Shark Tank in Shape

Give every lead another chance to convert

Shark Tank is Shape’s shared lead distribution and redistribution system. It finds records that meet your rules, such as aged or neglected leads, and puts them in a shared pool where eligible users can claim them and keep the opportunity moving.

Administrators control:

• Which records qualify, and when
• Which users, teams, or departments can access each Shark Tank
• Which department claimed leads are assigned under
• How available records are prioritized
• When each Shark Tank is open
• What users can see and do before claiming
• How many records each user can claim

Shape also handles the rules that are easy to get wrong by hand. Time Zone Protect keeps leads out of Shark Tank until they’re inside their local calling hours, and State Eligibility keeps leads away from users who aren’t licensed to work them.

Why use Shark Tank?

Lead generation is expensive. When a lead goes quiet because its owner got busy, changed roles, or moved on, there’s often still value in it. Shark Tank gives those leads a second chance without anyone reviewing old records one by one. Teams use it to:

• Recover neglected or aged leads
• Build shared lead pools for sales teams
• Improve speed to lead and follow-up consistency
• Balance workloads across users
• Give users more opportunities once their assigned leads are worked
• Create dedicated pools for specific products, campaigns, branches, or departments
• Run controlled claiming workflows where users must take ownership before seeing the full record

Admin quick start: set up your first Shark Tank

1. Go to Settings › Shark Tank and select Create New Rule.
2. Name it for its purpose and choose the record type.
3. Choose the view type: List View (users pick) or Pull Queue (users select Get Lead).
4. Set who has access and the department claimed leads are assigned under.
5. Add rules and filters for which leads qualify, then set prioritization.
6. Set a Daily Cap, turn on State Eligibility for licensed work, and optionally change status on claim.
7. Set the run schedule for when it’s open.
8. Check it as a user: confirm the leads you expect show up, keeping in mind Time Zone Protect hides leads outside their calling hours.

Where users find Shark Tank

• Pull Queue: select Get Lead in the navigation bar to receive the next eligible lead.
• List View: List View Shark Tanks appear with your list pages under Prioritization Rules, so users can browse and claim from there.

How Shark Tank works

Once a record meets your Shark Tank rules, it becomes available to users with access to that Shark Tank. Users either pick a record from a list or let Shape hand them the next one, depending on the view type. Before a lead shows up for a user, Shape checks four things:

If any check fails, the lead simply doesn’t appear for that user. Shape re-checks continuously, so a lead shows up on its own once everything lines up, for example when its calling window opens.

When a record is claimed:

• It’s assigned to the claiming user right away, under the department configured for that Shark Tank.
• The claiming user typically replaces the original owner, unless your account has other assignment rules configured. The original owner isn’t notified.
• It disappears from the Shark Tank for everyone else.
• A Shark Tank activity is added to the record’s history.
• If Change status on claim is set, the status updates, which can start a drip campaign that uses that status.
• The user works it through their normal Shape workflow.

If the record later meets the Shark Tank rules again, it can come back.

Shark Tank view types

Each Shark Tank uses one of two view types. The names are interchangeable; Shape 2.0 calls them Cherry-Pick and Blind-Pull.

Both view types follow the same rules: Time Zone Protect, State Eligibility, daily caps, and department assignment all apply the same way.

Nothing to claim? If no eligible leads are available when a user selects Get Lead, Shape shows a notification that no leads are available right now.

List View can work normally, where users can open records before claiming, or with Claim-Only Access, where the Claim button is the only way in.

Claiming a lead

Claiming transfers ownership of the lead to you. From there it’s like any other assigned record: call, text, email, add notes, schedule follow-up, and update statuses as usual.

First come, first served. If two users try to claim the same record at nearly the same time, the first successful claim wins. The other user is told the record has already been claimed.

Claim-Only Access: claim before you see the full record

Any List View can require users to claim a lead before opening it. Claim-Only Access is off by default and set separately for each Shark Tank.

Once a claim succeeds, ownership transfers and you can open the full record. This setting only affects Shark Tank List Views, not other Shape list pages.

Why use it? It makes users decide based only on what the Shark Tank shows. That helps you require ownership first, stop users from opening many leads before choosing, reduce cherry-picking based on details you didn’t intend to share, and keep accountability clear.

Setting up a Shark Tank

Go to Settings › Shark Tank and select Create New Rule to create a Shark Tank, or edit an existing one. You can create as many as you need, each with its own view settings, access, rules, filters, prioritization, and optional features. Only users with Shark Tank permissions can create or edit Shark Tanks. By default that’s admins only, but you can extend it to other roles in Role Permissions.

Name it

Use a name that says what the pool is for, such as Aged Leads, Internet Leads, Refinance Opportunities, Contract Follow-Up, Realtor Leads, Renewal Opportunities, or Past Customer Opportunities. Clear names matter most when users can see several Shark Tanks.

Choose the record type

Pick which type of record this Shark Tank evaluates. Options depend on your Shape setup.

Set who has access

Choose which users can see and claim records from this Shark Tank. Only authorized users can view or claim its records.

Choose the department for claimed leads

Users can belong to more than one department. Without this setting, there was no way to control which department a claimed lead was assigned under.

Now you can pick a department for each Shark Tank. Whenever a user claims a lead from it, Shape assigns the user to the record under that department, no matter which other departments the user belongs to. It works the same in List View and Pull Queue.

Example: Jordan belongs to both the Purchase and Refinance departments. Your “Refi Opportunities” Shark Tank is set to the Refinance department. When Jordan claims a lead there, the record is assigned to Jordan under Refinance, every time.

If you don’t pick a department, Shape uses the claiming user’s primary department: the first department they were assigned to when their user was created. For users in only one department, nothing changes either way.

This keeps department-based reporting, workflows, tabs, and permissions consistent for users who work across departments.

Set daily caps

Daily Caps limit how many records a user can claim from a particular Shark Tank during a rolling work period. The window starts with the user’s first claim and lasts eight hours, then the user’s claims reset. For example, a first claim at 9:00 AM opens a window that runs until 5:00 PM.

Caps help distribute opportunities more evenly, stop a few users from claiming everything, encourage broader participation, and balance workloads.

When a user hits their cap, Shape shows them a notification that they’ve reached their Shark Tank cap. They can claim again once their window resets.

Shark Tank caps vs. new lead caps. Leads a user claims from Shark Tank don’t count toward their new lead distribution cap. A user who has hit their new lead cap can still claim from Shark Tank, as long as they have access and haven’t hit that Shark Tank’s own Daily Cap. The two limits are tracked separately.

Change status on claim

A Shark Tank can update a record’s status automatically when it’s claimed. That makes the ownership change easy to spot and can kick off follow-up automation or reporting. If a drip campaign uses that status as its Initiation Status, the claimed lead enters the drip, so check your active drips before choosing a status.

State Eligibility: only licensed users see the lead

When State Eligibility is turned on for a Shark Tank, Shape compares the lead’s state with the State Eligibility field on each user’s profile. Users only see and claim leads in states they’re eligible to work, which keeps opportunities inside each user’s licensed territory.

Which state does Shape use?

Shark Tank never uses the phone number’s area code for licensing.

Oregon borrowers need two licenses. For mortgage accounts, if the borrower’s Present State is Oregon, the user’s State Eligibility must include Oregon and the Property State. This applies even when the property is outside Oregon.

Keep each user’s State Eligibility up to date as licenses are added or expire. If a user can’t see a lead, their State Eligibility is one of the first things to check.

Choosing which leads qualify

Rules

Rules decide which records enter a Shark Tank. Only records meeting every rule become available. Rules can include included and excluded statuses, marketing channel types, marketing campaign sources, tags, standard CRM fields, and custom fields.

That lets you build focused pools instead of one giant queue: leads in a particular status, from a specific provider, with a certain tag, from one campaign, or aged leads that haven’t been contacted lately.

Advanced filters

Filters let you base rules on how a lead has actually been worked, not just its status. Available fields include Create Date, Conversion Date, Last Assigned Date, Last Contact Attempt, Total Contact Attempts, Total Call Attempts, Last Call Attempt Date, Last Status Change Date, Next Calendar Event Date, Shape IQ AI Lead Score, and custom fields.

Example: an aged-lead Shark Tank could include leads that:

• Haven’t been contacted in the last seven days
• Were assigned more than two days ago
• Have fewer than three call attempts
• Have no upcoming calendar event
• Meet a particular custom field requirement

Custom fields let Shark Tank follow your own business data, such as product type, territory, customer segment, internal classification, loan or transaction details, or campaign attributes.

Prioritizing leads

Prioritization decides the order leads appear in List View and which lead Pull Queue hands out next. Sort by Created Date, Conversion Date, Last Status Change Date, Last Call Attempt Date, Total Call Attempts, or Shape IQ AI Lead Score, ascending or descending. For example, you might put the oldest neglected leads first, surface leads with the fewest call attempts, or lead with the highest AI scores.

Prioritization only orders the leads that are claimable right now. A high-priority lead outside its calling window waits until its window opens.

Controlling what users see before claiming

List Views have three controls you can use alone or together.

Each control affects only that Shark Tank’s List View, not Quick Actions or list pages elsewhere in Shape. Hide Quick Actions and Claim-Only Access work independently.

The fully controlled claiming experience

Combine Lock Columns + Hide Quick Actions + Claim-Only Access to:

1. Control exactly which lead information is shown.
2. Remove shortcuts that could be used to work the lead.
3. Prevent users from opening the full record.
4. Require a claim before anyone accesses or works the lead.

The result is a clear flow: review the available info › claim the lead › open the full record › start working it.

When leads are available: run schedules and Time Zone Protect

Two different clocks decide when a lead can be claimed. Both have to say yes.

Run schedules

Run schedules set the hours each Shark Tank is active. Instead of being open all day, a Shark Tank can follow your team’s workflow. For example, new leads get worked in the morning, an aged-lead Shark Tank opens later in the day, and users can claim more once their assigned work is done. Each Shark Tank has its own schedule, and the hours follow your company time zone.

Time Zone Protect

While a Shark Tank is open, Time Zone Protect hides any lead that’s outside its local calling window, so nobody can claim a lead they can’t call yet. It applies to both List View and Pull Queue.

This is always on in Shark Tank. Shark Tank hides leads outside their calling hours for every account, even if your account’s Time Zone Protect calling toggle is off. That toggle only controls the warning on calls your users place directly.

Hidden leads aren’t lost. They come back on their own as soon as their hours open. In Pull Queue, Get Lead skips them until then and hands out the next lead that’s inside its window.

When a lead is outside its window:

• It’s hidden from Shark Tank results and can’t be claimed.
• Shark Tank counts include only leads that can be claimed right now.
• It reappears automatically when its window opens, if it meets every other rule.
• It’s removed again when its window closes.

What hours does Shape use? The default window is 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM in the lead’s local time. Some states have their own configured hours, weekend limits, or holiday restrictions; see the Time Zone Protect guide for the full table. Shape adjusts for daylight saving time automatically.

How Shape finds the lead’s time zone. Shape checks the lead’s address before the phone number, since people often keep their number when they move. It checks Present ZIP Code and State, then Mailing, then Property address, and uses the area code only as a last resort. If the time zone can’t be confirmed, it uses the most restrictive window.

Example: Your company time zone is Eastern and the Shark Tank opens at 8:00 AM. A lead living in Nevada has a Florida phone number. Shape uses Nevada, where it’s 5:00 AM, so the lead stays hidden. At 11:00 AM Eastern (8:00 AM in Nevada), it appears, as long as the user meets every other requirement.

Multiple Shark Tanks and working claimed leads

Can a record appear in more than one Shark Tank? Yes, if it meets the rules for each. That can be intentional for specialized workflows, but avoid unnecessary overlap. Clear, distinct rules make it easier for users to know which pool to work.

After claiming, the lead is part of your assigned workload. Depending on your permissions and features, you can call, text, email, add notes, schedule events, update statuses, and keep moving it through your process. Claiming sets ownership; what happens next follows your normal workflow.

Reporting. Shark Tank reporting lets admins and managers review claim activity, such as who claimed which leads and when. Each claim is also logged as a Shark Tank activity on the record.

Shark Tank best practices

• ✓Build purpose-built Shark Tanks. Separate pools for aged internet leads, refinance opportunities, past customers, renewals, specific campaigns, or specialties are easier to understand and manage than one giant pool.
• ✓Set the department on every Shark Tank used by people who work across departments, so claimed leads land in the right place for reporting and workflows.
• ✓Decide how much users see before claiming. Leave Claim-Only Access off for open review, turn it on when the decision should rely only on the list, and add Lock Columns to control that preview.
• ✓Hide Quick Actions when users shouldn’t call, text, or email a lead still in the shared pool.
• ✓Use Pull Queue when fairness matters more than choice. Shape hands out the next lead by your priority rules.
• ✓Use Shark Tank caps and new lead caps together. They solve different problems and are tracked separately.
• ✓Turn on State Eligibility for licensed work, and keep each user’s State Eligibility field current.
• ✓Plan run schedules around time zones. With Time Zone Protect, a Shark Tank that opens early Eastern time may look empty until western leads’ windows open.
• ✓Avoid unnecessary rule overlap.
• ✓Review regularly. Check eligibility rules, filters, prioritization, caps, access, departments, run schedules, and List View controls as lead volume, staffing, and priorities change.

Example Shark Tank setups

Use these as starting points and adjust to your team.

Troubleshooting for admins: “Shark Tank is empty” or “I can’t claim”

Work through these in order. They match the four checks a lead has to pass.

1. Is the Shark Tank open? Check its run schedule, which follows your company time zone.
2. Do any records meet the rules? Review statuses, sources, tags, and filters. Try loosening one filter to see if records appear.
3. Are the leads inside their calling hours? Shark Tank always hides leads outside their local calling window, even if the Time Zone Protect calling toggle is off. Early in the day, western leads may not be available yet. Check that lead addresses and ZIP codes are complete.
4. Can this user work the lead? Confirm they have access to this Shark Tank, their State Eligibility includes the lead’s state (and Oregon for Oregon borrowers), and they haven’t hit their Daily Cap. They’ll see a notification if they’ve hit the cap or if no leads are available.
5. Did someone else claim it first? Claims are first come, first served.
6. Landed in the wrong department? Check the department set on the Shark Tank. If none is set, Shape uses the user’s primary department.

Still stuck? Contact Shape Support with the Shark Tank name, the user, an example record, and the time you checked.

Frequently asked questions

Build a Shark Tank around how your team works

Shark Tank is more than an aged-lead queue. With eligibility rules, advanced filters, prioritization, Pull Queue, run schedules, caps, department assignment, and List View controls, you decide which leads become available and how users take them.

Open teams can let users review opportunities before claiming. Teams focused on fairness can use Pull Queue. Organizations that need tighter control can limit what users see and require a claim first. And with Time Zone Protect and State Eligibility built in, every claimed lead is one the user can actually call and is licensed to work.

Need help? Email help@setshape.com, call Support at (888) 718-6344, or visit setshape.com/support.

Related guides: Time Zone Protect · Distribution Rules · Company Settings · Prioritized Views & Prioritization Rules · Manage Departments