Setting leads based on zip codes

Hi all, I am trying to set up logic to auto assign leads based on zip codes. I know how to do this by state using a business rule and process definition but setting up a rule with 41K+ zip codes seems a bit much. any ideas on the best way to set this up?

  • Hi Zach,

    I had a similar need for assigning Accounts when a sales territory for a state was split.  It was a manual and painful project accomplished using export / import and the Excel "=vlookup" command.

    If the volume is low enough, you could have a BPM that sent the request to assign the lead to someone that had the time and responsibility to do the assignments.

    Bud Hartley | Cape Foulwind, NZ (and Oregon, USA)

  • Hi Zach, I have seen this topic come up before and wanted to share a couple of threads. I don't think there is an easy/straightforward solution, but I'm sure there are ways it can be done.

    This thread is quite old now, but I'm pretty sure the concepts in the verified answer still apply: Assign leads based on zip code range. Note that it handles zip codes in blocks, using a range of zip codes instead of a single one at a time.

    This thread by   is more recent and talks about some third-party services you could consider: Adding the Name of the County in Account records based on the Postal Code?  

    Hopefully these will at least give you some background info and things to consider based on past discussions.

    Good luck!

    -Brenda

  • Thanks everyone, for the time being I am using Zapier to implement the function i needed by creating a zip to terr module. I think i will work on a web hook for the future but this was a quick solution. 

  • hi  

    Would you mind sharing more details of your Zapier setup please?

    I'm guessing the Zip to Territory module in CRM?

    Thanks in advance

  • Hi Tony,

    Yes the zip to territory module I set up in Sugar, just a few basic fields:

    Zip code

    Territory Name

    Sales Rep

    I used alignmix to give me a zip code file that aligns my reps and thats what i plugged into the CRM. 

    In the lead I have created a field to pull in the sales reps name and another field to pull in the territory. These two fields are what I'm asking Zapier to update based on the zip code. 

    I used Zapier to then find new lead records and I'm using the zip code from the new record to find the second record I'm using in Zapier, which is the lead zip code in the zip code module. Then using Zapier to find a record which is the new lead record. Then using zapier to update the record on the lead. Four total steps, broken down below for a little more clarity.

    1. New Record - New record in leads module

    2. Find Record - Find a record in the Zip code module using the postal code from the lead record

    3. Find Record - Find the lead record using the zip code

    4. Update Record - Update the leads module fields - Sales Rep and Territory Name

    After that i built a process definition to look at new lead records and first updated records. I used the criteria that the sales rep field in not blank. This way the first time zapier makes the update it will qualify as the first update on the lead record and trigger my process and not continue to trigger down the line. You could define the process to do this on all update if you needed.

    The process definition I used is similar to the one in the article below. I just removed the business rule section since I now have the sales reps name on the lead record. Im using this to then utilize the process of "assign to" on the activity in the process definition. 

    I initially was using zapier to update the assign to field directly but that didn't actually update the record. I'm still learning the ins and outs of sugar and I know the assign to field is a unique field that plays by different rules, so this process definition got me around that.  

    I could be going about this wrong but since there is no clear guide on this and its not an out of the box feature, this was what I came up with as a new sugar user. I hope this helps!

    support.sugarcrm.com/.../

  • Thank you so much  

    I will try this method on a demo.

    Apologies for my delayed reply, I caught Covid and been in catch-up mode last couple of days.

    Best wishes,

    Tony