How to set up automatic lead routing with HubSpot & Salesforce
Lead routing methods, tools, and best practices explained.
Automating lead routing is essential to reduce your speed to lead with HubSpot and Salesforce.
When new contacts enter your database, they need to get into the right hands as soon as possible for conversion.
If you're using the HubSpot–Salesforce integration, you have several options for lead assignment. You can manage this in HubSpot OR Salesforce. Before picking the tool, first consider how you want to assign leads.
Types of inbound lead assignment
The first option is round robin lead assignment.
- This distributes new leads evenly across a team.
- It can apply to your entire sales force or just a subset, such as evenly dividing all new leads from a specific state among five reps.
- Round robin is often paired with filters, so only certain leads enter the rotation.
The second option is criteria-based lead assignment.
- Here, leads must meet certain qualifications before they’re assigned.
- These criteria often include geography, industry, company size, or product interest.
- This method ensures that specific types of leads land with the right specialists.
Both round robin and criteria-based logic are key components of effective automatic lead routing.
Should you assign leads in HubSpot or Salesforce?
If you want to use round robin, HubSpot Workflows are the easiest way to implement automatic lead routing.
The “Rotate Owner” action lets you define a team of users and then add if/then branches to filter leads by region, product line, or other criteria.
HubSpot offers options to control whether workflows overwrite existing owners, which reduces the risk of reassigning already-owned leads.
Workflows also handle criteria-based assignments without requiring advanced admin skills.
In Salesforce, you have two main paths.
Lead Assignment Rules allow you to define conditions such as state, company size, or record source and automatically assign leads that match those rules.
They’re simple and built into Salesforce, but they apply broadly and must be updated by an admin.
The second option is Salesforce Flows, which function more like HubSpot Workflows.
With Flows, you can create record-triggered automations, add decision splits, and dynamically assign leads as data changes. Flows have grown into the most flexible option and are now widely recommended when business rules evolve frequently.
Best practices for implementation
- Start with a clear definition of your lead assignment logic.
- Decide whether fairness or specialization is the priority, or if you need both.
- Keep your rotation pools up to date so only active reps receive leads.
- Monitor lead volume and follow-up speed to ensure the system is working as intended.
- Always test with sample records before rolling out changes, and make sure someone owns responsibility for maintaining the assignment logic, whether that’s Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, or RevOps.
For deeper guidance on Salesforce routing, see Salesforce Help: Guidelines for Assignment Rules.
The punchline
The strongest options for assigning leads are HubSpot Workflows, Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules, and Salesforce Flows.
HubSpot Workflows are the simplest to set up and maintain, especially for round robin assignment.
Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules remain effective for straightforward criteria-based routing, while Flows now provide the most flexibility when business rules shift often.
If your current automatic lead routing setup is clunky or inconsistent, let’s fix it.
Reach out to Tate if you’re interested in a tailored lead assignment design - built around your team, your tech stack, and your growth goals.
