Lead distribution is an important concept that many businesses need to know about in order to grow their leads. 

Learn what lead distribution is, the pros and cons of it, how it can be improved for your business, as well as how you should implement it into your marketing strategy.

What Is Lead Distribution?

The simple answer to this question is that it is the process of acquiring leads for a business. There are many ways a business can acquire leads, but one of the best ways is to be proactive and offer deals to people who are sending you their information. 

This is known as lead-distribution. The number one reason that people should be focusing on lead distribution is because it will help them increase sales, which can mean bigger profits for a business. It should also be noted that lead-distribution is not only limited to just business.

You can actually use lead-distribution to get leads for your personal life as well. For example, when you are trying to find a date, asking people out on dates is one of the best ways to get a date. 

You can offer them a plethora of deals if they want to give you their information, such as discounts on food and drinks , and even freebies such as a movie for two. Another great way to get leads is by working with local businesses, such as restaurants, clothing stores, or even coffee shops. 

By giving them your information, you can get access to their customers, something that is valuable for any business looking to increase its sales.

Why You Should Automate Lead Distribution

Automatic lead generation without adequate time spent on your buyer’s journey will make you look like a spammer to outbound customers. 

It also won't provide sales reps with the opportunity to fully qualify leads before calling them. In fact, many times we see poor quality leads being rejected when they should have been qualified. By automating lead-distribution, you can:

Eliminate routine qualification of prospects by prospecting or cold-contacting decisions based on limited information and inaccurate assumptions.Use automation to cut down administrative work such as tracking and modifying opportunities so you are able to spend more time on sales activities.

Increase the productivity of your sales team by freeing up reps to focus on qualifying leads and closing deals instead of spending hours doing data entry or manual processes.

Automating lead-distribution has many benefits, some which are listed below:  

1. Increases Sales Efficiency - Automation reduces repetitive administrative tasks such as entering information into a database for tracking purposes and handling incoming calls based on automated rules that specify when an opportunity is ready for follow-up with a prospect. 

This frees up valuable time spent in front office activities like answering phone calls from prospects who want more information about your product or service.

2. Decreases Bounce Rates - By automating lead-distribution, sales reps are able to focus on the qualification of leads and follow-up with qualified prospects instead of wasting time manually entering information into a database for tracking purposes. 

This increases productivity by eliminating repetitive tasks that can cause high bounce rates in your call center environment. In fact, some studies show automated lead-distribution reduces average daily calls per rep from 12 to 8!  

3. Increases Lead Quality - Automated lead generation allows you to identify those customers who are most likely candidates for buying your product or service before they even contact you . 

This saves you money by reducing the number of calls from prospects who are not likely to buy your product or service thus saving you time and resources.

4. Increase Your Revenue - Automated lead-distribution can help increase revenue for your business because it reduces the amount of wasted sales leads that go unqualified, which increases average order size. 

In fact, automated lead generation has been shown to reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) by up to 50%!  Reduces Non-Qualified Leads - By automating lead distribution, reps spend less time manually entering information into a database for tracking purposes resulting in a reduction of non-qualified leads. 

This increases the quality and quantity of qualified prospects that are generating new sales for your business.

5. Reduces Costs - Automated lead-distribution can help reduce costs by reducing the amount of wasted calls from customers who do not want to buy your product or service . In fact, automated lead generation has been shown to increase customer lifetime value (CLV) by up to 30%!  

6. Increases ROI - The return on investment (ROI) with automated lead-distribution is typically in line with traditional methods but it's still significantly higher than manual efforts due to the increased lead quality and the reduction of non-qualified leads.

Pull And Push Based Lead-Distribution

Pull-Based Channel Selection

Sales reps pick the opportunities they would like to work based on the CRM or database. Pull-based methods are not scalable and have a limited volume of leads that can be processed at any given time. 

The more sales representatives you have, the more available opportunities there is to work but with this method, you will most likely run into issues where leads get lost in translation around how much lead volume is needed for your organization to be successful.

Pull-based technology requires employees who understand how their applications function and perform technical level requirement analysis as well as positioning their company as a technology leader.

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Push-based Channel Selection

Sales reps push leads to the CRM or database and then receive alerts when an opportunity is available for them to work. 

This method has been proven more scalable because it only uses one application (CRM), which can be easily managed by sales representatives that have access, while still providing real time lead availability information in order for employees to make informed decisions on what opportunities they want to work with their customers. 

The biggest benefit of this model is that once you are successful at getting your company's name out there, many companies will be calling you as a preferred partner.

Push-based technology requires employees who have the technical knowledge needed to implement and manage an enterprise application such as Salesforce, while being able to navigate through various applications in order to find leads that are most valuable for your company's success. 

It also requires sales reps with strong business acumen skills because they will be responsible for making sure their customers get the best value out of working with them by identifying opportunities that can help drive revenue growth or profitability goals.

What Should You Consider When Distributing Leads?

Here are the most important things to consider when distributing leads:

1. The quality of your lead- The more qualified you make them, the better they will perform in sales cycles. It is also a good idea to target specific groups with high-quality leads because these types of people usually convert into customers at a faster rate than others do. 

You should not take any chances by sending out low-quality prospects who might end up being bad for business or even worse, costing you money and time spent on their follow ups that could have been used elsewhere if it wasn't for those unqualified prospects getting in the way .

2. The value of your lead- It is a good idea to make sure that you are not sending out leads that are useless or even detrimental to the business, because this will only cause unnecessary costs and wasted time for both parties involved in the transaction. 

For example, if it turns out that some leads would be better off being ignored altogether than wasting their resources on them then they should definitely go through with the follow up process regardless of how many times they have been rejected by customers before.

3. How much money can you get from each lead?- The more valuable your assets become in terms of potential revenue , the more you should be willing to invest in them. 

This means that if your leads are costing you money and not bringing any return on investment then it is better for both of you to part ways with them so that they can go back into circulation as soon as possible .

4. The number of people who will respond to your lead- It is a good idea for both parties involved in the transaction, especially when there are many other similar prospects out there who could have been sent instead, because this will make sure that everyone gets what he or she deserves from a prospective customer's perspective. 

For example: it is better for the business to send out a high-quality lead because it will be more likely that there are some people who would have been interested in buying from them if they had sent this lead instead.

5. The time of day when you should start sending your leads- And how frequently you should do so. 

The most important thing about sending your leads at times other than during normal business hours, especially when it comes to B2B sales, is that these prospects need enough time to think through their options before deciding whether or not they want anything further with the company offering goods or services. 

In addition, they should not be bombarded with too many leads at the same time because this will make them feel overwhelmed and it could also result in a lower response rate.

6. How much you need to invest on each lead . You have to be able to justify your investment of money , time or effort into every single lead that you are sending out so that both parties involved can see clearly how valuable these prospects really are for their business  and what kind of return on investment (ROI) they would expect from these leads going forward.

If there is no clear answer then one side might think twice about sending out their leads, or the other side might think twice about accepting them.

7. How you will follow up with these leads- Sending too many sales calls to a single lead at once is like throwing money in the air and hoping that it will come back down as cash for your business  after all of this has been done. 

The best way to send out multiple emails , phone calls or automated messages directly from your CRM system is by using an autoresponder service such as AWeber.

This way you can easily track which prospects have responded, who they are and what types of sales messages they were interested in hearing.

8. What kind of company you are- There is no point sending out your leads to companies that do not fit the profile of a typical B2B lead for your business because this will make it difficult for them to respond and even harder on you if they decide not to buy from you. 

Also, there is nothing more frustrating than receiving an email or phone call with someone who does not seem like a good prospect but then when I try calling them back, they tell me that their voice box has been full since yesterday so I have never gotten any response from them.

9. What kind of sales message you will send out- You want to make sure that your sales messages are clear and concise so that they can be easily understood by the prospects reading it in their inboxes or voicemails, but at the same time you don't want to come across as too pushy because this might turn off some potential customers from responding back. 

10. How much money do I have budgeted for lead generation?-  This is a very important question since if there isn't enough budget set aside then your business may not get any leads which means no new clients, no new sales and no money coming in. 

However, if there is too much budget set aside then you might end up spending more than what you need to or getting a large number of leads that will not be suitable for your business.