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Salesforce lead assignment rules best practices and tricks.

By Stacy O’Leary

I confess: I love Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules almost as much as I love the Approval Process . A good set of Lead Assignment Rules will buy you endless friends in both sales and marketing, and will make your incoming data sparkle and look perfect (even if it is not!) In this guide, I’ll be talking about the initial Lead sort, upon creation.

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rule Example

• Criteria #1: If State = California, assign to Stacy
• Criteria #2: If Country = United Kingdom, assign to Ben
• Criteria #3: If Country = France, assign to Lucy
• Criteria #4: If Annual Revenue is greater than $500,000,000 USD, assign to “High Roller Queue”

Planning Lead Assignment Rules

Discovery: questions to ask.

• Where are the new Leads coming from? Marketo? HubSpot? Other integrated systems? Web forms? Are there any examples you look at? Make friends with the people who run these systems, you need to have a good relationship because you’re going to need their help.
• What fields are populated on these newly created Leads? What fields are required? If it’s minimal, can you get more information? Generally, the more information you have, the easier it is to sort.
• What if a Lead comes in from one of your Partners? What if a Lead comes in from one of your competitors? From one of your employees? Are there any kinds of Leads that should never be distributed out to your team, like students or media inquiries? (Remember – ANYONE with access to the internet can fill out your form! They do not have to be a legitimate prospect!)
• Who is covering what territories? Do you have any territories that don’t have a sales rep yet? Do all new Leads have enough data to determine territories?
• What about the Leads that don’t meet any criteria at all? Where will they go? Who will work them?

Refining the requirements

• Our new Leads, almost always, come from Marketo . They could come from a Marketo form, or a list imported from a trade show, but Marketo is the system that pushes them to Salesforce. If a person creates their own Lead, we do not want to take it away from them.
• We always have: first name, last name, lead source, email, company, state and country. We sometimes have # of Employees, but that’s pretty much all we know about them at the moment of creation.
• Any Lead that comes in from a Partner should be directed to our channel team. We don’t want to market to competitors, employees, or students.
• We have a territory plan defined by Sales, and we’d also like to separate prospects for the UK and France, though we do not have a sales rep for those areas yet.
• If something comes in that we cannot otherwise sort, let’s put it in a holding place and let marketing send out generic nurture emails. If a person in this holding place takes interest, we can always give it to the sales team later.

• Partners (any Lead that comes in from a Partner company)
• Disqualified (any Lead that comes in from a competitor, is an employee, or is a student)
• UK + France (any Lead where Country = United Kingdom, or France)
• Unsorted (any Lead that does not meet any criteria)

Creating Lead Assignment Criteria

Leads that shouldn’t be distributed, next criteria.

The Final Empty Criteria

Activate the Lead Assignment Rules

• Leads can only be sorted by a field value at the moment it was sorted.
• The Lead Router does not auto-convert Leads to Contacts
• You cannot deactivate a User license if that person is part of the Lead Assignment Rules (even if the Lead Assignment Rules have been deactivated.)
• Create a report for yourself, for that last criteria – Leads that are unsorted. This way you can review them periodically and see if there’s enough volume to justify sorting them in a certain way.

Stacy O'Leary

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Automation Champion

Automating Salesforce One Click at a Time

Running Lead Assignment Rules From Salesforce Flow

Last Updated on February 14, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta

To understand how to solve the same business use case using Process Builder . Check out this article Getting Started with Process Builder – Part 49 (Running Lead Assignment Rules From Process Builder) .

Big Idea or Enduring Question:

How do you run the lead assignment rule from the Salesforce flow? Lead assignment rules allow us to automatically assign Leads to the appropriate queue or user. A Lead assignment rule consists of multiple rule entries that define the conditions and order for assigning cases. From a Salesforce User interface, a user can trigger assignment rules by simply checking the Assign using the active assignment rules checkbox under the optional section.

The problem arises when you need to insert or update the Leads from Salesforce Flow and wants to trigger assignment rules. Using the Salesforce Flow a Lead will be inserted or updated but the assignment rule will not be triggered as there is no check box to use the organization’s assignment rule or a prompt to assign using the active assignment rule.

Let’s start with a business use case.

Objectives:

After reading this blog post, the reader will be able to:

• Running the lead assignment rules from Salesforce Flow
• Understand @InvocableMethod Annotation
• How to call an Apex method using Salesforce Flow

Business Use Case

Pamela Kline is working as a System administrator at Universal Containers (UC) . She has received a requirement from the management to update the following Lead fields when Lead Source changed to Partner Referra l .

• Status = Working – Contacted
• Rating = Hot

As data changed by the process, she wants to fire the assignment rule as soon as the process updates the lead record.

Automation Champion Approach (I-do):

Guided Practice (We-do):

There are 4 steps to solve Pamela’s business requirement using Salesforce Flow and Apex. We must:

• Setup a lead assignment rule
• Create Apex class & Test class
• Define flow properties for record-triggered flow
• Add a decision element to check the lead source
• Add an assignment element to update status & rating
• Add a scheduled path
• Add a decision element to check if lead source changed
• Add action – call an Apex class to invoke lead assignment rule

Step 1: Setting Up Lead assignment Rule

• Click Setup .
• In the Quick Find box, type Lead Assignment Rules .
• Click on the Lead Assignment Rules | New button .
• Now create an assignment rule, as shown in the following screenshot:

Step 2: Create an Apex class and Test class

Now, we have to understand a new Apex annotation i.e . @InvocableMethod . This annotation lets us use an Apex method as being something that can be called from somewhere other than Apex . The AssignLeadsUsingAssignmentRules class contains a single method that is passing the ids of the Leads whose Lead Source changed to Partner Referral . Create the following class in your organization.

• In the Quick Find box, type Apex Classes .
• Click on the New button .
• Copy code from GitHub and paste it into your Apex Class.
• Click Save.

Step 3.1: Salesforce Flow – Define Flow Properties for Before-Save Flow

• In the Quick Find box, type Flows .
• Select Flows then click on the New Flow .
• How do you want to start building : Freeform
• Object : Lead
• Trigger the Flow When : A record is created or updated
• Condition Requirements: None
• Optimize the Flow For : Fast Field Updates
• Click Done .

Step 3.2: Salesforce Flow – Using Decision Element to Check the Lead Source

Now we will use the Decision element to check the lead source to ensure that it is equal to Partner Referral.

• Under Toolbox , select Element .
• Drag-and-drop Decision element onto the Flow designer.
• Enter a name in the Label field; the API Name will auto-populate.
• Under Outcome Details , enter the Label the API Name will auto-populate.
• Resource: {!$Record.LeadSource}
• Operator: Equals
• Value: Partner Referral
• When to Execute Outcome : Only if the record that triggered the flow to run is updated to meet the condition requirements

Step 3.3: Salesforce Flow – Adding an Assignment Element to Update Rating and Status

• Drag-and-drop the Assignment Element element onto the Flow designer.
• Enter a name in the Label field- the API Name will auto-populate.
• Field: {!$Record.Rating}
• Add Condition
• Field: {!$Record.Status}
• Value: Working – Contacted

• Click Save .
• Enter Flow Label the API Name will auto-populate.
• Click Show Advanced .
• API Version for Running the Flow : 53
• Interview Label : Record-Trigger: Lead Before Save {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime}

Step 4.1: Salesforce Flow – Define Flow Properties for After-Save Flow

• Field : Lead Source
• Operator: Euqals
• Optimize the Flow For : Action and Related Records

Step 4.2: Salesforce Flow – Add Scheduled Paths

• Under SCHEDULED PATHS , click on the New Scheduled Path .
• Under Scheduled Path Details , enter the Label the API Name will auto-populate.
• Time Source : Lead: Last Modified Date
• Offset Number : 1
• Offset Options : Minutes After

Step 4.3: Salesforce Flow – Adding an Action to Call Apex class to Trigger Lead Assignment Rule

• Drag-and-drop the Actions element onto the Flow designer.
• Select the AssignLeadsUsingAssignmentRules Apex class.
• Field: LeadIds
• Value: {!$Record.Id}

• Interview Label : Record-Trigger: Lead After Save {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime}

Proof of Concept

Now onward, if a business user updates the Lead Source to Partner Referral , Process Builder will automatically update Status , Type , and Assign it to the right user or queue based on the lead assignment rule.

Monitor Your Schedule Flow

To monitor Flows that are scheduled, navigate to the following path:

• Navigate to Setup (Gear Icon) | Environments | Monitoring | Time-Based Workflow .

• Use the Delete button to delete the time-based Flow job from the queue.

Formative Assessment:

I want to hear from you! What is one thing you learned from this post?  How do you envision applying this new knowledge in the real world? Let me know by Tweeting me at @automationchamp , or find me on LinkedIn.

Submit Query!

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9 thoughts on “ running lead assignment rules from salesforce flow ”.

It ran repeatedly, every minute, over and over again. I was getting notification email every minute when testing. I did the same steps as you mentionned, with a record triggered flow containing the apex action.

I found that this ran repeatedly, every minute, over and over again. Was easy to spot because I modified the Apex to include sending the user notification email as well – so I was getting notification email every minute when testing.

When I updated the ‘Time Source’ in the flow scheduled path from ‘Time Source: Lead: Last Modified Date’ to ‘Time Source: When Lead is Created or Updated’ that seems to have solved the problem.

Was curious if you had the same experience or if there was some other nuance happening.

It also looks like you had originally intended to use a decision element in step 4.3 but changed that to flow entry requirements, likely because the scheduled path can’t assess the prior and current values the same way the starting node can.

Thank you for sharing your valuable feedback. I have a quick question for you: When executing the Apex class, do you utilize a Record-triggered Flow or a Scheduled-triggered Flow?

after the apex class fires, noticed the lead owner is assigned to default lead owner, instead of using lead assignment rule. Any clue?

Thank you for an excellent tutorial 🙂 you solved my problem! Very much appreciated

Anyone getting issues with an error on mass updates “Apex error occurred: System.QueryException: List has more than 1 row for assignment to SObject “? if each one is called individually, I don’t understand how there is more than 1 row for assignment. Sometimes I get an email with this error only to see that the trigger actually worked for the specified record so a bit odd. Thanks!

Thank you for the great tutorial. Why add the 1 minute wait? Is that just to take avoid too much synchronous automation? Or is it required for another reason?

You’re right Kevin (to make the process asynchronous).

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Monday, november 12, 2012, salesforce: assign using active assignment rule.

• Assignment Rules
• 'Assign using active assignment rules' checkbox always checked by default
• Why Salesforce assignment rule is not working?
• Case Assignment Rules not working
• Idea Exchange:  Assignment rules don't work with Inline Edits  

2 comments:

NOTE: Unlike the Case object, the Lead object requires the 'Show on edit page' checkbox to be enabled when the "Default" checkbox is enabled.

Thanks, because Default will be uncheck when 'Show on edit page' disable in Lead.

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Configuring the “Assign using active assignment rules” checkbox

There are certain behaviors in Salesforce that I classify as particularly pesky. Like the mosquito buzzing your ear while you sleep, kind of pesky. Invariably with these types of problems it becomes worth turning on the proverbial lights, hunting down the offending pest and… well you know, “dealing” with it. It won’t change the world but sure feels better to have done it.

That being said, one of my favorite pesky Salesforce.com problems to have dealt with is controlling the default setting on the “Assign using active assignment rules” checkbox on Lead and Case records.

Description: This checkbox field allows users who have manually created a new Lead or Case record to use the system’s pre-defined assignment rules to route the record to the correct owner/queue. The field appears on the Edit page layout and seems defaulted to the wrong setting for the situation more often than not.

Problem: Unlike normal checkbox fields in Salesforce.com, setting the default behavior for this field is not done in the field edit list on the object and it is not readily apparent where the behavior is set.

Here is the checkbox on the bottom of the Lead layout in edit mode: (Default set to False in both examples)

Here is the checkbox on the bottom of the (open) Case layout in edit mode:

The Solution: For both the Cases and Leads object the default behavior is set in their respective page layouts and if that is not elusive enough, it is buried in the page layout properties option dialog box.

Once you know where to look it is simple to make the needed changes.

Steps to find the behavior options and set defaults to either True or False: (Using Cases object as the example)

• Your Name: Setup:
• In the left-hand menu list select: Cases: Page Layouts: Choose a Page layout
• In the newly presented dialog box, find the  Case Assignment  section: Check or Un-check the checkbox labeled “Select by default”
• Save: the Layout

Screenshot of the edit page for a Case Page layout and the default behavior setting:

Commentary: As frustrating as it is to need to manage the default settings for these checkboxes differently than for other checkboxes, there is merit to the method.

Consider now the value of this more granular control of this field that Salesforce has given you. On normal fields you may only default a checkbox field to True or False and that setting applies across all situations. To create anything more dynamic requires custom engineering. (e.g. triggers, VF pages).

So, here is an example of it in action: Imagine you have enabled Lead assignment rules in your organization. Imagine also that you have both Sales Administrators sales reps that manually enter Leads into the system from time to time.

Sales reps create Leads for themselves so they would prefer to have the Active Assignment default to False whereas the Sales Admin that never owns Leads would prefer to have the Active Assignment default to True. If these checkboxes behaved like ordinary checkboxes you could only satisfy the needs of one group. However, by assigning different page layouts and setting the default behaviors on each layout you can meet the needs of both groups–a novel concept I know.

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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.

Lead 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. 

Organizations typically develop lead assignment rules for their GTM processes or flows:

• Rules for inbound Leads
• Rules for website-generated Leads
• Rules for importing Leads from an event

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. 

As organizations grow and scale, they operationalize multiple GTM motions: inbound, outbound, account-based, upsell/cross-sell, and hybrid. However, many are limited to having just one rule in Salesforce.

As a work-around, many organizations create one massive lead assignment ruleset. They then wedge all of their rule entries into that one big ruleset, regardless of how many different motions that represents. Over time, Salesforce lead assignment rules can quickly become unmanageable .

This post covers the best practices for Salesforce lead and case assignment rules. The ultimate goal is to fully engaging your hard-won leads and speed up 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 them 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, here are a few tips 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.

Make certain to select the checkbox Assign using active assignment rule . In support of this step, 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. However, 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. Then these problems arise:

• 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. Its 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, 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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Guide to lead assignment rules in Salesforce

Use SFDC lead assignment rules to get more done, create a better experience, and close deals faster.

Rachel Burns Jul 24, 2023

15 min read

Table of contents

Experience scheduling automation for yourself!

Create a Calendly account in seconds.

What are Salesforce lead assignment rules?

What if your sales team could spend their valuable time connecting with prospects and closing deals — instead of losing time doing admin work like assigning and organizing leads?

When you automate lead assignment and routing, your sales team can:

Boost sales team productivity and efficiency

Prevent high-quality leads from slipping through the cracks

Create a better experience for potential customers

Speed up your entire sales pipeline to close more deals, faster

In this blog post, we'll discuss the ins and outs of Salesforce lead assignment. We'll cover the benefits, how to plan your lead assignment strategy, and a step-by-step walkthrough of adding lead assignment rules in Salesforce. We'll also explore the power of scheduling automation to simplify and speed up lead assignment, routing, and qualification.

Key takeaways:

Lead assignment rules help sales teams boost productivity, respond to leads faster, and make better data-driven decisions. 

Matching leads with the right sales reps and teams creates a better customer experience by responding to leads faster and giving them personalized attention.

Before you set up your lead assignment rules, work with your sales, marketing, and RevOps teams to understand your lead generation processes and sales team structure.

Within Salesforce lead management settings, rule entries are the individual criteria and actions. A “lead assignment rule” refers to a set of rule entries. 

Automating lead routing , qualification, and booking with Calendly helps your team be more efficient and organized while creating a better experience for prospective customers.

6 benefits of creating lead assignment rules in Salesforce

Why should your team take the time to set up lead assignment rules in Salesforce? Here are six great reasons:

Ensure leads are assigned to the right reps and teams: Lead assignment rules mean each incoming lead is directed to the salesperson or team who has the relevant expertise and skills to engage and convert that lead. Automated lead assignment also prevents leads from falling through the cracks by making sure each lead is assigned to a rep or team, rather than relying on manual assignment.

Respond to leads faster: With lead assignment rules, leads are automatically assigned to the right salesperson, reducing response time and increasing the chances of converting leads into customers .

Boost sales team productivity: Automating lead assignment reduces manual work for RevOps teams and sales managers. Lead assignment rules also help identify and prioritize leads more likely to convert, saving time and resources that would otherwise be wasted on pursuing poor-fit leads. These time savings let sales teams focus on nurturing leads and closing deals.

Create a better customer experience: Leads can be assigned to sales reps who have relevant industry or product expertise, understand their unique needs, and can provide personalized solutions. This tailored approach creates a better experience for leads, which results in more conversions and higher customer satisfaction.

Improve sales forecasting: With well-defined lead assignment rules, you can gather more accurate data on lead distribution and conversion rates. This data can be used for sales forecasting, data driven decision-making, and resource allocation.

How to create lead assignment rules in Salesforce

Step 1: build your lead assignment strategy.

Before you go into your Salesforce instance and set up lead assignment rules, you need to figure out what exactly those rules will be. The options are limitless — where should you start?

It’s time to bring RevOps, sales, and marketing together to answer some questions:

Lead sources: Where do leads come from? Do we use marketing forms through Salesforce web-to-lead forms or a third-party integration? Are we importing leads via the data import wizard?

Sales team structure: How is the sales team structured? Are different teams or individuals specialized in specific products, industries, use cases, or regions?  

Lead data: What info do we request from new leads? Which standard and custom fields do we require?

Sales territories: How are sales territories defined? Are there specific regions, countries, or territories we should take into account for lead assignment?

Integrations : Do we have any third-party integrations with lead assignment or distribution features? Are we using those features?

Special circumstances: Are there any priority levels or tiers for leads that require special attention? For example, do we have a designated rep or queue for leads with complex needs and use cases?

Poor fits: What should we do with leads who don’t meet any of our criteria?

It’s a lot of information to gather and organize, but it’s important to learn as much as possible up front to cover every scenario and equip your sales team with accurate data. Putting this time and effort in now will pay off tenfold in productivity once your lead rules are in place!

Step 2: Set up lead assignment rules in Salesforce

You’re almost ready to enter your lead assignment rules in SFDC . First, let’s go over some terminology. We’ve been talking about lead assignment rules as individual directives: “If the lead matches X, then do Y.” Within Salesforce lead management settings, a “lead assignment rule” refers to a set of rule entries. Rule entries are the individual criteria and actions (“If X, then do Y”). An assignment rule can consist of up to 3,000 rule entries, and you can only have one active assignment rule at a time.

For example, a rule entry can assign all leads interested in a particular product to a queue of reps who are experts on that product. In Salesforce, a lead queue is essentially a bucket for unassigned leads, and you can choose which sales reps can pull leads from each queue.

Another rule entry can assign all leads from companies with over 5,000 employees to your top enterprise sales rep.

To create a lead assignment rule in Salesforce: 

From Setup, enter “Assignment Rules” in the Quick Find box, then select Lead Assignment Rules.

Enter the rule name. (Example: 2023 Standard Lead Rules)

Select “Set this as the active lead assignment rule” to activate the rule immediately.

Click Save.

Click the name of the rule you just created.

Click New in the Rule Entries section.

Enter an order number that tells Salesforce when to run this rule entry in relation to other rule entries. For example, if you want this to be the first criteria Salesforce looks at when assigning a lead, enter number one.

Select the rule criteria. What attributes must the lead have before Salesforce applies the rule entry? You can use any standard or custom field in the lead record for your criteria. For example, you want to assign leads to your U.S.-based enterprise sales team, so the company size field must be equal to or greater than 5,000 and the country field must equal the United States. You can include up to 25 filter criteria.

Choose the user or queue to be the assignee if the lead meets the criteria. For example, assign to the U.S.-based enterprise sales team queue.

Optional: Choose an email template to use when notifying the new lead owner. After you set up your lead rules, you can also use Salesforce Flow automations to notify lead owners via other channels. For example, at Calendly, we integrate Salesforce with Slack, and a workflow automatically notifies sales reps via Slack when a lead is assigned to them.

Salesforce goes through the rule entries in order until it finds one that matches the lead's info, then routes the lead accordingly. 

Let's say you have small business, mid-market, and enterprise sales team queues. Your first three rule entries would match company size to each of those three queues. If they don't have a company size listed, or the company size doesn't match any of the values in your rule entries, Salesforce will move on to the industry rule entries.

To make sure no leads fall through the cracks, you also need to set a default lead owner. If the assignment rules fail to locate an owner, or you don’t set up assignment rules, web-generated leads are assigned to the default lead owner.

To select a default lead owner:

From Setup, enter “Lead Settings” in the Quick Find box, then select Lead Settings and click Edit.

Define the Default Lead Owner. The Default Lead Owner can be a specific user or a queue.

Save your settings.

Salesforce lead assignment rule examples

As we mentioned earlier, your rule entries can include up to 25 filter criteria.

Simple rules include just one filter criteria:

By country or state/province: Route leads from specific states or countries to sales representatives who understand the regional market. You need this rule if your team uses sales territories to divide leads. For example, if the state/province equals Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, or Washington, assign the lead to the West Coast queue.

By language: Assign leads to sales reps who speak the same language.

By industry: Assign leads from different industries to salespeople who have experience working with those industries.

By company size: Assign leads based on the size of the company, assigning larger companies to a dedicated enterprise sales team.

Complex rules use two or more filter criteria. For example, you could route leads from specific states or provinces to salespeople based on their sales territory and the company size. If you have a particular rep (Bob) working enterprise leads on the West Coast, your filter criteria could say: If the state/province equals Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, or Washington, and the company size equals greater than 5,000, assign the lead to Bob.

These are just a few examples. Lead assignment rules can be customized to fit your team’s and customers’ needs. Review your strategy to choose the right combination of criteria for your sales processes, products, and customers.

What does the built-in Salesforce lead process look like in action?

A website visitor named Nora fills out a contact form to learn more about your product. She shares her name, email address, company name (Acme Inc.), and company size. You use Salesforce’s built-in web-to-lead forms , so Nora’s form submission automatically creates a lead record.

Your team has set up lead assignment rules that assign leads to sales queues based on their company size. Acme Inc. has 5,000 employees, so Nora is automatically assigned to the enterprise sales team queue.

Enterprise sales team queue members receive an email notification that a new lead has been added to the queue. Taylor, an enterprise sales rep in Acme Inc.’s territory, assigns Nora’s lead record to themself.

Taylor emails Nora to set up a qualification call.

Nora, who has been waiting to hear back from your team, agrees to meet with Taylor. After some email back-and-forth, they find a time that works.

What are the limitations of Salesforce’s built-in lead assignment rules?

Salesforce’s built-in lead assignment rules are a great place to start, but there are a few critical limitations, especially for enterprise sales teams:

Single level of evaluation: Salesforce assignment rules operate based on a single level of evaluation, meaning that once a rule matches the criteria and assigns a lead, the evaluation process stops. Your team might miss out on important info, like a complex use case or unique industry, when matching the lead with a rep.

No built-in round robin distribution: Round robin lead distribution is the process of assigning leads to reps based on factors like team member availability or equal distribution for a balanced workload. Salesforce lead assignment rules don't include an easy way to set up round robin distribution — you need an additional tool like Pardot, one of the round robin apps on AppExchange , complex Apex code , or a third-party lead routing platform .

No lead escalation settings: Lead escalation is the process of flagging a lead to higher levels of management or specialized teams for further assistance or action. This process comes into play when a lead requires additional attention or intervention beyond the assigned salesperson or team's capabilities. Unfortunately, Salesforce doesn’t have built-in settings for lead escalation rules. If your customer success team uses Service Cloud, you can set up escalation rules for customer support case escalations, but this feature isn’t included in Sales Cloud.

High maintenance for large organizations: Managing and maintaining a comprehensive set of assignment rules can become challenging and time-consuming in large organizations with complex sales structures and multiple teams or regions. Sure, you can include up to 3,000 rule entries in a single lead assignment rule, but that’s a lot to set up and keep up to date — especially if you’re trying to save your team time, not add to their workload.

Built-in Salesforce lead assignment rules and automations are a solid starting point, but what about automating lead qualification and booking? If you use Salesforce on its own, your reps might still spend a ton of time on lead reassignment to balance their workload, manual lead qualification, and email back-and-forths to schedule sales calls.

That’s where Calendly comes in.

How to automate lead assignment, qualification, and booking with Calendly

Your scheduling automation platform can be an excellent lead generation, qualification, and routing tool — especially when it integrates with Salesforce. Calendly’s Salesforce integration helps your team be more efficient and organized while creating a better experience for prospective customers.

When a lead books a meeting via a sales rep or team’s Calendly booking page, Salesforce automatically creates a new lead, contact, or opportunity. If the lead already exists in your Salesforce instance, the event is added to the lead’s existing record, so you don’t end up with duplicate lead records or time-consuming manual reassignment.

What if you don’t want to let just anyone book a meeting with your team? When you add Calendly Routing to your marketing forms, you can show scheduling pages only to leads who meet your qualifications, like prospects from specific industries or companies of a certain size. That way, your busy team can spend time on the most valuable deals.

Calendly Routing works with HubSpot , Marketo , Pardot , and Calendly forms and is built for your Salesforce CRM. You can use any form field (email, domain, company name) in any Salesforce standard object to match visitors with their account owner. Account lookups let you send known leads or customers from your website form directly to their account owner’s booking page, without needing to manually reassign leads to the right rep.

Remember the lead assignment example we walked through earlier featuring Nora from Acme Inc.? Here's what that process looks like when you add Calendly:

Nora fills out your “contact sales” form, which is already built in HubSpot, connected to Calendly Routing , and enriched with Clearbit .

She enters her email address in the form, and Clearbit fills in the company name, size, and industry. This shortens the form, so Nora only has to input her name and job title.

Calendly checks to see if Acme Inc. has an account in your Salesforce instance. They don’t, so the next step is lead qualification .

Based on Nora’s information — company size, industry, job title — she’s a highly qualified lead, so she’s automatically routed to the booking page for your enterprise sales team.

Nora is happy about that, and immediately books a meeting time that works for her, with the exact team she needs to talk to.

On the backend, Calendly’s Round Robin meeting distribution is set to optimize for availability, so it assigns the meeting to the first available sales rep — in this case, Taylor. This automation helps your team respond to meeting requests faster, hold initial sales calls sooner, and balance the workload across reps.

Calendly creates a lead record in Salesforce with the info Nora entered into your website form (including the data from Clearbit) and an activity log of any meetings she books with your team via Calendly. Salesforce automatically makes Taylor the lead owner.

If you were relying on Salesforce’s built-in lead assignment rules, Nora’s lead record would have gone to an enterprise sales queue, and she would have had to wait for a rep to pick up the lead and reach out to her to book a meeting.

“ A good tool is one that’s so simple, sales reps can basically forget about it and let the meetings roll in. That’s essentially what happened when we implemented Calendly. ”

Sales Enablement Manager at SignPost

What happens if a lead doesn’t qualify for a meeting? Instead of sending them to a booking page, you can display a custom message with next steps, ask them for more information, or redirect them to a specific URL, like a piece of gated content or a webinar signup page.

Automating lead assignment with Calendly Routing has been a game changer for RCReports , a compensation analysis solution for accountants and business valuators. Before connecting Calendly Routing with their Salesforce instance, RCReports’ AEs spent at least five hours a month reassigning leads booked on the wrong calendar. This created a disjointed customer experience and frustration for the sales and marketing teams.

“ Now that we’ve implemented Calendly’s routing feature with Salesforce integration, demos are always booked with the correct AE, reducing friction for both our team and the customer. ”

Abbie Deaver

Director of Marketing at RCReports

Users on Calendly’s Teams plan and above can connect Calendly to Salesforce. The full suite of Salesforce routing features , including routing by Salesforce ownership, is available on Calendly’s Enterprise plan.

To learn more about Calendly Routing, get in touch with our sales team .

Spend less time on manual lead assignment and more time closing deals

When you automate Salesforce lead assignment and routing, high-value leads stop slipping through the cracks, the workload is balanced across the team, leads are matched with the sales reps best equipped to help them, and team members have more time to focus on connecting with prospects and closing deals. 

The results? A more productive team, faster sales cycle, higher conversion rates, and better customer experience.

Webinar: How Calendly Uses Calendly to Close More Deals

Rachel Burns

Rachel is a Content Marketing Manager at Calendly. When she’s not writing, you can find her rescuing dogs, baking something, or extolling the virtue of the Oxford comma.

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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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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.

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Create Case Queues

Create a case assignment rule, test the case assignment rule.

• Challenge +100 points

Create Case Queues and Assignment Rules

Now that you have your basic support processes and layouts configured for cases, create case queues and assignment rules to route your cases to the correct support teams at Ursa Major Solar.

Create Product Support Tier 1 and Product Support Tier 2 queues so product support cases can be routed to one of these queues based on case criteria and how long the case has been open.

• From Service Setup, enter Queues in the Quick Find box and select Queues .
• Click New  and complete the queue details.
• Label: Product Support Tier 1
• Queue email: [email protected]
• Supported Objects: select Case and click Add .
• Queue Members: Click  User: (Your Name) in the Available Members list, and click Add to add yourself to the Selected Members list.
• Click Save .
• From the Queue   page, click New  and complete the queue details.
• Label:   Product Support Tier 2
• Queue email: [email protected]

Now, create the Inquiry queue for inquiry cases.

• From the Queues page, click New .
• Enter the queue details.
• Label: Inquiry
• Queue Email: [email protected]
• Queue Members: Click User: Ada Balewa in the Available Members list, and click Add to add her to the Selected Members list.

So, now you have case queues set up and ready to handle different types of cases as they’re created. Next, create and activate a standard case assignment rule to assign cases to the correct team members. This is how cases get sent to specific case queues, like the ones you just created.

• From Service Setup, enter Case Assignment Rules in the Quick Find box and select Case Assignment Rules .
• Click New  and enter the rule details.
• Rule Name: Standard Case Assignment
• Select the Active checkbox to make this the active case assignment rule.

Add a rule entry that assigns Product Support cases to the Product Support Tier 1 queue.

• Click the Standard Case Assignment link.

• Click Save & New .

Next, add a rule entry that assigns inquiry cases to the Inquiry queue.

Now rename the Automated Case User to System. Every time there’s an automated case change from an assignment rule, for example, the automated case user name will show up in the case history. It will now show an automated “system” change, rather than showing your name as the admin, whenever an automated case change occurs.

• Enter Support Settings in the Quick Find box and select Support Settings .
• Click Edit .

You want to make sure the assignment rules work for Ursa Major Solar by creating a case.

• Click the Contacts tab.
• Select Recently Viewed from the dropdown, and click the Pat Stumuller link.
• In the Cases   related list, click New .
• Select a record type: Product Support .

• Click the Case Number for the case you just created. Ensure that the Case Owner is Product Support Tier 1.

By setting up case queues and assignment rules, cases are now automatically routed to the correct teams. Next, escalate higher priority cases to the Product Support Tier 2 team by creating an Escalation Rule.

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• Salesforce Help : Create Queues
• Salesforce Help : Set Up Assignment Rules
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Top 12 Leading Salesforce Alternatives Reviewed (Features & Pricing for 2024)

August 31, 2024

SmartSuite Staff

Salesforce has established itself as a titan in the CRM industry, offering robust functionality and scalability.

While Salesforce excels in many areas, it's not without its challenges. 

The platform's complexity can be daunting, often requiring significant time and resources. Additionally, as companies scale, the costs may rise faster than anticipated.

So, we've analyzed different CRM tools, studied hundreds of user reviews, and curated a list of the top 12 Salesforce alternatives, each offering unique strengths to address different business needs.

This article examines the core features, pricing structures, strengths, and drawbacks of various alternatives.

Let's dive into these Salesforce alternatives 👇

Why Do Users Look for Salesforce Alternatives?

Salesforce has long been a leader in the CRM space, offering powerful features like extensive integrations, highly customizable options, and integrated marketing tools for advanced automation.

These strengths have made it a go-to solution for many businesses.

However, enterprise-level pricing plans and complex feature-packs make small and medium-sized businesses sell alternatives.

Reason 1: Limited and slow reporting capabilities

While Salesforce offers reporting functions, many users find them to be limited and sometimes slow, especially when dealing with large datasets. This can be frustrating for businesses that rely heavily on data-driven decision-making.

Reason 2: Unitive interface with limited integrations

Salesforce's broad feature set, while powerful, can be overwhelming for new users. The platform's complexity often results in significant time investment for team members to become proficient and increased training costs.

Users have also complained about the lack of native tools, making them rely on third-party integrations, making Salesforce only a standalone database of leads.

Reason 3: Pricing catches up with you

While Salesforce's pricing may seem competitive initially, many users find the pricing structure confusing. 

Along with that, the costs can escalate quickly as your business needs grow. This is often due to the additional fees for essential features or upgrading to more expensive tiers to access advanced functionalities.

So, users who want a budget-friendly CRM with advanced customization and automation features look for alternatives.

What Are the Best Alternatives to Salesforce?

Based on our research and user reviews, these are the best Salesforce alternatives:

#1. SmartSuite

SmartSuite is a workflow management software that lets you manage your sales processes—lead generation, outreach, qualification, and communication, in a centralized platform with built-in automation, a communication center, and robust task management. 

Full disclosure: Even though SmartSuite is our own product, we aim to provide an honest perspective on why SmartSuite is the top Salesforce alternative available for companies who want to combine their CRM system for task management and automation across the entire organization.

SmartSuite ranked higher in the list due to ease of use and feature-packed pricing, including CRM automation, sales forecasting, and lead management.

The platform is not a traditional CRM per se but offers a modern alternative with hundreds of templates for sales processes. It also allows users to centralize task management and process automation for all functions in one platform.

Here are three key features that make SmartSuite a stronger modern contender against Salesforce.

Feature 1: Project management for sales and marketing

SmartSuite’s dynamic project management feature lets you build a custom campaign tracker or CRM tool to manage and track your workflows.

• Campaign management

Plan, build, and manage multiple campaigns in a dedicated dashboard —social media campaigns, product launches, content planners, and more.

You get access to 7+ task views including Gantt charts and Kanban board and get a deeper look into the campaign's performance.

• Project reporting and testing

Generate a detailed dashboard to review performance across various projects. Run A/B test campaigns to make data-driven decisions to improve project’s and team’s performance.

• Lead tracking

Convert more leads into buyers by tracking every aspect of their journey. By building a lead tracking dashboard, you can add as many properties as you need to get a granular view of the incoming database. To keep your team involved, you can share updates within the dashboard to facilitate quick and real-time communication.

• Pipeline & forecast reports

Convert your sales pipeline into visual graphs and charts to make forecasts and identify potential sales opportunities.

Feature 2: Workflow automation

SmartSuite offers a robust workflow automation suitable for the sales and marketing team to accomplish various tasks ranging from lead generation to deal closing. The no-code builder makes it easier for anyone in the team to build simple to complex workflows for various use cases.

Here are some of the use cases of SmartSuite’s workflow automation:

• Centralized marketing hub: Centralize all your marketing processes in a single platform from ideation to execution.
• Campaign management: Manage outreach campaigns by setting up automation such as updating target leads status based on predefined criteria.
• Managing sales pipelines: Update and maintain sales databases and spreadsheets, export leads to specific product or marketing lists, and organize tasks into actionable steps .
• Lead management: Set up notification triggers to send timely alerts to the right team members when new leads enter the sales funnel. This ensures that no lead is overlooked and that follow-up actions are timely.

Feature 3: CRM template library

SmartSuite offers a library of CRM templates to help you cut down on building one from scratch. Each template is designed by industry experts and contains essential properties such as accounts, lead type, qualification stage, and more.

For example, the Sales CRM template comes with accounts, contacts, opportunities, and sales resources tables, which serve as a central repository for each type of item. Each template also has pre-built views to get a more granular view of your processes.

Some common use cases of these templates include:

• Track estimated value of sales opportunities: Track the estimated and actual contract values of sales opportunities associated with an account.

• Sales asset management: Track all your sales and marketing material in a dedicated space to facilitate smooth collaboration and faster decision-making.

• Rollup fields to calculate the total contract value: With the Sales CRM solution, multiple records of sales opportunities can be paired with a single account to generate a total contract value. Each opportunity's actual contract value is recorded, and the overall contract value is totaled in the Rollup field of the account table.

How Does SmartSuite Compare to Salesforce?

If you’re looking for a pure-bread CRM platform, Salesforce is your best option. 

However, SmartSuite has so much more to offer. It is a great workflow management platform for handling sales and marketing processes. 

More Salesforce customers switch to SmartSuite because of its feature-packed and transparent pricing plans, which include rule-based automated assignments, lead management, and advanced reporting capabilities.

Salesforce is a great pick for small—to medium-sized businesses that need an integrated set of tools for various sales processes. However, the setup is often time-consuming and effort-heavy.

SmartSuite, on the other hand, is much more intuitive and offers a unified work management solution.

Its key advantage is the ability to build custom solutions tailored to specific business needs without extensive coding knowledge. This makes it particularly appealing for small to medium-sized businesses that want to centralize processes across the organization without the complexity and cost associated with Salesforce or the dependency on integrations between solutions.

SmartSuite Pros and Cons

✅ Generous free plan with access to advanced features

✅ 200+ sales CRM templates for different use cases

✅ Flexible and advanced reporting such as pipeline and sales forecast reports

✅ Intuitive no-code automation to streamline sales workflows

❌ Only 25+ integrations

#2. HubSpot

Best for: Easy-to-use, all-in-one CRM solution with strong marketing automation capabilities.

Similar to : Zoho CRM and Pipedrive

HubSpot is a marketing automation software that offers a lot of CRM functionality such as lead management and sales forecasting. 

It wins over Salesforce due to its user-friendly interface and accessible pricing plans along with a free CRM plan.

Who Is It For?

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), startups, especially marketing and sales teams.

HubSpot’s Top Features

• Prospecting workspace: A dedicated space to empower sales teams to have the relevant context to create more authentic and engaging buyer experiences.
• Email tracking : Monitor your email’s performance and send personalized timely emails based on the insights.
• Sales analytics and reporting: Build custom reporting dashboards and gain insights into your pipeline, team performance, deal status, prospecting touches and conversions, and more.

HubSpot’s Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan for up to five users. You can also get a 14-day free trial for its three pricing tiers.

• Starter: $20 per user/month, including Stripe integration, 1 email inbox, and up to 3 dashboards, each with 10 reports per dashboard.
• Professional: $100 per user/month, and a one-time required Professional Onboarding for $1,500.
• Enterprise : $150 per user/month, and a one-time required Enterprise Onboarding at a price of $3,500.

As compared to Salesforce, HubSpot has a free plan and a low monthly entry price of $20 for small and medium-sized businesses.

HubSpot’s Pros and Cons

✅ Intuitive user interface

✅ 2-way data sync with other apps available

❌ Expensive pricing due to add-ons

❌ Limited CRM-focused tool and more emphasis on inbound efforts

#3. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Best for: Integrated solution that combines CRM and ERP functionalities.

Similar to: SAP CRM and Oracle NetSuite

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an integrated suite of business applications that combines CRM and ERP capabilities.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 stands out due to its seamless integration with other Microsoft products like Office 365 and Power BI. This makes it a strong choice for organizations already using Microsoft tools over Salesforce.

Who is it For?

Medium to large enterprises who need a scalable CRM or businesses using Microsoft products.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Key Features

• Marketing and sales integration: Connect various sales and marketing processes through email marketing, lead scoring, marketing pages, and social posting.
• Pipeline management: Track your pipeline and progress toward key performance indicators (KPIs) using embedded charts and dashboards.
• Unified contact management: Keep track of your accounts and contacts, nurture your sales from lead to order, and create sales collateral.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Pricing

There are three pricing plans available:

• Dynamics 365 Sales Professional: Starting at $65 per user/month, includes core sales automation features.
• Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise: Starting at $95 per user/month, offers advanced sales and customer relationship management features.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Starting at $50 per user/month, provides comprehensive customer service capabilities.

You can try out the tool with a 30-day free trial.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Pros and Cons

✅ Integrates with Microsoft products such as Teams, Excel, and PowerBI

✅ Combines CRM and ERP capabilities

❌ Can be complex to implement and manage, especially for non-Microsoft users

❌ Cost increases with add-ons and custom solutions

#4. Pipedrive

Best for: End-to-end management of sales processes.

Similar to : Zoho CRM and Salesforce

Pipelive is an easy-to-use CRM tool that helps sales reps organize, manage, and track lead databases with advanced automation, reporting, and native communication tools.

Pipedrive is a great Salesforce alternative for sales teams as all the features are laser-focused on enhancing sales processes, including pipeline management, at budget-friendly pricing.

Small to medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups.

Pipedrive’s Top Features

• Insights and reporting: Get actionable insights through visual reports, pipeline metrics, and custom dashboards.
• Automation workflows: Automate administrative and repetitive tasks such as sales call scheduling, lead assignment, and follow-up emails.
• Communication and email tracking: Assign chat requests to sales reps, compose and send outreach emails, and get real-time alerts for prospect’s email engagement.

Pipedrive’s Pricing

Pipedrive offers five pricing plans with a 14-day free trial for each one of them:

• Essential: Starts at $24 per user/month, including customizable pipeline, 15 reports per user, and leads inbox.
• Advanced: Starts at $44 per user/month, including 30 active automation per user, two-way email sync, and email open & click tracking.
• Professional: Starts at $64 per user/month, including contract timeline, advanced automation, and revenue forecast reports.
• Power: Starts at $79 per user/month, including project add-on, 15 teams per company, and custom fields.
• Enterprise: Starts at $129 per user/month including unlimited reports and advanced customizations.

Pipedrive's pricing plans are more scalable than Salesforce, as there isn't much price variation between tiers.

Pipedrive’s Pros and Cons

✅ 400+ integrations

✅ Affordable, feature-packed pricing especially for teams with small budget

✅ Excellent add-ons for marketing & lead generation

❌ Limited workflow customization

❌ Add-ons can be expensive 

Best for: Managing and tracking leads in a dedicated space with highly tailored dashboards and reports.

Similar to : Salesforce and Pipedrive

Zoho CRM is a solid and budget-friendly CRM solution that offers extensive customization and integration capabilities. Compared to Salesforce, it offers a more cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized businesses while still providing a wide range of features.

Small and medium-sized businesses with low budgets and enterprise teams looking to scale their CRM efforts.

Zoho’s Top Features

• Sales automation: Automates routine sales tasks, including sales appointment schedules, follow-up emails, contact tracking and lead scoring.
• Omnichannel communication: Connect with your customer through multiple channels—email, phone, social media, and live chat to have more contextually rich conversations.
• Process management: Build scalable sales process including lead scoring, approvals, lead assignment rules, and reviews.

Zoho’s Pricing

Zoho offers a free plan for up to 34 users access and limited access to features including lead tracking, management, and basic reporting.

To explore what all Zoho has to offer, you can try its 15-day free trial for its four pricing tiers:

• Standard: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to sales forecasting tools, 100 custom reports, and 5 forms/modules.
• Professional: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to SalesSignals and unlimited customer reports and dashboard creation.
• Enterprise: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to Zoho AI and marketing attribution.
• Ultimate: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to 25 cohort analyses and access to advanced integration.

Zoho also wins over Salesforce in terms of pricing with a free plan and low-entry point starting plans.

Zoho’s Pros and Cons

✅ Cost-effective pricing plans

✅ Preset reports and custom reporting capabilities

❌ AI assistance only available on Enterprise and Ultimate tiers

#6. Freshsales

Best for: Sales teams focused on automating workflows and enhancing productivity.

Similar to : Pipedrive and Zoho CRM

Freshsales is the CRM tool offered by Freshworks, focused on growing the sales pipeline with powerful AI assistance.

Freshsales stands out with its built-in phone & email, allowing sales teams to communicate with leads directly from the CRM. Its AI-powered lead scoring also gives it a competitive edge over Salesforce.

Startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that need a cost-effective CRM solution.

Freshsales’s Top Features

• Multi-channel communication: Engage with prospects at the right time in the right contextual setting across email, chat, phone, zoom, and SMSs.
• Workflow automation: Build custom workflows and sales sequences by segmenting and prioritizing prospects based on rules and key identifiers.
• Sales intelligence: Enhance sales processes through AI-powered contact scoring, sales forecasting, and future action steps.

Freshsales’s Pricing

Freshsales CRM offers a free plan for up to 3 users with basic CRM customizations, data import & export, and a built-in phone dialer. To get more advanced features, select from three pricing tiers:

• Growth: Starts at $11 per user/month, including 20 basic workflows, a visual sales pipeline, and Slack collaboration.
• Pro: Starts at $47 per user/month, including custom sales activities, 50 advanced automated workflows, and sales forecasting.
• Enterprise: Starts at $71 per user/month including a suite of advanced features to manage your leads and deals.

Freshsales’s Pros and Cons

✅ Affordable pricing tiers

✅ Highly customizable

✅ Integrates with Freshdesk, Freshteam, Freshmarketer, and Freshservice

❌ Integration marketplace not available for a free user

#7. Oracle NetSuite

Best for: Comprehensive cloud-based ERP solution with integrated CRM capabilities

Similar to: SAP and Microsoft Dynamics

NetSuite CRM is part of a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution offered by Oracle. It provides a complete flow of information across the entire customer lifecycle—from lead generation to renewal, upsell, cross-sell, and support.

Netsuite CRM stands out as a strong Salesforce alternative because while Salesforce is a standalone CRM software, Netsuite is an ERP that offers a standalone CRM tool.

Enterprise-level businesses need a scalable solution and operate in complex industries such as manufacturing and distribution.

Oracle NetSuite’s Top Features

• Automation: Build integrated sales processes from lead management, upsell and quote management, sales forecasting, order management, and commissions.
• Reporting and analytics: Built-in reporting and role-based dashboard allowing marketing, sales, and customer services, to monitor the performance across various areas .
• Case management : Create and automate case management processes so that customers can submit cases online, review the status, and reply with follow-up communications.

Oracle NetSuite’s Pricing

Netsuite CRM is included with the Netsuite platform. It means you need to subscribe to the platform for an annual license fee to access the CRM. This license consists of a core platform, optional modules, and several users.

To implement the platform, there is a one-time fee as well for the initial setup.

Oracle NetSuite’s Pros and Cons

✅ Combines ERP and CRM in one solution

✅ Offers robust reporting and data visualization tools

✅ Gives a 360-degree view of the customer’s life cycle across all stages

❌ Significant upfront investment for implementation and customization

Best for: Comprehensive business management with heavy reliance on ERP integrations.

Similar to: Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365

SAP offers a comprehensive CRM and ERP solutions suite for large enterprises with complex, industry-specific needs such as manufacturing, distribution, and packaging.

SAP stands out as a Salesforce alternative due to its integration across SAP solutions, offering a unified view of business operations.

Large enterprises, especially those already within the SAP ecosystem.

SAP’s Top Features

• Sales automation: Automate manual tasks and ensure efficiency across various systems and processes.
• Sales analytics: Understand customer needs and improve sales outcomes with dashboards that provide actionable campaign insights.
• Omnichannel experience: Supports consistent customer interactions across multiple channels.

SAP’s Pricing

There is no free plan or trial available and pricing for paid plans is available only on request.

SAP’s Pros and Cons

✅ Large number of third-party integrations

✅ Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities

❌ Initial setup is often complex and time-consuming

Best for: Marketing automation solution that is affordable and easy to implement.

Similar to: Attio and Monday.com CRM

Keap is a user-friendly CRM designed for small businesses, offering a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to Salesforce.

Keap's powerful set of integration with email marketing and e-commerce tools makes it a suitable alternative to Salesforce, particularly for online businesses.

Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and service-based businesses

Keap’s Key Features

• Analytics: Manage your sales pipeline performance through various reports including deal conversions by stage, average deal duration, the average time in the stage, and deal revenue forecasting.
• Automation builder: Drag-and-drop automation builder to eliminate repetitive tasks such as sending text or email follow-ups at the right time or assigning leads to the right sales rep.
• Invoicing and payments: Built-in tools for quotes, invoicing, and payment processing.

Keap’s Pricing

Keap offers a 14-day free trial for its fixed pricing plans.

Unlike Salesforce, Keap offers flat-fee pricing with a minimum of 2 user seats and 1500 contacts starting at $299/month. In this flat fee, you get access to all the features—Automation, CRM, email & text, pipeline, landing pages, payments, appointments, and reporting.

Keap’s Pros and Cons

✅ User-friendly dashboards and navigation

✅ Built-in payment and invoicing tool

❌ Contact based pricing increases the total cost

#10. Monday.com CRM

Best for: Building appealing and customizable databases to manage all sales processes.

Similar to : Folk and Attio

Monday.com CRM is part of Monday.com’s worksuite which helps sales teams build configurable pipelines dashboards. The tool stands out as it integrates with Monday.com’s work management software facilitating better collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Compared to Salesforce, Monday.com CRM stands out as a highly visual, customizable workflow management approach.

Medium and large-size businesses who want a dynamic CRM tool or team who already uses Monday.com’s work management tool.

Monday.com CRM’s Top Features

• Dynamic dashboards: Build custom dashboards by using custom fields and widgets to visualize reports like sales forecasting, deals progress, and activity tracking.
• Centralized client communication : Compose and track of sent emails, and email engagement, and set up personalized email templates for email outreach on scale.
• Automation: Automates repetitive tasks such as lead assignments, email notifications, and activity reminders.

Monday.com’s CRM Pricing

Monday.com offers a 14-day free trial and a free plan for up to 2 users. Their paid plans need at least 3 users and come in four tiers:

• Basic: Starts at $21 per user/month, including unlimited customizable pipeline, Whiteboard collaboration, and two-factor authentication.
• Standard: Starts at $28 per user/month, including Gmail and Outlook integration, 250 actions/month, and deal management.
• Pro: Starts at $48 per user/month, including private boards and docs, Google authentication,. Sales forecasting, and 100GB file storage.
• Enterprise : Salesforce integration, lead scoring, advanced analytics, and post-sales management. Contact sales for a quote.

Monday.com’s CRM beats Salesforce pricing with pricing as low as $21/month making it a suitable choice for smaller team size.

Monday.com CRM Pros and Cons

✅ Dynamic boards with multi-dashboard views

✅ Advanced and flexible automated workflows

❌ Requires a minimum team size to buy or upgrade plan

❌ Basic plan offers limited features

Best for: Customizable CRM dashboard with data enrichment capabilities.

Similar to : Monday.com CRM and Pipedrive

Attio is a low-investment CRM software that helps you track and optimize your business relationships with individuals and organizations.

Attio differentiates itself from other CRMs by offering powerful data modeling capabilities and real-time collaboration features.

Small to mid-sized businesses, startups, freelancers, and solopreneurs that need a lightweight, customizable CRM solution.

Attio’s Top Features

• Flexible reporting: Transform data points into custom advanced reports to visualize progress and make data-driven decisions.
• Unified collaboration: Tag your teammates, leave contextual comments, sync Calendar, and share notes for quick communication and real-time update sharing.
• Data syncing and automation: Use custom fields to configure CRM, create associations between different fields, and automate your decisions.

Attio’s Pricing

Attio’s free plan offers 3 seats, 100 workflow credits, and a limited email send limit/month. The paid plans come in three tiers with a 14-day free trial:

• Plus: Starts at $34 per user/month, including 20 reports, and 200 credits to enrich contacts from LinkedIn and standard data sources.
• Pro: Starts at $69 per user/month, including unlimited emails, 2500 workflow credits, and up top 100 advanced reporting.
• Enterprise: Starts at $119 per user/month, including unlimited custom objects and 100+ reports.

Attio offers lower pricing plans and a free plan, which Salesforce does not offer.

Attio’s Pros and Cons

✅ Automatic data enrichment

✅ Clean and blazingly fast UI

❌ Limited integrations

❌ Lack of native features such as email sequencing, lead scoring and call tracking

Best for: Unifying contact management through dynamic pipelines and native email tools.

Similar to : Pipedrive and Attio

Folk CRM is a relationship management software that helps teams manage their pipeline, communicate, and close deals in a user-friendly platform.

Compared to Salesforce, Folk offers a modern, sleek alternative with emphasis on relationship management and simplicity.

Startups, solopreneurs, and businesses with small team sizes.

Folk’s Top Features

• Pipeline management: Define your deal stages, track deals, and identify your highly qualified leads, all in a customizable dashboard.
• Native emailing tool: Write, plan, and send ultra-personalized emails and set up follow-up sequences within Folk CRM and send in bulk using your domain.
• Unified contact management: Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more channels letting track conversation and outreach in a dedicated space.

Folk’s Pricing

Folk offers a 14-day free trial for its three pricing plans:

• Standard: Start at $25 per user/month, including pipeline management, 1/member email account sync, and integration with Zapier.
• Premium: Start at $50 per user/month, including custom objects, automation sequences, and migration services.
• Custom: Start at $100 per user/month for custom features. Contact sales for a quote.

Folk's pricing is consistent across plans, while Salesforce pricing often increases substantially at higher tiers.

Folk’s Pros and Cons

✅ Adaptable and easy-to-navigate interface

✅ Chrome extension that works on every platform

✅ Native emailing and social listening tools

❌ Basic reporting and analytics capabilities

Beyond Salesforce: Choosing Your Ideal CRM Solution

The alternatives we've discussed cater to various business sizes and needs.

If you are an enterprise-level organization and want integrated capabilities such as with an ERP, go for SAP, Oracle Netsuite, or Microsoft Dynamics. For smaller businesses or startups looking for cost-effective, feature-packed solutions, Pipedrive, Attio, or Folk can be the go-to choices.

But, if you're seeking an adaptable, all-in-one work management platform that offers a balance of powerful features, user-friendliness, and value for money, SmartSuite could be your best bet.

With SmartSuite, you get to:

• Automate workflow with dynamic automation
• Manage your contacts and leads in an intuitive interface
• Improve team collaboration with native communication tools
• Predict sales closing and revenue through advanced analytics 

Ready to explore further? Take SmartSuite for a spin or schedule a demo to talk to our sales team.

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Lead Assignment rules don't send email when assigned to Queue

• Lead Assignment Rules configured and active
• Queue is configured to Send Email to Members
• Email deliverability is on and members have valid emails
• Assignment rules execute
• Assignment is to a Queue and assignment rule defines an email template
• No email is received by queue member(s)
• assignment-rules

There are innumerable answers to this in Trailblazers and Stackexchange with one exception, which was my use case. I've consolidated various answers.

It all depends on what client is causing the assignment rules to run:

Emails will be sent to queue members

• Client is the Lead Edit UI where Assign using active assignment rules is checked
• Client is a SOAP API client that sets the Assignment Rule Header and Email Header
• Client is Web-to-Lead using OOTB /servlet/servlet.WebToLead
• Any Apex that sets both DmlOptions.AssignmentRuleHeader and DMLOptions.EmailHeader when doing DML on Lead.

Email will not be sent to queue members (although assignment rules execute)

• Client is Query Editor in Developer Console - Insert Rows / Save Rows sequence (My Use Case)
• Any Apex that does not set both DmlOptions.AssignmentRuleHeader and DMLOptions.EmailHeader when doing DML on Lead.
• Workbench Data | Insert a Lead with, in Settings, either Default Assignment Rules checked or specific Assignment Rule Id specified
• REST client that sets or does not set the Assignment Rule Header . Absence of header means use the default assignment rules.

What threw me was I was simulating a change in Lead Assignment rules that would apply within a Web-to-Lead use case. Rather than using a real Web-to-Lead form, I decided to insert the Lead using the Query Editor in Workbench. The assignment rules ran but no email was ever sent to the queue members. I was kind of surprised the assignment rules ran at all since I knew about the Assignment Rule Header and there's no place to configure its use in Developer Console. So, seeing the rules execute made me assume that the emails would be sent and that Developer Console was handling behind the scenes setting of the appropriate headers. Much time was wasted in futzing around with the email settings on the Queue

Turns out, that while SOAP and Apex support the EmailHeader, REST does not . Web-to-Lead /servlet/servlet.WebToLead must be using SOAP??

So, if trying to simulate Web-to-Lead, use a Web-to-Lead form. The easiest way to do this is generate the form from the UI, save the HTML to your desktop, and then open the file in your browser.

• I am having no emails send when inserting an lead via the API (connected app). Reading your excellent explanation, when using REST API it is impossible to send the notifications via dthe lead assigment rules? –  userRR Commented Sep 28, 2022 at 15:29

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