Short answer
Leads aren't handed out ahead of time. Every lead in a campaign waits in one shared queue. Whenever an agent's dialer needs another number, it takes the best lead in that queue that this agent is allowed to call. Teams, skills and lead owners decide who may take a lead. Priority rules decide which lead comes next.
Most people picture lead distribution as a manager splitting a spreadsheet: 200 leads to Sam, 200 to Priya. Modern dialers rarely work that way. A split list goes stale the moment someone calls in sick, a lead asks for a callback or a hot new lead arrives. So DialerDay uses a pull model instead.
One queue per campaign
When you add leads to a campaign, each one becomes an entry in that campaign's queue with a status of *pending*. Nothing is assigned yet. The entry just records:
- when the lead may be called next (after a retry delay, for example),
- how many times it has been called,
- its place in any cadence step, callback or priority boost.
The dialer pulls, it doesn't push
When an agent starts a session, their dialer asks for the next lead. When a line frees up, it asks again. On each request the dialer looks for work in this order:
- Inbound callers waiting in the queue.
- Callbacks that are due, starting with the ones this agent booked.
- The best lead in the campaign that this agent may take.
Taking a lead locks it on the spot, so two agents can pull from the same campaign at the same moment and never get the same lead. With 30 reps on one list, nobody double-dials and nobody waits on anyone else.
Step 1: is this agent allowed to take the lead?
Before the dialer looks at order, it filters the queue down to leads that are callable right now, and callable by this agent:
| Check | What it does |
|---|---|
| Calling rules | Skips DNC numbers, invalid numbers, leads on do-not-disturb, and leads outside their calling hours in their own time zone. |
| Required skills | The agent must have every skill the campaign requires. |
| Licensed state | With state routing on, the agent must be licensed in the lead's state. |
| Language and tagged skills | With skill routing on, the agent must have the language or skill the lead needs. |
| Lead owner | In owner-only campaigns, the agent gets their own leads plus unowned ones. |
Teams act one level up. They decide whether an agent can work the campaign at all.
Step 2: which lead comes first?
Among the leads this agent may take, the dialer sorts by:
- Leads that jumped the queue (missed-call callbacks, double dials).
- Leads still owed their minimum calls for the day, week or month.
- The earliest cadence step.
- The queue priority score (your rules plus a weighted lead score).
- Tag rank or list order, then lead age, then mobile before landline.
In what order does the dialer call leads? covers each of these.
Where owners come in
You can still give leads owners: by hand, with a workflow, or automatically with round robin or balanced assignment. Owners only change who may pull a lead, and in what order. The lead never leaves the shared queue, so a rep who's out can't strand it unless you want them to.
Why pull beats push
- No stale splits. If a rep logs off at 2pm, their share doesn't sit untouched. Everyone else keeps pulling from the same queue.
- Always the best lead. The order is worked out at the moment of dialing, so a lead that came in a minute ago can go to the very next free agent.
- Fair by design. Faster reps simply pull more, and nobody runs out while someone else still has a pile.