Considerations for Territory-Based Lead Assignment

Territory-based assignment relies on an association between attributes on the lead work object and attributes on the lead territory candidate object to match the candidates to the work object.

For territory-based assignment, the lead work object and lead candidate object must have attributes that share the same domain of values.

Components That Affect Lead Assignment

Leads are ready for assignment once the data on the lead is cleansed, created, enriched, and scored. Here are the components that influence the assignment of leads:

• Lead work objects

• Lead candidate objects

• Attributes

• Mapping and rule conditions

Mapped attributes are used for matching appropriate candidates for a work object. For example, a sales lead (work object) has a geographic location attribute. The lead candidate object (territory) has also a geographic location attribute. These two attributes are mapped to each other.

Leads, including leads with an associated existing account, and net new leads, are assigned based on several criteria as outlined here. Net new leads are leads where the account and contact information remain on the lead until the lead is qualified and converted.

Assignment criteria for leads	Assignment criteria for leads with an associated account	Assignment criteria for net new leads
Lead Source Geography Named accounts, such as the top 20 Industry Product Partner for working with a partner organization Primary sales channel associated with the lead Associated marketing campaign that generated the lead	Geography (Primary Address of the Account) Named account Industry - Customer/Organization Size Organization Type Auxiliary Classifications 1 - 3 Product	Geography (Contact Address on the Lead) Industry Organization Type Product Sales Channel Primary sales channel associated with the lead Business Unit Partner for working with a partner organization

For example, lets take the following scenarios for a lead. A lead has either:

• A new Account where the CustomerId has a null value (no data) but other Account related fields such as AccountName, OrganizationType, OrganizationSize, and so on, have values.
• An existing Account where the CustomerId has a non-null value (has data) as do the other Account related fields.
• A new Contact where the PrimaryContactId has a null value (no data) but other Contact related fields such as PrimaryContactName, JobTitle, PrimaryContactEmailAddress, and so on, have values.
• An existing Contact where the PrimaryContactId has a non-null value (has data) as do the other Contact related fields.

The Sales Lead Territory: Mapping Sets subtab showing the Conditional Attribute column to indicate which mapping set becomes active. Depending on the lead’s data, more than one mapping set becomes active to find and assign the matching territories. You can select or deselect the Inactive check box to activate or deactivate any of the mapping sets.

If the account on a lead is removed, then no mapping set is active. However, the predefined mapping set won't remove the territories assigned to lead. To replace the current territories assigned to a lead with another set on the next assignment run, you must select the Replace Candidates check box from the Sales Lead Territory: Candidates subtab on the Manage Sales Lead Assignment Objects page.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:

   • Offering: Sales

   • Functional Area: Leads

   • Task: Manage Sales Lead Assignment Objects

2. On the Manage Sales Lead Assignment Objects page, locate and select Sales Lead in the Name column.

3. In the Sales Lead: Details region, select the Candidates tab.

4. Select the candidate object Sales Lead Territory and expand this row and check what's the current setting for no rows matching.
5. Select Replace Candidates if you want to replace disqualified candidates on the team when the next assignment request is run.

How Leads Are Assigned

Leads can be assigned based on simple rules evaluation. Leads that have an associated account with an address are distributed based on territory definitions. Territory-based evaluation can be supplemented by adding filtering rules to further refine the lead assignment. Territory-based evaluation uses:

• Lead work object

• Territory candidate object data

• Mappings between the territory dimensions and lead dimensional attributes to execute the assignment processing

Examples of Lead Assignment Setup

A default set of lead work objects and associated candidate objects are predefined. However, you can set up the necessary lead work objects, and associated candidate objects, rules and mappings for assigning leads to suit your business requirements.

• Set up rules and rule sets specific to your business requirements.

  For example, set up an assignment rule to assign leads with deal size less that a certain amount to partners.

• Set up object mappings for territory-based assignment.

  For example, assign a lead to those territories where Territory dimensional attributes are mapped to corresponding Lead attributes.

• Set up rules to filter territories that match the lead based on additional information on the lead.

  For example, set up rules to exclude prime sales territories that match leads which are unqualified.