If you’re part of an enterprise sales team drowning in inbound leads, you know chasing them by hand is a losing game. Let’s be real—manual lead routing doesn’t scale, and it’s a magnet for missed opportunities and dropped balls. This guide is for sales ops managers, admins, and anyone who wants to stop playing air traffic control and actually get leads in front of the right reps, fast.
We’re talking about setting up automated lead routing in Face2Face—a CRM built for teams who’d rather be selling than herding spreadsheets. You’ll get the practical, step-by-step method, plus some honest takes on what’s worth your time (and what’s not).
Step 1: Map Out Your Lead Routing Logic
Don’t just dive in and start clicking around. Before you touch any settings in Face2Face, you need to know how you want leads assigned. Automation is only as smart as the plan behind it.
Ask yourself:
- How do you split leads today? (By territory, industry, company size, product interest?)
- Who owns which accounts or regions?
- Are there reps who handle certain lead types (enterprise vs. SMB, inbound vs. outbound)?
- What happens with junk leads or obvious mismatches?
Pro tip: Sketch this out on a whiteboard or doc. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches later if you’re clear on the logic first.
What to skip: Don’t try to “future-proof” every possible scenario. Get your main rules down and iterate later.
Step 2: Clean Up Users and Teams in Face2Face
Automated routing falls apart if your user lists are out of date. Before you build anything, make sure Face2Face knows who’s actually on your sales team, and how they’re organized.
Checklist:
- Remove ex-employees from your user list.
- Double-check email addresses and roles.
- Make sure teams (regions, verticals, etc.) are current.
- Add any missing reps or managers.
Why it matters: Nothing kills trust in automation faster than leads getting dumped on someone who left the company six months ago.
Step 3: Define Your Lead Sources and Entry Points
Face2Face can route leads from a bunch of different places: web forms, imports, integrations (like LinkedIn or ZoomInfo), manual entry, and more. You need to be clear about where leads are coming from.
Do this:
- List all the ways new leads enter your CRM.
- Decide which sources should be routed automatically.
- For sources you don’t want routed (like test imports), set them aside.
Watch out for: Sometimes, marketing campaigns or website tweaks add new lead sources without telling sales. Double-check with marketing or IT if you’re unsure.
Step 4: Create Routing Rules in Face2Face
Now you’re ready to get your hands dirty.
Find the Routing Settings
- Go to Admin Settings in Face2Face.
- Look for something called Lead Assignment Rules, Lead Routing, or similar. (If you’re lost, Face2Face’s help docs are decent, but their search is hit-or-miss.)
Build Your First Rule
- Click Create Rule (or Add Rule).
- Name your rule something obvious, like “US East Enterprise Leads.”
- Set your conditions. Common ones:
- Lead source (e.g., website form)
- Geography (e.g., State = NY, NJ, PA)
- Company size (e.g., Employees > 500)
- Industry
- Product interest
Assign to: - Individual rep (for small teams) - Round robin (rotates among a set of reps) - Specific team or group
Example: Assigning by Geography
If you want all Northeast US enterprise leads to go to the right team: - Condition: State is NY, NJ, PA, MA, CT - Company size > 500 employees - Assign to: Northeast Enterprise Team
Pro tip: Start with your biggest, most obvious buckets. Don’t try to automate the edge cases right away.
Step 5: Set Fallbacks and Exceptions
Inevitably, some leads won’t match any rule. Or maybe a rep is out sick. Set up backup plans so leads never get stuck.
- Default Owner: In Face2Face, you can set a default user or team for “unmatched” leads.
- Vacation/OOO Handling: Some CRMs let you skip reps who are marked as out-of-office. Face2Face’s coverage here is basic—don’t expect miracles, but set up manual reassignment alerts if needed.
- Junk or Disqualified Leads: Route these to a holding queue or specific user for review, so real reps don’t waste their time.
What to ignore: Don’t overcomplicate—if a rule only applies a few times a year, handle it manually for now.
Step 6: Test Your Rules With Real (and Fake) Leads
Don’t trust that everything works just because the UI says “success.” Test each routing rule with sample leads that fit (and don’t fit) the criteria.
How to test:
- Create dummy leads in Face2Face matching your rule conditions.
- Watch where they land—make sure they go to the expected rep or team.
- Try edge cases: missing data, weird capitalization, empty fields.
- Ask a few reps to sanity-check their own assignments for a week.
What can go wrong:
- Typos in rule conditions (yes, “CA” ≠ “Calif.”)
- Overlapping rules causing weird assignments
- Leads getting stuck in limbo (no owner assigned)
Pro tip: Keep a spreadsheet of test cases and results, at least for your first few rounds of automation.
Step 7: Monitor, Adjust, and Keep It Simple
Even good automated routing needs tending. Set a calendar reminder to review assignments every month or quarter.
What to watch:
- Are leads being distributed fairly?
- Any team or rep getting overloaded (or starved)?
- Are junk leads slipping through to the sales team?
- Any complaints from reps about weird assignments?
If you spot issues:
- Edit your rules—Face2Face makes this pretty painless.
- Don’t be afraid to delete rules that nobody needs anymore.
- If reps are gaming the system (it happens), tighten your logic.
Don’t bother: There’s no need for a “routing council” or endless committee meetings. The best systems are the ones you’ll actually maintain.
Honest Takes: What Works, What Doesn’t
Works well: - Face2Face’s round robin and team assignment are straightforward. - Filtering leads by geography, company size, or industry is easy. - Basic fallback rules save you from orphaned leads.
Could be better: - No fancy load-balancing or skill-based routing (yet). Don’t expect Salesforce-level complexity. - UI can be a little clunky—bulk editing rules takes patience. - Reporting on routing effectiveness is limited. Run your own audits.
Don’t waste time on: - Over-optimizing for rare exceptions. - Building 20 routing rules on day one. - Automating every weird sales process. Start with 80% of your volume, handle the rest manually, and check back in six months.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Automated lead routing in Face2Face isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overthink. Set up your main rules, test with real and fake leads, and don’t be afraid to tweak as you go. The goal is to get leads to the right people—fast. Fancy workflows and edge cases can wait.
Start simple, listen to your reps, and fix what’s broken. You’ll spend less time firefighting and more time actually closing deals. Isn’t that the point?