As your business continues to grow, your lead generation strategy should grow with you. A business that grows typically generates more leads that require more follow ups, lead scoring, and qualifying for your sales team. Eventually your general marketing team will be unable to keep up with all of the leads.
This is where lead generation specialists can come in to handle those important responsibilities. A lead generation specialist handles many tasks and often takes on ambiguous responsibilities.
Let's explore the lead generation specialist position and why you could use them in your organization.
What Is a Lead Generation Specialist?
A lead generation specialist is someone who helps to improve lead quality in the B2B business space by acquiring and evaluating the new leads they capture before they are passed from marketing to sales.
Lead generation specialists' job duties often vary depending on the organization they work for.
Some of their core responsibilities include:
- Generating new leads
- Pre-qualifying leads
- Engaging leads
Lead generation specialists often bridge the gap between marketing and sales by inserting themselves into the lead flow process. In essence, someone has to follow up on the opportunities that marketing generates to make sure they are legitimate.
How to Become a Lead Generation Specialist
Becoming a lead generation specialist takes a mix of sales and marketing skills along with some previous sales or customer service experience. The top skill required to become a lead generation specialist is communication so you can engage leads effectively.
Most often, lead generation positions require field experience in the industry of the organization you work for. For instance, if you are going to be generating leads for a home improvement company, then they may require sales or marketing experience in the home improvement sector.
Other requirements may include a bachelor's or associate's degree in a related field.
Breaking Down the Lead Generation Specialist Job Description
Lead generation specialists need to be highly motivated individuals who are self-starters and show an ability to identify and develop new prospects for a business from multiple channels, including individual research, discovery, and prospect lists.
They work directly with executive sales directors to drive sales through the top of the funnel using prospecting skills that qualify leads and identify key decision makers.
Lead generation specialists assist the sales director with analysis and reporting to make data-driven decisions later on in the sales funnel. They also collaborate with the marketing team on campaigns when necessary.
Lead generation specialists must:
- Be highly organized.
- Have a positive and enthusiastic attitude.
- Have a proven track record of lead generation success.
- Have marketing or inside sales experience.
- Be able to maintain their lead pipeline and opportunities effectively.
- Demonstrate a high level of integrity and interpersonal skills.
- Be skilled in CRM or sales software.
- Have strong selling and prospecting experience.
Lead Generation Specialist Responsibilities
Some of the key responsibilities a lead generation specialist must carry out include:
- Researching potential customers that can benefit from an organization's services.
- Communicating service or product offerings accurately to prospects and recording qualifying questions.
- Building and cultivating strong relationships by communicating with prospects and leads via follow up calls and emails in order to nudge them through the sales funnel.
- Preparing and analyzing sales pipeline data and reports.
- Attending weekly sales strategy meetings with the sales team and maintaining regular communication with sales.
- Ensuring all communications are logged into a CRM with accurate information and with the proper documents attached.
- Develop social networking pages so they are set up to capture leads.
- Manage marketing campaign data to ensure consistency and data integrity.
- Analyze campaign performance to provide consistent ROI.
- Set up appointments for sales reps and qualified leads.
Lead generation specialists often do more than what is listed in this article and can take on several different roles depending on the organization they work for.
Next, let's examine how lead generation strategies can be a benefit to your business.
Why You Need Lead Generation Strategies
Here are five reasons why you should consider applying lead gen strategies to your organization:
They Generate Awareness.
You want your business to be well known in its target market. Brand awareness measures how many people within that market actually know who you are.
Generating more brand awareness helps your customers to think of you first when they go to make a purchase in your industry and within your product category.
Your reputation is strengthened by the amount of people who are aware of your brand, which increases your potential profit and overall brand value.
Lead generation focuses on informing and educating people in your target markets about your brand. This creates the possibility for "word of mouth" marketing.
They Increase Your Sales.
The most important aspect of lead generation is the hefty boost it can give to your sales when executed correctly. Organizations that employ the use of lead generation strategies are more likely to increase sales by turning interested leads into paying customers.
Lead generation helps you to position your business as an expert in your field and can provide you with a competitive slot in the marketplace.
They Help You Target Desired Customers.
Bringing in a lot of leads isn't always the best thing for your business. Leads that aren't qualified or that just aren't the right fit for your offerings aren't going to help you make sales.
Lead generation strategies focus on quality over quantity by allowing you to target your ideal leads that turn into desired customers at different demographic locations. This makes it easy for you to decide where you think you may make more sales.
They Allow You to Collect Important Information About Your Prospects.
Knowledge is power when it comes to your prospects. You should want to get to know things about their needs and preferences so you can craft your messaging around that information.
This allows you to add value to the prospect by tailoring your product or service to meet their wants, interests, or needs.
They Are Mutually Beneficial.
Nothing is more satisfying than a mutually beneficial sale. Buyers can conduct their own research on your product and receive all of the information they need due to your lead generation channels, and you can collect key information to offer them the best value.
You gain a lead and a possible customer, and they gain something that can help fulfill a need or to help them alleviate certain pain points.
To reap all of these incredible benefits, you need a lead generation specialist or a team of lead generation specialists to ramp up your strategy.
Hiring an In-House Lead Generation Specialist vs. Outsourcing Lead Generation Specialists
There are many things to consider when you decide to follow through on your lead generation strategy by hiring professionals.
The two main options you have are in-house and outsourced lead generation specialists. You'll need to think about your time, budget, and ultimate goals before you choose one over the other.
To help you decide, we've compiled a list of pros and cons for each option.
In-House Lead Generation Specialist Pros and Cons
Pros
- You gain a dedicated individual for your marketing and sales teams to adapt to your specific processes for the purpose of driving revenue.
- The position is flexible, and the lead gen specialist can take on many tasks such as qualifying leads, generating leads, and prospecting.
Cons
- They may have low bandwidth since they can only make a certain amount of calls per day (80-100). Outsourced lead generation vendors can make a significant amount more than that.
- Paying a lead generation specialist is a fixed cost that can get expensive. Yearly, this could cost you around $36,000.
Outsourcing Lead Generation Specialists Pros and Cons
Pros
- You don't need all the resources to devote to staffing a full-time lead generation specialist or lead generation department.
- You get to rent an entire team of lead generation professionals in order to help extend the reach of your marketing efforts.
- The risk is lower than hiring an in-house specialist because the fixed costs for different tactics and campaigns is under your control.
Cons
- The lead generation services market contains many variables that you must consider. Vet your provider to ensure you are getting the right lead generation services for your business and industry type.
- Cost-per-lead deals can be misleading. You want to make sure you are paying for quality leads, not just volume.
How to Outsource Your Lead Generation Efforts
Here are five helpful tips for you to consider when you start to outsource your lead generation efforts.
1. Select the Right Agency.
This tip seems like a no-brainer, but picking the right agency is tougher than it seems. Some of the things you should look for in an agency include:
- Previous experience generating leads for your industry.
- If they are an inbound or outbound agency.
- How their lead generation services can be tailored to meet your goals.
2. Find Out What Your Relationship Will Be.
Ask leading questions to the agencies you're interested in to inquire about the status of your partnership at each point during the lead generation process.
For instance, you may ask them:
- What success looks like.
- How many leads you can expect to see each quarter, month, or week.
- How much time you must commit to collaborating with the agency for lead generation to make the partnership work.
3. Think About Your Growth Goals and Timeline.
You should know what your lead generation goals are before you decide to fully outsource.
The reason you should asses your goals is to make sure you are getting the proper return on investment from the agency you hire. You don't want to hire an agency that isn't capable of helping you reach your growth goals by a specific date.
Make sure your goals are realistic for the timeline that you have.
4. Ask Them About Their Toolkit.
Make sure the outbound and inbound solutions they use for contacting potential leads are robust and multichannel so you can ensure that you are getting the most out of your money.
Multichannel solutions have the furthest reach and can bring in leads from various places to help you capture a good bit of your target audience.
Ask the agency to talk you through the tech that they rely on before you outsource with them.
5. Conduct Additional Research.
Outsourcing is a big decision. Make sure you make the right decision by checking websites that offer reviews and ratings of the agency you choose. Search the web for case studies and awards to make sure the agency has the right experience and expertise to handle your unique business needs.
Most importantly, search for a team that is excited and passionate about being an ambassador for your brand. They should offer information about the insights they have for targeting your ideal buyer persona right away. Be cautious with companies that don't offer you value before you close the deal with them.
A lead generation specialist or a team of lead generation specialists can boost your revenue and maintain a steady flow of qualified traffic. Without them, your sales teams would have to deal with an excess of unqualified leads who won't make a purchase or are unable to make a purchase.
Put this secret weapon to use to make educated, data-driven decisions.
Erika Giles
Erika is a Marketing Copywriter at Bluleadz. She is a huge fan of houseplants and podcasts about conspiracy theories. She spends most of her free time reading, writing, and enjoying the outdoors.