Dynamic regulation of leads to sales by volume of leads

[Guy_Goldstein6]

Hey Gang,

This is probably one of the more interesting conversations I've had recently and i haven't yet found a solid solution to it - so I'm calling in a phone a friend

The request is as follows: SDRs have a limited capacity to follow up, while lead generation activities aren't nearly as consistent (some days there is a tradeshow, or a webinar, or an email blast that gets sent out, other days there are none).

So a request was made by the head of the SDR team that rather than have rules that assign leads to sales based on individual processes (eg. lead score > 60), they instead have a dynamic model that makes sure that 100 leads per day are passed to each SDR. So on a slow day the requirement may only be 40 points while on a busy day it may be 70 points.

Obviously there's no native functionality that makes Marketo work in this way, nor is there any basic functionality in SFDC that can do the same. My questions to you are:

1. Has anyone ever doe something like this before?
2. What tools were necessary to do so?
3. Would you be willing to share the mechanism

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions (​, - I'm hoping you guys have a trick or 2 up your sleeves )

--Guy

[Justin_Norris1 · Accepted solution]

Guy Goldstein​

I don't see any easy way to ensure that all reps get exactly 100 of the top quality leads each day. You don't know in the beginning of the day how many leads you will have in total, so how do you dynamically modulate the score threshold? You'd have to wait until the end of the day and then take the 100 top leads, but then you are always a day behind

If I could re-state the requirement, it seems like the client really wants each SDR to make attempts on 100 leads per day, and have those be the 100 best leads available at that time. So here is one possible approach to that:

• As leads enter the system, pass them through some basic demographic gating, enough to ensure the lead is not total junk. Leads that qualify are flipped to a "to be contacted" status or something similar
• All leads go to SFDC -- leads with "to be contacted" status pass through lead assignment rules
• Leads to be contacted go into a list view, sorted by lead score from highest to lowest. 
• Have the reps work from the top of the list. Their quota is to make attempts on 100 leads per day, and they always tackle the most valuable (highly scored) leads available at that time. 
• You could put a lead expiry date on top of it, so if a lead is is not contacted (because the score is too low and so it stays near the bottom of the list) within x days, it flips back to nurture and disappears from the "to be contacted" view. This keeps that list fresh.

One other tool that may be useful to throw into the mix is an SFDC app called Distribution Engine:

Distribution Engine makes lead routing easy in Salesforce

It's way more powerful than standard lead assignment rules and can manage things like dynamic load balancing, weighting and capping etc. You can also run leads through the rules multiple times. A client I have worked with is using this and it works really well.

[Josh_Hill13]

I like this approach and agree Marketo isn't the tool to fully achieve this. Just make an SLA and set a threshold that can reasonably hit at least 100 leads/day. If the lead isn't moved within 16 hours, it is recycled and could be brought back later.

Now, if you are using RCM or lifecycle tracking, that fast SLA and recycle could cause some issues in reporting.

[Guy_Goldstein6]

Absolutely agree that it's not the tool, but since when have we ever accepted "system limitations" as a reason not to do something

I've personally never believed that Marketo is the answer to all of life's problems, but I'm a strong believer that knowing the ecosystem around it means that most problems can be solved

Thank you both for the prompt replies Justin Norris​ Josh Hill​

Liz Courter​ this is a perfect example of why our community is the best out there!

[Guy_Goldstein6]

I knew coming into it that the solution wouldn't be simple... Somehow I knew that if I had a complicated solution with a 5 part fix that included a whole lot of customization you'd be my guy

[Kristen_Malkov1]

What about utilizing round robin lead queues in SFDC? I've found that to be exceptionally effective especially with SDRs for regulating volume. Jessica Cross​ is also a fan.