Assignment rules, automations, and more

When I asked ChatGPT, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) spend 64% of their time on non-revenue-generating activities, such as updating fields in Salesforce. I don’t know how close this number is to the truth, but I personally know SDRs who would appreciate more time back. This article discusses three techniques to supercharge the Lead object in Salesforce to improve SDR productivity and level up your game in lead conversion.

Who are SDRs?

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) play a significant role in the buyer’s journey as the first person to converse with customers. There’s always a debate on whether SDRs belong to Marketing versus Sales, but I like to think of them as their own department in the middle. Their major tasks are:

Prospecting – finding the right people to speak to

Management – reaching out to prospects and providing relevant content

Qualification – ensuring leads are a good fit before passing them off to sales

The tasks above involve a lot of work and an enormous number of leads. In Salesforce, SDRs often work off the Lead object to keep track of the process and relevant information.

The Three Techniques

#1 Power Up Assignment Rules

Leads come through the door – now what? A seamless lead journey is fundamental for effective lead management. To achieve this, there needs to be a clear understanding of who owns the relationship with the leads and what that journey looks like. The first step is to have a robust lead assignment process which can be engineered by implementing the strategies below.

Lead Assignment Rules

Streamline lead assignments by setting up automated assignment rules based on predefined criteria.

Examples of predefined lead assignment criteria:

1. Lead Source 

2. Industry

3. Territory

Manually distributing leads can take time and run into human-error issues. This is especially true for organizations with SDRs operating in different verticals or territories. By automating this process, you ensure that leads are routed to the appropriate SDRs. If you still need to set this up, this Salesforce guide is a great place to start. Also, consider adopting lead-to-account matching and round-robin routing to take this to another level.

Lead to Account Matching

Inherently, leads do not have a relationship with accounts in Salesforce. This can cause chaos when existing customers come in as a lead, or the company is already in a buying cycle. One way to superpower the lead object is the ability to match Leads to existing Accounts in Salesforce. By matching leads to accounts, you can ensure every lead is treated with the appropriate follow-up from the right person. 

Round-Robin Lead Routing

Lead assignment rules are often not enough. This is because such rules don’t consider optimizing the workload of each rep and ensuring fair distribution of leads among team members. An automated round-robin distribution solves this problem. By assigning leads in a cyclical fashion, an equal share of leads can be routed to SDRs. Not only does this promote productivity, but it also fosters a sense of fairness within the team. 

Tools like LeanData and Chili Piper support the features above. Alternatively, it can be done through custom development work in Salesforce. Talk to us to learn how.

#2 Leverage Salesforce Automation

Salesforce offers a robust set of automation features that can significantly enhance the productivity of your SDRs. By reducing manual tasks and improving overall efficiency, your SDRs can focus on creating meaningful connections with potential customers. Some key Salesforce automation to empower your reps is below.

Email Notifications

Set up automated email notifications to alert SDRs and managers when significant events occur, such as high lead scores or completed lead activities. These real-time notifications enable timely follow-ups, ensuring no hot lead falls through the cracks.

Automating Tasks

SDRs have a lot on their plate, so make their lives easier by creating automation on required tasks. This speeds up the workflow and reduces human error to streamline the process. Start with automating repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails, updating fields, or scheduling meetings.

Screen Flows

Design guided screen flows within Salesforce to ensure your SDRs follow standardized processes when qualifying leads. Screen flows provide step-by-step guidance, reducing the chances of missed information and improving data accuracy. This can be an excellent tool for existing Lead Qualification workflows.

#3 Enable Activity Insights

The third technique to maximize lead management is configuring Salesforce to get insight into sales activities. Activity tracking helps SDRs understand their engagement with leads, identify patterns, and refine their outreach strategies. Two places to start are automating activity tracking and creating reports to review regularly. 

Activity Tracking

Force your SDRs to log all relevant activities, such as calls, emails, and meetings, right? Wrong. Data will unavoidably be missed, and the extra step takes time away from SDRs. So how does Salesforce automate this?

Sales Engagement Tools

Integrate Salesforce with sales engagement tools like Salesloft and Outreach to collect information into lead interactions. These tools track email opens, link clicks, number of calls, and other engagement metrics. Having this data in Salesforce allows SDRs to personalize their outreach while staying accountable for the number of tasks they are responsible for.

Einstein Activity Capture

Leverage Salesforce’s AI-powered Einstein Activity Tracking to automate activity logging. This feature saves time for your SDRs and ensures accurate data. It also provides recommendations driven by Artificial Intelligence. Remember that Einstein Activity Capture does not create records in Salesforce, so these activities won’t appear in custom reports.

Reports and Dashboards

Create customized reports and dashboards that offer a clear view of activities, lead conversion rates, and other key sales metrics. These visualizations enable your SDRs to analyze their performance and make data-driven decisions for better results. To learn more about how to get started with building reports, read our content on Beginner’s Guide to Salesforce Reporting (with a Tutorial). 

Conclusion

Optimizing the Lead object in Salesforce can supercharge Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) by boosting productivity and lead conversion. Try implementing the techniques in this article so that your SDRs can prioritize revenue-generating tasks and achieve better results. If you need help figuring out where to start, please reach out for a personalized consultation! As a Salesforce consultant with experience working with dozens of SDRs and managers, we can tailor these strategies for your team’s success.