Round Robin Scheduling: Here’s How It Helps Your Lead Distribution (Steps, Types, Tool)

When you have a large volume of leads, customer inquiries, or form fills from your website, the next big challenge is to distribute these leads among your sales reps effectively. 

Without a proper system in place, you’ll assign more leads to select sales reps while others receive fewer leads. Or, you might assign leads to sales reps who are unavailable or aren’t the right fit.

These issues will lead to significant disparities in workload among team members, resulting in some sales reps feeling overworked and others feeling underutilized.

Over time, this imbalance can cause frustration and burnout in your most active team members and demotivate those who aren’t receiving enough opportunities. The result? Lost sales opportunities. Higher employee turnover rate. Destabilized sales process.

That’s why you need a system like round robin scheduling in place that will distribute leads to your sales reps efficiently. 

In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about round robin scheduling—its types, benefits and explain how you can streamline your lead distribution with this method.

What is Round Robin Scheduling?

Round robin scheduling refers to the method of distributing leads or tasks evenly among a group of individuals or teams in a rotational manner.

Sales and customer support teams commonly use this method to ensure everyone in the team gets an equal opportunity to handle leads, customers, or assignments.

For sales teams in particular, round robin scheduling can ensure fairness in lead distribution, prevent rep burnout, and ensure that every lead is attended to promptly and effectively. So, you’ll naturally see more sales opportunities, improved team productivity, and a better pipeline.

What are the Different Types of Round Robin Scheduling?

Round robin scheduling is of 3 types: strict, flexible and weighted.

Let's explore how each type works, their advantages and disadvantages, and the suitability of each type for sales teams.

a) Strict Round Robin

Strict round robin scheduling is a method where leads or customer inquiries are distributed equally and sequentially among all team members. This ensures uniform distribution of work and each member gets an equal opportunity to handle a lead before the cycle repeats.

Here's a simple example to help you understand better.

Let’s say you have a team of 3 salespeople: Alice, Bob, and Charlie. The team gets 7 leads on a particular day. Here’s a brief illustration of how these leads will be distributed among the reps through round robin scheduling:

Round 1: 

• Lead 1 goes to Alice.
• Lead 2 goes to Bob.
• Lead 3 goes to Charlie.

Round 2:

• Lead 4 goes to Alice. It starts over from the beginning after reaching the last person.
• Lead 5 goes to Bob.
• Lead 6 goes to Charlie.
• Lead 7 goes to Alice. And the cycle continues…

Pros and cons of strict round robin scheduling:

Pros:

• Fairness in lead distribution: Ensures each sales rep receives an equal number of leads, promoting fairness within the team. This can help in maintaining morale and preventing feelings of favoritism or inequality.
• Balanced workload: The workload is distributed evenly across the team. This balance can prevent burnout among high performers and underutilization of other team members, ideally maximizing overall team performance. 

Cons:

• No consideration for skill level: In a strict round robin method, there's no consideration for the skill levels of representatives when distributing leads. This means that a rep’s unique strength or expertise, like handling leads from large enterprises or from a particular industry (say, healthcare) aren't taken into account. So, leads may be assigned to representatives who aren't the most suitable match for them. 
• No priority handling: All leads are treated equally regardless of their potential value or urgency. High-value leads could be assigned to less experienced reps, who might not be well-equipped to convert the lead into a sales opportunity.

Which sales team can use strict round robin scheduling?

Strict round robin scheduling is ideal for sales teams where:

• All sales reps have similar skills and experience levels.
• The volume and quality of leads are relatively uniform.
• There is a focus on fairness and equal opportunity rather than maximizing immediate sales outcomes.

b) Flexible Round Robin

Flexible round robin scheduling displays the combined available time slots of the entire team. Unlike in strict round robin, where the displayed available slot is only of the next rep in queue. 

This approach allows the prospect to select a time slot that works best for them, ensuring they are matched with the rep who is available at that chosen time.

If more than one rep is available for a particular calendar slot, then the rep with the least number of meetings gets the incoming lead.

Pros and cons of flexible round robin:

Pros:

• Improved lead response time: The leads are distributed to the sales rep who can quickly respond and engage them. This way you can engage the leads while their interest is at an all time high, increasing your chances of closing the deal.  
• Increased booking rates: With flexible round robin scheduling, you’re increasing your availability for prospects by displaying more available slots. This reduces the chances of scheduling conflicts and increases meeting retention. 

Cons: 

• No fairness in distribution: Flexible round robin can lead to uneven distribution of work among team members. Those who are more available might end up receiving a disproportionate share of leads leaving others underutilized.

Which sales team can use flexible round robin scheduling?

Flexible round robin scheduling is suitable for sales teams where:

• Sales reps have varying levels of experience, skills, or specializations.
• The volume and urgency of leads fluctuate significantly, flexible round robin can help manage the distribution in a way that prevents bottlenecks and ensures leads are handled efficiently.
• The focus is on optimizing lead response times and lead conversion rates.

 c)  Weighted Round Robin

Weighted round robin assigns leads based on predefined weights assigned to each sales rep. The weights are typically based on factors like experience, performance, or expertise, allowing some reps to receive more leads than others.

Here’s an example to understand weighted round robin better:

Imagine you have 3 sales reps in your team: 

1. Alice: 10 years of experience, 80% quota attainment.
2. Bob: 5 years of experience, 65% quota attainment.
3. Eve: New sales rep with no experience. 

In this scenario, you’d want to give the most number of meetings to Alice, followed by Bob receiving a moderate number of meetings and Eve the least meetings as she is still onboarding. With weighted round robin, you can do just that and ensure smooth distribution. 

Pros and cons of weighted round robin:

Pros: 

• Optimized Distribution:  Leads are assigned based on individual team member strengths and performance, ensuring that high-value or complex leads go to the most qualified individuals.
• Monitor performance: By controlling the number and type of meetings each rep handles, it becomes easier to track their performance and improvement over time.

Cons: 

• Risk of overburdening: High-performing sales reps might become overburdened if their workload is too high, leading to burnout and frustration. 
• Complex implementation: Determining and managing the weights requires careful consideration and continuous adjustment to maintain fairness and effectiveness.

Which sales team can use weighted round robin scheduling?

Weighted round robin scheduling is effective for sales teams where:

• There is a clear differentiation in team member capabilities and performance.
• The team handles a variety of lead types, from low-value to high-value opportunities.
• The goal is to ensure that the most important or complex leads are managed by the most qualified team members.

Benefits of Round Robin Scheduling

According to Marketo, 80 percent of marketing leads are ignored, and this poor lead management costs businesses an estimated $1 trillion per year.

By adopting a systematic approach to lead distribution, organizations can ensure faster response times, equitable workload distribution, and ultimately achieve overall efficiency in managing leads. 

Let's delve deeper into the key reasons why incorporating round robin distribution is crucial for achieving these objectives.

1. Ensure Fairness in Lead Distribution

One of the biggest challenges in manual lead distribution is the fair allocation of leads.

Manually allocating leads causes inefficiencies like:

• Selective allocation: Some leads might be selectively given to certain reps based on perceived performance or favoritism, leading to unequal opportunities.
• Slower sales cycle: Inconsistencies and delays in assigning leads can slow down the overall sales cycle, affecting the productivity of your sales team.
• No workload balance: Manual distribution can result in some reps being overwhelmed with leads while others have too few, creating an imbalance in workload and performance.

Round robin scheduling ensures each rep gets an equal opportunity to work on quality leads. This promotes a balanced workload and reduces any potential bias in lead allocation. This fairness boosts team morale and ensures that no single rep is overburdened or underutilized.

2. Distribute Leads Based on Rep Availability

Sales reps have varying schedules due to meetings, appointments, and other commitments, making it challenging for you to keep track of each rep’s availability. 

Manually assigning leads without considering availability can result in missed opportunities and inefficient follow-ups.

With a round robin scheduling software , you can take into account the availability of each sales rep.

If a sales rep is unavailable during certain hours of the day or for longer durations, you can update this in the system, and it will automatically route the lead to the next available team member in the round robin queue, minimizing response times and optimizing workload balance.

3. Improve Lead Response Time

Speed to lead is crucial. The quicker your sales rep responds, the higher the chance of converting leads. 

A study by Harvard Business Review found that companies reaching out to prospects within an hour of getting a query were almost 7 times more likely to qualify the lead compared to those reaching out later, even just by an hour.

The study also reveals that only 37% of businesses respond to their lead within an hour, 16% respond within one to 24 hours, 24% take more than 24 hours, and 23% of the companies never respond at all. 

With the round robin scheduling model, you can strike the iron while it’s hot. By swiftly distributing qualified leads among sales representatives in a circular manner, this method ensures there are no disruptions to meetings and leads are promptly allocated to each team member in sequence.

4. Refine Your Lead Distribution Strategy 

Among all the lead distribution models, round robin is popular as it gives unique insights into how leads are allocated and managed. This helps managers measure sales performance, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions to optimize lead distribution. 

Here’s how:

• Measure sales performance: Track key metrics such as the number of leads assigned, speed to lead, and conversion rates. These metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your lead distribution strategy.
• Identify trends and areas of improvement: With clear data on how leads are distributed and handled, you can spot trends and identify areas for improvement. For example, you may find that specific reps excel with certain types of leads.
• Make informed decisions: Armed with the data, you can make informed decisions about refining your lead distribution strategy. You can adjust the round robin settings, reallocate resources, or provide additional training to reps based on their performance.

How Can Schedule IQ Help With Round Robin Scheduling?

Schedule IQ by Klenty is a meeting scheduling and lead routing platform that automates the entire process of lead distribution based on the round-robin distribution logic you set, ensuring that the right rep is assigned for every prospect and no opportunity is missed.

Let’s look into the key features of Schedule IQ that helps you in efficient lead distribution:

• Round robin scheduling. Schedule IQ offers 3 types of round robin scheduling to ensure you always route the right leads to the right rep:
  • Flexible Routing randomly assigns meetings based on availability. 
  • Strict or Equal Routing allocates equal meeting slots. 
  • Weighted Routing assigns reps to leads based on predefined weightage.
• Drag-and-drop routing builder. Create complex routing workflows with ease. Schedule IQ is the only lead routing platform with a workflow builder that lets you quickly visualize, review, and edit your routing strategy. Make changes to your routing logic in seconds, and visualize your routing strategy easily.
• Access 4 different lead routing options. Enhance your lead distribution process. Choose from any of the following lead routing options to route leads alongside round robin:
  • Form-based routing: Route leads based on their form answers
  • Owner-based routing: Route leads based on their owners in the CRM
  • IP-based routing: Route leads based on their geographical location.
  • CRM-based routing: Routing based on CRM insights on an account/ lead

Book a demo now to see how Schedule IQ helps in fair lead distribution and improves your overall sales efficiency!

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