions. Think of this as a use case for customer support and customer success functions.

Getting the basic flow for your lead assignment and routing in Salesforce right

Every organization is different with unique GTM motions. With that in mind, here are a few questions to ask yourself (and your entire GTM team) before you begin setting up your lead routing.  ‍

Psst… I’ve been burned by not getting this right.  

• How are leads entering your CRM? 
• When leads enter the CRM, what happens? 
• How and when should leads be passed off to your team members? (think lead qualification, interests, activity, contact properties, and behavior) 
• Which of your salespeople and account executives touch leads and when? 
• When are leads considered sales or marketing qualified? 

When you have answers to the above questions, you’ll have a good picture of how your leads flow through your CRM.

How to set up a lead assignment in Salesforce for lead routing?

To get started with assignment rules in Salesforce, follow these steps:  

• Login to Salesforce and click on Setup in the upper right corner of the horizontal navigation bar.

• In the Setup search box, type "assignment rules" and select either Lead Assignment Rules.

• Click on New to create a new assignment rule. 
• In the Rule Name box, provide a name for your rule.
• Once done, click Save.

• Open your newly created rule and select New in the Rule Entries section to define your rule criteria. a. In Step 1 of the "Enter the rule entry" window, enter an Order for your new rule. The Order determines the processing sequence, similar to a queue.

          b. In Step 2, decide whether your rule should be based on meeting specific criteria or a formula. In the "Run this rule if" dropdown box, choose either "criteria are met" or "formula evaluates to true".            

      c. Once you’ve selected how you want to trigger the rules, use the drop down to set the criteria for the rule entry

     d. Finally, in Step 3, select the user or queue to whom your rule will assign the new lead or case. You can use the lookup feature to find specific users or a queue

    e. Once you've completed Step 3, click Save. ‍ That’s it! You’ve now set up a lead assignment rule in Salesforce. ‍ If you’d like some inspiration for your next lead assignment rule, consider this example:

In the above example, you can see that we are: 

• Disqualifying leads that come from competitors
• Routing leads that come from our partnerships to partnerships expert
• Routing leads that have less than 5000 employees to Joe Cavill
• Sending leads who have more than 5000 employees to Jessica

Two reasons why your lead assignment might not work as expected

If you're facing issues with your lead or case assignment rules not functioning properly, here are a few tips to troubleshoot and identify the root cause quickly.  

• First and foremost, check if the assignment rule is active. Remember, you can have only one active case or lead assignment rule at a time. 
• Next, ensure that the record is assigned to the correct user or queue and verify that the checkbox "Assign using active assignment rule" has been selected. To support this step, consider enabling field History tracking on the case or lead owner and adding object History (case or lead) to your page layout. 

These measures can help track any changes made to ownership.  

One common issue to watch out for is overlapping rule entries or entries in the wrong order. When you have multiple rule entries, it's possible for them to overlap, leading to unpredictable record assignments. 

For example, if entry #1 assigns New York leads to Henry and entry #2 assigns Demo Request leads to Terry, Henry might end up receiving Demo Request leads intended for Terry. To avoid such confusion, review the order and arrangement of your rule entries carefully. 

Disadvantages of lead assignment and lead routing with Salesforce

When it comes to implementing lead assignment and routing on Salesforce, there are a few downsides you need to be aware of. Here's a list of potential hiccups you might encounter along the way. 

• Round-robin or custom distribution: First up, let's talk about the nuances of round-robin or custom logic lead distribution. When you have a team of AEs, you naturally want to set up fair distribution or implement your own custom logic. However, doing this in Salesforce can be quite challenging, especially when you need to consider all those pesky edge cases. What if the lead is assigned to an AE and she falls sick on the day of the demo call? Naturally, a teammate takes the demo. Now, how do you add the original AE back to the queue and give her another lead since this got reassigned to someone else?
• Lead-to-account matching: Picture this scenario: a lead is already in your Salesforce CRM and has been assigned to an AE. Now, when they come back and book a demo with you, you definitely don't want them to go through a round-robin distribution and get assigned to someone else on the team, right? You want them to stick with their designated rep. Unfortunately, achieving this in Salesforce is impossible.
• Complex lead qualification: Lead qualification shouldn’t require you to write complex code. Unfortunately, that’s what it’ll take when you try to do lead qualification with Salesforce.
• Routing log: Imagine your sales rep reaches out to you, wondering why a lead didn't get assigned to them. Well, in Salesforce you can track an object’s history to see when properties change, but you won't have a clear way to track all the steps that led to the assignment (or lack thereof). It becomes a guessing game, and nobody wants to play that.
• Instant scheduling: And finally, we have the big one. When you have a qualified lead that's been routed to the right sales rep, wouldn't it be amazing to book a call with them right away? No need to make them wait for an email or phone call from your sales rep. Unfortunately, no matter how many workflows you create or stitch together, this is simply not possible with Salesforce. 

These are the challenges you might face when implementing lead routing on Salesforce. But hey, awareness is the first step toward finding solutions, right? Keep these in mind as you navigate the world of Salesforce.

How RevenueHero simplifies lead assignment for you in Salesforce?

At first, it seems pretty straightforward, but here's the catch: you're limited to having just one rule. Now, imagine as your GTM motions get more complex and your organization grows. 

That one rule starts to feel like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode with multiple defining rule entries. With each entry you add, the rule becomes more unwieldy and harder to manage. 

With RevenueHero integrated to your Salesforce CRM, here’s what you’ll get:

• Show the right sales rep’s calendar after a form is submitted.
• Auto-qualify leads after form-submit using custom logic.

• Automatically log all meeting activity to your Salesforce CRM to create custom reports.
• Use custom Round-robin logic and weighted assignments to ensure smoother account handovers.

• Eliminate tedious CRM cleanups and matching errors by automating lead to account matching. 

Of course, I’m a bit biased. But based on what existing customers say, Salesforce works. But Salesforce + RevenueHero makes you win.

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Like your customers, you’ve done your research. Get on a call with us and see if RevenueHero makes sense for your sales and marketing teams.

REPORT : We tested lead response times of 1000 B2B sales teams. Here are the results

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Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce

• Published on: December 15, 2022
• Updated on: January 11, 2024
• ⏱️ 4 minutes

One of the significant aspects of the Salesforce solution is its ability to have automated workflows or process flows for most of the day-to-day business use cases. In a sales process, leads can be generated in volumes daily, and assigning those leads to the right agent or team is a cumbersome task. Leads can be created via different channels. For example, people can enquire about the service through the company website (Web to lead) or leads can be uploaded using import data wizard (Bulk upload), or leads can be created manually in the CRM application. 

The leads generated through different channels have to be assigned properly, considering the priority of the leads based on certain factors. Thus lead assignment rule is paramount because it automates the process of assigning the lead to the proper team or agent.

So, what is Assignment Rules in Salesforce?

Salesforce Assignment Rules automate lead and case distribution by routing them to specific users or queues based on criteria like geography or record type. Rules can be customized to meet your organization’s unique needs.

How to Set Up Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce?

1. From Setup, “Quick Find” search box, type “Lead assignment.” You will be able to see “Lead Assignment Rules.”

2. Select the “New” button to create a new lead assignment rule.

3. Enter the rule name and activate the “Active” checkbox. 

4. To specify your rule criteria, open your newly created rule and select New in the Rule Entries section.

5. On this page, you have 3 tasks.

a. Step 1: Determine the order in which the rule entry will be processed – you only need to specify the sort order here. Let’s give 1 now.

b. Step 2 – Select the criteria for the rule entry – In our example, let’s take an assignment based on geography. Leads originating from the USA have to be assigned to the ‘USA Lead Management team.’ Leads generated outside the USA need to be handled by the ‘Other Countries’ team. In sort order 1, we will manage USA-based leads. So select the conditions as in the below image.

c. Step 3 – Select the user or queue to assign the lead to – here, we can assign the lead to either a user or a queue. In our example, we will assign USA-based leads to the ‘USA Lead Management queue. When you select the email template, all the members in the queue will get notified if a new lead is assigned to them.

6. Repeat processes in (5) to assign leads generated in countries other than the USA. Here, the sort order should be 2. Country NOT EQUAL to the USA.

Lead Assignment Rule: Did You Know?

• Only one active assignment rule is possible at a time. You can create multiple assignment rules, but only one can be active at a time.
• The Group, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions all include lead assignment rules.
• Typically an admin user with a System administrator profile will be able to set up lead assignment and routing. However, a user with a less privileged profile will need to check if they have “View Setup and Configuration” permission enabled to view the assignment rules. To create or change assignment rules, one must have “Customize Application” permission in their profile or permission set.
• In the lead page layout, if you select ‘Layout Properties,’ you can see an option for the ‘Lead Assignment Checkbox.’ You can show this option on the lead edit page.

So, basically, lead assignment rules can help ensure that your leads are handled efficiently and effectively, and they can help distribute leads evenly among your sales team.

Now, that’s all about the Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce. If you wish to learn more about Lead assignments or anything about Salesforce, join our saasguru Slack community and talk with seasoned Salesforce professionals. 

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Lead Assignment Rule in Salesforce

In this Salesforce tutorial, we will learn the lead assignment rule in salesforce . Moreover, we will also see  how to create lead assignment rules in Salesforce  Lightning and Salesforce Classic.

Recently, I got a requirement where I need to assign the lead to sales representatives based on criteria. To fulfill this requirement, we can create a salesforce lead assignment rule.

So, if you want to learn  How to create lead assignment rules in Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic  step by step   you’ve come to the right place.

The following are the topics that we will cover in this salesforce tutorial.

• What is lead assignment rule in Salesforce
• Advantages of lead assignment rule in Salesforce
• Drawbacks of lead assignment rule in Salesforce
• Parts of lead assignment rule in Salesforce
• How to create lead assignment rule in Salesforce Lightning
• How to create lead assignment rule in Salesforce Classic

Table of Contents

The lead assignment is the process of assigning new leads to specific sales representatives or teams in our organization in salesforce. By using it we make ensures that each and every lead is controlled by the most appropriate person, which increases the chances of a successful transformation of lead.

And in Salesforce to set up the lead assignment, we will need to define our assignment rules and criteria. It usually involves creating of salesforce rules, assigning leads in salesforce, and defining the criteria that will make the rule.

It also specifies the actions that should be taken when a lead meets the criteria. In simple terms, a lead assignment rule specifies how leads should be defined in Salesforce using a set of criteria and actions.

And then based on specified criteria like lead source, lead zone, or locations, lead assignment rules can be used to automate the distribution process of allocating leads to particular sales teams.

Keep one thing in our mind in salesforce we can create multiple lead assignment rules for a particular object, but only one at a time is active.

Moreover, this can save your sales team time and ensure that each lead is handled by the most appropriate person.

With this, we got an overview of the lead assignment rule in salesforce. Now, we will move ahead and discuss some of its advantages.

There are several advantages to using lead assignment rules in Salesforce, including:

• Lead assignment rules manage the process of assigning leads.
• It provides free time to the sales team so they will focus on selling.
• Ir reduces the risk of lead handling incorrectly.
• By allocating the leads to the sales team based on certain criteria, we can ensure that each lead is handled by the most suitable team person.
• It increases the chances of a successful transformation of leads.
• It also reduces the risk of wasting resources on leads that have zero chance to convert.
• It provides more personalized attention and a positive customer experience.
• By using lead assignment rules in Salesforce, we can track lead assignment statistics and gain awareness of which sales representatives or teams are most effective at converting leads.
• The lead assignment rule predicts future sales and marketing strategies and helps us optimize our lead management process.
• Lead assignment rules in Salesforce can help our organization streamline its lead management process, improve lead quality and customer experience, and gain more revenue.

With this, we learned about the advantages of the lead assignment rule in salesforce . Now, we will move further and discuss some drawbacks of the salesforce lead assignment rule.

Read How to add event to public calendar in Salesforce?

While lead assignment rules in Salesforce can be highly beneficial, there are also some potential issues and drawbacks to be aware of:

• If we depend too much on lead assignment rules, we may miss opportunities to personally review and assign leads to the most appropriate sales representatives or teams.
• If our data is incomplete or has errors, our lead assignment rules may not work as intended.
• If we have multiple lead assignment rules in place that conflict with each other or are too complex, it can be difficult to resolve issues and ensure that leads are being properly assigned.
• Lead assignment rules can be challenging and make it difficult to handle exceptions that needed manual intervention.
• It can be challenging to isolate the impact of lead assignment rules from other factors that may contribute to successful transformation.
• If our lead assignment rules are too complex, it can be difficult to understand why leads are being assigned to specific sales representatives or teams.

With this, we understood the drawbacks of the lead assignment rule in salesforce. Now, we will move further and discuss some important parts of the lead assignment rule.

The lead assignment rules in Salesforce consist of several parts, including:

• Criteria: It specifies the conditions that must be required in order to allocate a lead to a certain sales representative or team.
• Rule: Based on the criteria, rule-specific which sales representative or team a lead should be assigned to.
• Lead Assignment Actions: This is the action that occurs when a lead matches the criteria and is allocated to a sales representative or team.
• Rule Order: If we have more than one lead assignment rule, the order in which they are executed is very important. We can set the order in according to the need in which the rules are evaluated and guarantee that the most important rules are performed first.
• Assignment Rule Activation: In this step, we select the lead rule that we want to activate or deactivate at any time. This is helpful when we need to temporarily close, or update our rules for any reason.

By understanding each of these parts and how they work together, we can create effective lead assignment rules that help us manage and convert our leads more efficiently.

With this, we learned the parts of the lead assignment rule in salesforce. Next, we will learn to set up the lead assignment rules in Salesforce Lightning .

Here are the steps to create a lead assignment rule in Salesforce Lightning:

Step 1: Log in to your Salesforce account and go to Setup .

Step 2: In the Quick Find box, type Assignment Rules , then select Lead Assignment Rules .

Step 3: Click New to create a new lead assignment rule.

Step 4: Enter a Rule Name for our rule.

Step 5: Activate our rule by clicking the Activate button. Activating this rule will deactivate the current lead assignment rule automatically as at one time only one rule is activated.

Step 6: Click Save to save our rule.

Step 7: Select the Rule Name and open it to add lead assignment rules.

Step 8: Click New to create multiple rule entries under this rule.

Step 9: Set the Rule Order in which this rule entry will be processed.

Step 10: Define the criteria that will trigger the rule. This can include fields like lead source, lead score, or location.

Step 11: Add any additional filter criteria, if necessary.

Step 12: Specify the actions that should be taken when a lead meets the criteria. This can include assigning the lead to a specific sales representative or team and sending an email notification.

Step 13: Click Save to save the lead assignment rule.

Step 14: Test the rule by creating a test lead that meets the criteria, and ensures that it is assigned correctly.

Once our lead assignment rule is created and tested, Salesforce will automatically assign incoming leads based on the criteria we’ve defined.

With this, we learned to create the lead assignment rule in Salesforce Lightning . Now, we will move and learn to create the lead assignment rule in Salesforce Classic.

Here are the steps to create a lead assignment rule in Salesforce Classic:

Step 1: Log in to your Salesforce Classic account. Click on  Avtar  and then select  Switch to Salesforce Classic .

Step 2: Go to the Setup menu in Salesforce Classic and click on the Build section.

Step 3: Click on the Lead object under the Customize section.

Step 4: Click on Lead Assignment Rules .

Step 5: Click New to create a new lead assignment rule.

Step 6: Enter a Rule Name for our rule.

Step 7: If we want to activate your rule by clicking the Activate button.

Step 8: Click Save to save our rule.

Step 9: In order to add lead assignment rules, select the Rule Name .

Step 10: Click New to create new rule entries.

Step 11: Specify the Rule Order in which the rule should be evaluated if we have multiple rules.

Step 12: Set the rule criteria by defining conditions that the lead record must meet to trigger the rule. We can use any field on the lead record to create your criteria.

Step 13: Define the actions that should be taken when a lead meets the rule criteria. For example, we can assign the lead to a specific user or queue, or we can send an email notification.

Step 14: Click Save to save the lead assignment rule.

Step 15: We may verify that our rule is working properly, by creating a test lead that satisfies the requirements.

That’s it! Our lead assignment rule is now ready to automatically assign incoming leads to the appropriate sales team members or queues based on the criteria you defined.

With this, we learned how to create the lead assignment rule in Salesforce Classic.

In conclusion, lead assignment rules in Salesforce allow us to automate the process of assigning incoming leads to the appropriate sales team members or queues based on specific criteria.

Both Salesforce Classic and Salesforce Lightning provide a straightforward procedure to create a lead assignment rule to improve our sales team’s efficiency and effectiveness.

In addition to this, the following are the topics that we have discussed:

You may also like the following salesforce tutorials:

• Send Email Alerts using Workflow Rule in Salesforce
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• How to add lead source in salesforce

I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us .

Set the option 'Assign using active assignment rules' to true, only when a Case or Lead is created

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How to Re-run Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules: Flows & Apex

Salesforce Lead assignment rules ensure Leads are assigned to the appropriate user or queue for follow up. They also liberate marketers from trying to maintain sales territory logic within their Marketing Automation Platform (MAP).

>> Related: How to Build a SLA Alert in Salesforce <<

When a new Lead is created, Salesforce will use logic you’ve configured to assign the record to the appropriate user or queue. But what if you need to re-run that logic on existing records ?

In this post:

Re-running Lead Assignments for just a few Leads

If you only need to do this for a single Lead record, the solution is simple.  Edit the record and select the optional “ Assign using active assignment rule “ checkbox.

If you need to do a one-time batch reassignment of a number of records, export the relevant Lead Ids.  Then use the Apex Data Loader to trigger assignment rules to fire. You can grab the ID of the appropriate Lead Assignment Rule from the URL bar when viewing the rule in Setup. It will always start with the prefix “01Q” .

But you may want to automatically re-run Salesforce Lead Assignments

But you may want to re-run assignment rules automatically under certain conditions. For example:  you may assign Leads under a certain Lead Score to a Queue.  When the Lead Score increases over the threshold, you then want to re-run assignment rules to assign to an inside sales rep for follow up.

To do this, we combine Flow and an Apex Invocable method. We take advantage of the power of Apex with the flexibility to declaratively (clicks, not code!) control the logic of when to re-run the assignment rules, without having to edit any code.

Using Apex for Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules

Let’s start with the code.

Since we’re writing code here, we’ll need to start in a sandbox org first before deploying to production. You’re smart and already knew that you’d NEVER make changes in production without first testing in a sandbox ( right?! ), but in this case, Salesforce doesn’t trust you either way and forces you to write your code in a sandbox org before moving to production.

We’ll be creating an Apex class with a single method with the @InvocableMethod annotation, which allows us to call our Apex from within a Flow. The method accepts a single parameter (a list of the Lead Ids to be assigned) that you’ll pass into the method from your Flow.

That’s it. Just those four lines are all you need in your code. The logic for firing the assignment rules will be configured in one or more Flows.

Now, in order to actually deploy this to your production org, you’ll also need to create a test class to cover your code and ensure that it functions as expected in your environment. A sample test class might look like this (but this is extremely basic):

Work with a developer to ensure you’re accounting for any requirements specific to your Salesforce instance.

Using Salesforce Flows for Lead Assignment Rules

Now we’ll create our declarative logic of when to fire the code, using a Flow.

1) Create a new Flow by searching for Flows under Setup and clicking the New Flow button in the top right. This example is for a Record-Triggered Flow , but you can design it a number of ways.

2) Select the Lead object for your Flow and configure the trigger for when a record is created or edited .

3) Then set the Entry Conditions.  In this use case, we want to re-assign Leads after they meet a certain Lead Score. Select “custom condition logic is met. ” Set the condition that the Lead Score is greater than or equal to 100.

Under the “When to Run the Flow for Updated Records” section, select the option to only execute when a record is updated to meet the condition requirements . This means we’ll only execute the actions if the record previously did not meet the criteria, but now does after being updated.

4) Without getting into too much detail, because of Triggers and Order of Execution , we can’t call our code in an immediate action. Instead, we’ll create a scheduled path to call our Apex method.

In this case, we want the logic to execute ASAP, so we’ll set the schedule for 0 minutes from now.

5) Once saved, we can create a new action. Click to Add a New Element , and select an Action type. Give your action a name, and select the Apex class you created earlier. Set the Apex Variables leadIds using the Field Reference of the Lead Id that started the process.

6) After saving, your Flow looks like this:

Activate your flow, test in your sandbox, and deploy to your production org. Since the code is fired under a scheduled action, there is a slight delay before the reassignment happens. In my experience, it’s usually <2 minutes, but you can monitor this under Setup > Flows and viewing the Paused and Waiting Interviews section.

The nice part about this approach is that if your requirements change – for example if your Lead Score threshold changes to 150 instead of 100 – you can change the logic in your Flow (Step 3) without having to touch any code.

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How to Automate Lead Assignment for Salesforce Platforms

Lead assignment in Salesforce is crucial for making sure sales-ready leads reach the right person to make contact, at the right time.

Exactly how leads are handed over from marketing to sales should never be assumed or taken lightly. Lead assignment is a crucial step in making sure sales-ready leads reach the right person to make contact, at the right time. Which is why automating lead assignment for Salesforce platforms, from Account Engagement to Sales Cloud, or Marketing Cloud to Sales Cloud, is so important.

The aim for any marketer is to assign inbound leads in the most efficient way, and the lead assignment features of Salesforce enable us to do just that.

If you’ve been assigning leads manually until now, you’re about to have your world changed. 

And if you’re already assigning leads to sales reps using automated features in your Salesforce accounts, don’t exit just yet. Stick around to ensure you’re following best practices and making lead assignment (also known as lead routing) as seamless as it can be.

For this guide, we’re going to assume you are using Sales Cloud alongside Pardot and/or Marketing Cloud. This means there are two parts to ensuring lead assignment runs smoothly. The first is integrating and configuring your Salesforce products to work together, and the second is the setup of Lead Assignment Rules in Salesforce.

Part 1 - Configuring your Salesforce products

Integration.

It’s somewhat obvious, but the first essential step is to connect your platforms using the Salesforce Connector (for Account Engagement aka Pardot), or Marketing Cloud Connect, depending on which you use.

Connecting Pardot and Sales Cloud using the Salesforce Connector is fairly straightforward, and essentially means the two platforms are able to ‘talk’ and share data, rather than marketers needing to manually export and import lead data.

You’ll find the Salesforce Connector in the AppExchange, and an implementation guide is provided by Salesforce here , including considerations before you install. 

You’ll want to use the V2 Connector , so if you’re already using the connector but haven't upgraded yet, be sure to do that.

Marketing Cloud Connect, for connecting Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud Engagement, is a little more challenging, so we’ve provided a full guide here.

Marketing Data Sharing

After installing the Pardot-Salesforce Connector, you’ll see an option for ‘Marketing Data Sharing’ which allows you to restrict which Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, and/or custom objects are eligible to sync from Salesforce to Pardot. This is ideal for those with multiple Business Units but can work well for those with just one, too.

What’s great about MDS is it gives you more control over when prospect and lead records are created, which is all part and parcel of ensuring correct lead management.

For a deep dive into MDS and to configure the settings in the best way for your business, have a read of this dedicated blog: How to Use Marketing Data Sharing in Pardot & Salesforce .

Understand sync behaviours

With your platforms connected, take some time to understand exactly how the two can and will sync . You can set either Pardot or Salesforce as the ‘master’ values, meaning if there are differences in a record between the two platforms, one will be used to override the other. You can also choose to ‘Use the most recently updated record’.

For Account Engagement and Sales Cloud, as a general rule, prospect records sync every two to four minutes. Most records sync immediately, but Account Engagement processes sync queues with over 400 records in batches. Standard batch processing syncs 12,000 records per hour. 

Having said this, certain activities can trigger a sync, and this can be at a prospect, trigger, or system level. We have a full guide to Pardot and Salesforce sync behaviours , which we recommend reading if you’re new to this topic, or to sense check that your current sync behaviours are correct and without errors!

For a free audit of your Account Engagement , Salesforce , or Marketing Cloud account, including checks of your integration and sync behaviours, get in touch .

Part 2 - Setup of lead assignment 

Planning lead assignment and criteria.

Let’s assume you have successfully connected and synced accounts. You are now ready to plan and implement your lead assignment, using preset lead criteria.

Remember, there’s a difference between implicit and explicit leads and you can determine this based on your lead scoring and grading . 

• Explicit leads: are the right fit for your business because they match the demographics of your ideal customers. For example, they are the right decision-maker within the right type of company and industry.
• Implicit leads: are prospects who show a keen interest in your business and demonstrate buying intent.

The ideal sales-ready lead will meet both your explicit and implicit lead criteria. So, the very first item on your to-do list is to agree and document what makes a qualified lead . This should be a collaborative effort between marketing and sales teams.

Download the ‘ How to Qualify Leads’ eBook for a step-by-step guide to planning and implementing lead qualification.

Only once you have a clear definition of a sales-ready lead, can you plan who should receive such leads, when, and how. Some considerations are:

• Do sales team members have designated regions or countries?
• Are there priority team members who should receive leads first?
• Should leads be assigned by their product or service interest ( Scoring Categories help with this)?
• Are there types of leads we don’t want to contact and what happens to these?
• Do leads from different sources require different teams or treatment?

Use these considerations to map out your precise criteria, such as:

Criteria 1: Unqualified leads - don’t assign those from regions we don’t service.

Criteria 2: ABM leads - high-value targets must be assigned to a specific sales rep.

Criteria 3: Country - all remaining leads must be assigned to their country-specific sales team.

Again, document your lead assignment plan offline first, before implementing anything in your Salesforce accounts. This really helps to get a clear picture of what will happen and allow you to sense check before changing any settings that could cause problems later.

How to create a Lead Assignment Rule in Salesforce

You’ve got your lead assignment criteria sorted and you’re ready to get things set up. Enter the aptly named ‘Lead Assignment Rule’ in Salesforce.

Navigate to the ‘Marketing’ section in Salesforce and select ‘Lead Assignment Rules’.

Here’s where you create your Lead Assignment Rule but heads up, you can only have one active rule at a time. 

Now note that when you create a rule, you’ll specify the order that each criteria will be processed. Therefore, it’s easiest to input in priority order, with the most important rule criteria first.

Once you’ve entered your rule criteria (side note, you need to make sure you have the data values to match the rule!) you can choose the assignment action.

There are three options for lead assignment and these are:

• User - assign to a specific Salesforce user, by name.
• Queue - assign to a queue to be distributed among a team.
• Partner user - assign to a user of a partner account .

To assign a lead to a ‘Queue’ you’ll need to first create the Queue in the Administration > Users > Queues section of Salesforce. 

For example, you may have Queues for each region’s sales team, with the relevant users selected as members i.e. a Queue for ‘Leads - UK’ and a separate Queue for ‘Leads - Germany’. 

Once activated, all leads will be assigned based on the active rule. It’s a good idea to have a final criteria in your rule that catches all other leads and assigns them to a default user, so you can review and update your criteria if required, or manually assign these leads.

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rule example

In the above screenshot, you can see that the Lead Assignment Rule has three criteria, in order of priority. First, we eliminate leads that should not be assigned, those that are clearly time-wasters. Next, we assign ABM leads to specific sales reps because these are priority leads. Then, we assign all remaining leads to different Queues based on their region: Europe, North America, or Asia Pacific.

Triggering LARs from Pardot/Marketing Cloud

Where things get a little tricky with lead assignment is when we start to consider how leads are assigned in Salesforce when coming from Pardot or Marketing Cloud.

Pardot/Account Engagement

In Pardot, a prospect must have an assigned user to allow them to sync to Salesforce in the first place. The problem is, having an assigned user means the prospect is ignored by the Salesforce Lead Assignment Rule. 

This is all well and good if you have just one or two sales reps who handle all leads. You can simply ‘Assign to user’ or ‘Assign to Queue in Salesforce’. The complex Lead Assignment Rule might not be necessary.

For those who prefer a Lead Assignment Rule in Salesforce to better triage and automatically assign large volumes of leads to multiple users though, the solution is to select the ‘Assign Prospect Via Salesforce Active Assignment Rule’ within Completion Actions (for forms, form handlers, custom redirects, emails and page actions), Automation Rules, or Engagement Studio programs. 

This will push prospects to the Salesforce Lead Assignment Rule when the criteria is met and the prospect syncs without an owner, allowing the LAR to assign accordingly.

Marketing Cloud

How do you trigger LARs in SFMC?

With Marketing Cloud evolving from a B2C focus, lead assignment is not as well defined as a tool. That’s not to say that effective lead assignment logic can’t be used, it just means you will have to leverage the powerful tools provided by Marketing Cloud Connect in conjunction with Journey Builder.

Journey Builder has a number of actions such as the Create Lead, Convert Lead, and Update Object which can all be configured to update records in Sales Cloud. This means that you can construct a logic flow to determine which route a lead goes down and then have a create lead/update lead action that assigns the lead to a particular salesperson. This could be random, a round-robin, based on working hours, or based on a lead’s profile. 

Troubleshooting rules that aren’t working

Finding that your Lead Assignment Rules are not working? Here are a few common reasons why:

• Your LAR isn’t ‘Active’ - select the ‘Active’ checkbox and remember you can only have one active rule at a time.
• When creating leads in Salesforce manually, you must select the ‘Lead Assignment’ checkbox to ensure your new lead triggers the rule.
• Prospects are already assigned to a user in Pardot and therefore, bypass the LAR - use ‘Assign Prospect Via Salesforce Active Assignment Rule’ instead.
• You’re trying to run your LAR on a lead already assigned in Salesforce - LARs trigger for new leads as they are created and using the criteria at that time.
• There’s an error in your rule criteria which means the way you are checking the rule is wrong. Check the ‘Operator’ you are using and the way the rule is run.

Ready to qualify and assign leads?

No lead assignment in Salesforce can be relied on confidently without first agreeing on a shared definition of what a ‘sales-ready lead’ means for your business. 

Start with a robust scoring and grading model using our free ‘ Pardot Scoring & Grading That Works ’ eBook, to quickly surface only the most qualified leads and be sure you’re following the best practices for long-term success.

Founder & CEO of MarCloud, Tom has been on both sides of the fence, client-side and agency, working with Salesforce platforms for the best part of a decade. He's a Salesforce Marketing Champion and certified consultant who loves to co-host webinars and pen original guides and articles. A regular contributor to online business and marketing publications, he's passionate about marketing automation and, along with the team, is rapidly making MarCloud the go-to place for Marketing Cloud and Salesforce expertise. He unapologetically uses the terms Pardot, Account Engagement and MCAE interchangeably.

Featured resource

Pardot Scoring & Grading That Works

This handbook gives a straightforward explanation of Pardot grading and scoring. It outlines default versus custom models and provides a basic understanding of lead qualification. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between grading and scoring, we cover it.

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