About Distributed Lead Management

Overview

With Lead Distribution, a supplier generates leads and distributes them to their partners so the partner’s sales team can action them. Suppliers generate leads in many ways - for example, via their marketing activities, their websites, or trade shows, or by using a Partner Locator.

Typically, distributed leads include general information such as name, email, and company, plus some supplier-specific information such a lead source or lead activity history.

By default, distributed leads are created with a lead score of 50, but this can vary.

Note

The lead score degrades over time if there is no additional lead activity.

Your supplier’s partner portal may include support for processing these distributed leads - if enabled, any of these options may be available to you. Each process captures and tracks activity on the lead and shares it with the supplier:

• Automated process to accept, reject and update leads via the partner portal

  Partner users navigate to the designated Distributed Leads page on their site to view the leads and their details and accept, reject or re-assign the lead.

  Notifications about status updates are posted in the partner portal.

• Email notification workflow

  This is similar to the portal process listed, above, but updates to leads trigger email notifications. The notifications display the lead details and options to accept, reject or reassign it.

• Integration of the partner portal with your CRM of record

  Partners receive the new lead in their CRM and they process it there, with the updates syncing back to the partner portal and to the supplier.

All three processes ensure that the supplier knows which partners have actioned, and are working on, each distributed lead.

The workflow may end there, depending on your supplier’s Lead Distribution program. Some programs may have an enhanced workflow that captures lead update information as the lead progresses through the sales cycle until it becomes a deal or opportunity.

Reach out to your supplier to ensure you understand the requirements of their Lead Distribution program.

For more information about lead support in your partner portal, see Manage Leads.

Before You Begin

Carry out these steps so you are prepared to receive leads from your supplier:

• Establish default Lead Owners

  The default Lead Owner(s) receive notifications of all new incoming leads, and can reassign within your organization as required.

  Notifications about a distributed lead are sent out until the lead is assigned or reassigned to another user or sales rep.

  For more information, see Specifying a Default Recipient of Lead Notification Emails.

• Integrate your CRM (if using)

  ZiftONE has out of the box integrations available for several CRMs. You can also set up a nightly CSV export of lead data.

  Partners that have an active CRM connection may opt to auto-accept leads to have any lead that has been sent to them pushed directly into their CRM.

  For more information, see CRM Settings.

Contents

Click   to expand each section.

Notification of Lead Distribution

When a supplier distributes a lead, partners will receive a Lead Notification email. This ensures that you are aware of the new lead so you can act upon it right away.

This logic applies:

• If the lead is targeted to a specific user, they will receive the notification.
• If the lead is distributed to the partner, the Default Lead Owner(s) in the partner account receive the notification. If there is no Default Lead Owner configured, no email will be sent.

Tip

Try these solutions if you have trouble receiving lead notifications:

• Verify that you have default lead owners selected and their email addresses are valid

• Whitelist your supplier’s portal email address

Process Leads directly in the Partner Portal

You can find information about leads in two places when logged in to your partner portal:

• My Messages area ( > Messages)

  

  You receive a portal message for every new lead that has been distributed directly to you. You can click on the link to open the distributed lead and action it.

• Designated Distributed Leads page (name and location may vary)

  

  The page displays a list of all existing leads.

  This page can be searched, sorted and filtered, for example to show only Pending leads that need to be actioned.

  Click on a lead to access its details, included attachments, and available action buttons - Accept, Reject, Assign.

  The detail view also displays the timeline for the lead, which displays actions carried out on the lead, such as campaign activity from the supplier or marketing/nurture activities by the partner owner.

  

Process Leads via Email Workflow

Assigned lead owners receive an email for each new lead the supplier has distributed.

You can see the details of the lead and the available actions - Accept Lead, Reject Lead, Assign Lead.

Process Leads with a CRM Integration

If you have a CRM integrated with your partner portal you can work your leads as normal in the CRM. If the CRM includes a Sync with button, click it to send a refresh of a lead record over to the CRM.

Actions for Distributed Leads

These action buttons are available for a distributed lead, whether you access it from the portal or via an email notification:

• Accept - accept the lead, provide any additional information requested by the supplier, and optionally assign the lead to a user or Sales Rep. The lead status changes to Accepted and the supplier record is updated.
• Reject - reject the lead, with a Rejection Reason if that’s requested by the supplier. The lead status changes to Rejected and the supplier record is updated.
• Assign/Reassign - route the lead to a selected user or Sales Rep. The new lead owner is sent a lead notification and they will accept or reject the lead.

Progressing Accepted Leads

Once you’ve accepted a lead, there are some further actions you can take. Open the lead from the designated Distributed Leads page in your portal to access them.

• Lead Feedback - provide more information about this lead and any progress that has been made against it

  

  Each supplier provides their own custom form and the information it requests.

  You can update your feedback by clicking the Edit Feedback link in the lead detail.

  There is one area for feedback. Using the Edit Feedback option overwrites the previous entry - add further comments if you want to maintain a chronology of updates.

  

• New Deal - register a new deal from this lead

  You’ll choose the deal type, if your supplier is using them, and complete the required details.

  Each supplier provides their own custom form and the information it requests.

  

• Assign - assign the lead to a new user or Sales Rep.

  This option can be used at any time.

  

 Training

Related Topics

• About Leads
• Manage Leads
• About Opt-In Authorization
• Manage Opt-In Emails
• About Contacts and Leads