Why Lead Routing Rules Always Drift

Most revenue teams start with routing rules that “make sense.”

Then growth happens.

New segments. New territories. New reps. New channels.

Six months later, routing is inconsistent, exceptions are everywhere, and leaders don’t trust the numbers.

This happens so often it’s a pattern.

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Pattern 1: Routing Logic Lives in Too Many Places

Routing rules end up scattered across:

• CRM assignment rules
• spreadsheets
• undocumented rep knowledge
• manual triage
• ad hoc exceptions

Once logic is distributed, no one can explain the true workflow.

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Pattern 2: Exceptions Become the Default

High-value leads. Ambiguous region. Partner referrals. Strategic accounts.

Exceptions are normal in real sales.

If exceptions aren’t modeled explicitly:

• they become manual work
• managers override silently
• routing becomes unpredictable

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Pattern 3: SLAs Aren’t Enforced End-to-End

Leads don’t get lost because routing is hard.

They get lost because:

• assignment is delayed
• follow-up doesn’t happen
• handoffs are informal

Without SLA timers, escalation, and reassignment paths, the workflow has no reliability.

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Pattern 4: Clean Data Is Assumed (But Never Real)

Lead intake comes from multiple channels. Data is incomplete. Duplicates exist.

If normalization and deduplication aren’t first-class steps, routing rules produce inconsistent outcomes.

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What Works Instead

Reliable sales ops automation treats routing as a governed workflow:

• normalize and validate inbound data
• encode routing rules explicitly
• define exception paths (with human oversight)
• enforce SLAs with escalation and reassignment
• keep handoffs structured and auditable

When routing becomes deterministic, conversion tracking becomes trustworthy.

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How This Connects to RoboHen

RoboHen is designed for revenue workflows where:

• routing rules must be explicit
• exceptions need oversight
• handoffs must preserve context
• execution must be measurable and repeatable

Related pages

• Sales Operations Automation
• Workflow Example, Lead Routing More perspectives
• Insights