finboi profile picture
finboi profile picture

finboi

Fi-nance

Notorious Answer
Opinionated
Valued Contributor
+5

Can a manager beat a randomizer?

alright family please help me with my latest battle. the situation is right now:
-a BDR qualifies leads within an hour of receiving the lead
-they send email the lead to managers
-1-2 business days later the manager assigns the lead to the rep they think is the best fit for the lead
+(upside) in theory the manager can better predict who is best "fit" for the lead 
-(downside) this adds time to the sales process and we have a sizable % of close lost leads citing time to respond to the lead

PROPOSAL 
-BDR qualifies lead 
-lead is randomly assigned to rep

you can probably tell which way I'm leaning but according to my girlfriend I'm wrong all the time.

which would you pick?

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
🤷‍♂ Poll
16

27 comments

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someoneinsales
Tycoon
7
Director of Sales
Da Fuk! Manager assigns leads to "best fit" so basically their favorite rep. Sounds bias
jefe
Arsonist
4
🍁
I think there should be some kind of middle ground - not randomized, but CERTAINLY a lot faster than it currently is.

Pretty sure there must be tools out there for this.
jefe
Arsonist
3
🍁
Note: I chose randomly just for the commish because there wasn't a third option.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
I did the same. There's got to be a better way. 🤔
jefe
Arsonist
3
🍁
.
TennisandSales
Politicker
4
Head Of Sales
so if the manager needs to cherry pick who gets what leads, then he/she needs to do a better job training reps.

The biggest problem I have with this is that it hurts the prospect.

the time to ACTUALLY talk to someone is WAY to long.
in the past we have just had a spreadsheet and the SDR lists the lead and who it went to (there are WAY more sophisticated ways to do this but to do it TODAY this is what I would do)

Then there is a recored of who got what, and the SDR doesnt get mixed up. not hard.

I am ALSO wrong all the time so WHO KNOWS?!
TheIncarceration
Politicker
2
SDR Manager
Totally agree with this. The manager could also start playing favorites which fucks with other reps' money
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
yeah this is another major problem haha.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
4
Bravado's Resident Asshole
For me, it goes by territory. get a lead and schedule demo/appt, goes to the rep that is covering that territory. Anything in an open territory, goes on a round robin.
Pachacuti
Politicker
3
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Aren’t your AEs divided up geographically or in some other way? Random just doesn’t make sense.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Currently at my company, we are on a round robin for leads, which started during Covid. Looks like we'll be on that system through this year at least.
Pachacuti
Politicker
2
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
So it should be randomized then.
finboi
Notorious Answer
0
Fi-nance
Yes the manager covers a specific geography and it is not drilled down farther
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
2
Rolling 20's all day
Time kills all deals. What if it takes a day or two to assign and in that time the prospect goes and talks to two competitors?
Also how do you avoid favoritism? This would lead to disgruntled AEs who might feel they are getting shafted
Thripe
Fire Starter
0
Head of Sales
They aren’t going to go through a full cycle in 1-2 day’s with competitors. Be realistic. They were never going to buy anyway if 1-2 days was the reason.
Mobi85
Politicker
1
Regional Sales Manager
damn fat fingers, I wanted to select the randomly assign leads with increased speed. Speed is the name of the game at times with some inbound leads and getting back in touch
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Eventually people are going to be annoy b/c x person got more inbounds or better ones. Just another way for people to leave or lose motivation over. Randomize it
revenuegenerator
Praised Answer
1
Sales Management
Sounds incredibly unscalable. Not to mention the 2 day wait time for the lead. Apparently they've never learned the sales lesson that time kills all deals. Current process could be an ego thing with management. It should be geo based or round robin.
hitechie
1
Sales Consultant
To expand on the problem slightly, I’ve experienced similar (and lengthier delays) with Tradeshow/event leads that have to be “processed” by Marketing before being assigned to reps. Same results…interest has waned. Some leads never arrive.
finboi
Notorious Answer
0
Fi-nance
Wow this post is blowing up within minutes of posting 🙏🙏🙏🙏
butwhy
Politicker
0
Solutions Engineer
Wow, so an incoming lead is demonstrating interest and your process wants to prioritize their own internal needs instead of fulfilling the customer urgency ASAP. I am obviously pro-randomize (and automate the step after from the rep assigned as well). It's called Round Robin, and y'all are losing money not utilizing it.
nomdeguerre
Executive
0
Account executive
Well that’s stupid. The assignments should predetermined either by geography, industry, vertical or whatever. Why would you have a manual process which hurts the prospect.
finboi
Notorious Answer
0
Fi-nance
To be clear YES this is after selection region (manager covers a region of 30 reps)
Big_Building_Energy
Executive
0
Sales
Similar to TennisandSales, we have a live google doc spreadsheet. Person who receives inbound inquiries (web/phone) inputs this on the spreadsheet, and leads alternate between sales people. Has been working for us the past 6 months - cut and dry rules, no favoritism or bias. We have exceptions for cases where it's a repeat customer/new contact, etc, but overall, pretty simple and easy.
stephendimaio
Good Citizen
0
Business Development Representative
also..........who would wait two days before assigning a lead, they are taking demos now! not in two days they'll have already had three meetings with the competition by then.....assign the lead and follow up immediately. It's the easiest way to do it and every minute that passes without following up the lead gets colder rapidly
Thripe
Fire Starter
0
Head of Sales
If a lead cites “1-2 days” for first contact as too slow and why you lost, they’re full of shit and were never going to buy in the first place, or you’re selling something super transactional for 20 bucks.
Gasty
Notable Contributor
0
War Room Community Manager
you don't have a territory or pod structure @finboi?

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