Routing is a connecting layer, not a standalone tool
When revenue operations teams evaluate lead routing tools, they tend to focus on the routing logic itself: rules, round-robin, territories. But routing doesn't operate in a vacuum. It sits at the center of your GTM tech stack, connecting systems that generate leads with systems where reps work them.
The integration points between routing and the rest of your stack determine whether routing actually works in practice or creates yet another silo.
The modern RevOps tech stack
Most B2B revenue operations teams run some version of this stack:
- CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, or occasionally Dynamics, Zoho, or another platform
- Marketing automation: HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, or similar
- Enrichment: ZoomInfo, Clearbit, Apollo, or others
- Sales engagement: Outreach, SalesLoft, HubSpot Sequences, or similar
- Scheduling: Calendly, Chili Piper, or native CRM scheduling
- Conversation intelligence: Gong, Chorus, or similar
- Business intelligence: Looker, Tableau, or CRM-native reporting
Lead routing touches almost all of these. Here's how.
Where routing connects
CRM: The system of record
Your CRM is where lead, contact, account, and opportunity records live. Routing needs deep CRM integration because:
- Routing decisions depend on CRM data. Territory assignments, account ownership, and existing opportunity status all live in the CRM. Your routing tool needs to read this data in real time to make correct decisions.
- Routing outcomes write to the CRM. When a lead is routed, the assignment needs to be reflected in the CRM immediately: owner fields updated, tasks created, notifications triggered.
- Matching requires CRM queries. Lead-to-account matching compares incoming leads against existing account records in your CRM. The speed and accuracy of this matching depends on CRM integration quality.
The key question: does your routing tool work natively in your CRM or connect via API?
Native tools (like LeanData for Salesforce) operate within the CRM's data layer. API-connected tools sync data between systems. Native integration is generally faster and more reliable, but limits you to one CRM platform.
Marketing automation: The lead source
Marketing automation platforms are typically where leads are first created: form submissions, landing pages, content downloads, event registrations. The lead then needs to reach your routing tool.
The integration path matters:
- Direct integration: routing triggers immediately when the marketing platform creates the lead
- CRM-mediated: lead syncs from marketing platform to CRM, then routing triggers in the CRM
- Webhook-based: marketing platform sends a webhook that triggers routing in real time
Each path has different latency characteristics. Direct or webhook-based integration is fastest. CRM-mediated routing depends on the sync interval between your marketing platform and CRM. If that sync runs every 15 minutes, you've already lost the speed to lead battle before routing even starts.
Enrichment: The data layer
Enrichment tools add company and contact data to leads: employee count, industry, revenue, technology stack, job title seniority. This data is often critical for routing decisions:
- Employee count determines segment (SMB/mid-market/enterprise)
- Industry determines vertical territory assignment
- Geography determines regional territory
- Job title influences whether the lead routes to SDR or direct-to-AE
The sequencing matters: enrichment should run before routing. If routing fires before enrichment data is available, the routing rules may not have the attributes they need. Some routing tools include enrichment natively; others require you to manage the sequencing yourself.
Sales engagement: The action layer
After routing assigns a lead, what happens next? In most teams, the lead enters a sales engagement sequence, an automated cadence of calls, emails, and social touches. The routing tool needs to connect to your engagement platform to:
- Automatically enroll the lead in the right sequence based on routing outcome
- Set the sequence owner to the assigned rep
- Customize the sequence based on lead attributes (segment, product interest, source)
If routing and engagement are disconnected, there's a manual step between "lead assigned" and "lead worked." That manual step is where speed to lead dies.
Scheduling: The conversion point
For teams where meeting booking is the primary conversion event, scheduling integration is essential. The ideal flow:
- Lead submits form
- Enrichment adds data
- Matching identifies the account
- Routing determines the rep
- Scheduling shows the rep's calendar immediately
Each step should be seamless. If any step requires a page reload, an email, or a manual handoff, you lose conversion.
The integration tax
Every integration between tools carries a cost:
- Latency: data syncing between systems takes time
- Reliability: integrations break, APIs go down, sync jobs fail
- Maintenance: someone has to monitor, troubleshoot, and update integrations
- Data consistency: fields mapped differently across systems create discrepancies
This "integration tax" compounds as you add tools. A routing workflow that spans five systems has five potential failure points, five sync delays, and five sets of field mappings to maintain.
This is why some teams prefer consolidated platforms that handle multiple functions (routing, enrichment, scheduling, engagement) in one system. Fewer integrations, lower tax. The trade-off is that consolidated platforms may not be best-in-class at any individual function.
Common integration architectures
Hub-and-spoke (CRM-centric)
The CRM is the center. All tools sync data to and from the CRM. Routing happens within or adjacent to the CRM.
Pros: Single source of truth, simpler data model, CRM-native reporting.
Cons: CRM sync latency affects everything. CRM becomes a bottleneck if it's slow or rate-limited.
Event-driven (webhook-based)
Tools communicate via real-time events. A form submission triggers a webhook that fires enrichment, then matching, then routing, then scheduling, all in a chain of real-time events.
Pros: Fastest possible latency. Each step triggers the next immediately.
Cons: More complex to build and monitor. Debugging requires tracing events across systems. Failure in one step breaks the chain.
Platform-consolidated
A single platform handles multiple functions: lead capture, enrichment, routing, scheduling, and engagement. Fewer integration points because the functions share a data layer.
Pros: Simplest architecture. Lowest integration tax. Fastest data flow.
Cons: You're locked into one vendor's capabilities across multiple functions. If their routing is great but their enrichment is weak, you're making compromises.
Evaluating routing tools through a stack lens
When you're evaluating lead routing tools, don't just assess routing features in isolation. Ask:
- What does the integration look like with my CRM? Native vs. API? Real-time vs. batch?
- How does it sequence with enrichment? Can I ensure enrichment runs before routing?
- How does it connect to sales engagement? Can routed leads automatically enter sequences?
- What breaks when the integration fails? Is there a fallback? How will I know?
- Who maintains the integrations? Do I need a dedicated ops resource to keep things running?
The routing tool with the best feature set on paper might be the worst choice if it doesn't integrate cleanly with your existing stack.
The case for routing-first architecture
Most RevOps stacks evolve organically. CRM first, then marketing automation, then engagement, then scheduling, with routing bolted on later as an afterthought. Routing ends up as a layer trying to coordinate between systems that weren't designed to work together.
We think there's a better approach: build routing as a core layer from the start, with integrations designed around the routing workflow rather than routing designed around integration limitations.
That's the architecture behind what we're building at RevenueTools. A routing and territory system that sits at the center of your stack by design — not by duct tape. See what launches March 10th.