A lead generation specialist is primarily responsible for generating leads, categorizing them depending on their sales-readiness, and nurturing them.
In this article, we will look at the role of a lead generation professional, why it is considered pivotal in any business, the essential skills needed to become a successful lead generation specialist, and a sample job description for the role of lead generation specialist.
The role of a lead generation assistant is pivotal to the sales process, as lead generators are ultimately responsible for identifying people who are potentially interested in your offerings, i.e., leads. In the pre-web 2.0 era, leads were extensively generated by cold-calling, but as the space grew rapidly, professionals integrated email marketing and social selling as well.
Today, a lead generation professional covers both – traditional and modern marketing platforms and avenues to identify and generate leads depending on the organization’s business model and team structure.
Although the lead generation personnel is a member of the sales team, they work closely with marketing as well. Along with generating new leads, they also need to stay on top of the leads generated through inbound means so that they can initiate routine follow-ups as a part of the lead nurturing process.
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Why You Should Consider the Role of a Lead Generation Professional The role of a lead generator is often an entry point to better opportunities in sales or business development as you gain experience. Besides this, here are four reasons why you should consider this role:
1. High Demand Every organization intends to expand its operations continually. To reach such audacious goals, it needs to have a high-performing sales team. The foundation of a successful sales team that meets and exceeds revenue goals is to cultivate a lead pipeline. Thus the sales team requires individuals who are capable of generating leads by identifying and connecting with the most relevant segment of its target audience.
2. Career Growth The role of lead generation provides tremendous growth opportunities. For instance, depending on the industry you’re working in, as you accrue experience in your role, you stand the opportunities to be promoted to the positions of account manager, sales manager, inside sales, business development manager, strategic accounts manager, and their respective senior roles such as director, vice president, and so on.
. Relatively Easy Entry in the Domain Getting entry in the technology domain can be a challenge. The positions in sales are often open to people with diverse educational backgrounds as long as they possess specific skills (which we’ll see in the next section). There are no rigid criteria for anyone willing to get into the position of lead generation. If you have the right skills, the ability to grasp the characteristics of the target audience, and understand the product well enough, you’ll be well on your way to getting the desired job.
1. Tech Savviness While communicating with prospects, it is essential to speak their language, which requires an understanding of their pain points and how your product resolves them. When working at a tech organization, you’d be not only using plenty of applications but also be expected to understand more about your offerings and its impact on the industry.
Being tech-savvy will help you stay on top of the latest developments in your niche, which would serve you immensely whether you’re speaking with a prospect or brainstorming with the internal team.
2. Top-Notch Communication Skills This comes as a no-brainer. While working as a lead generation assistant, it’s imperative to have excellent communication skills, which includes both – verbal and written communication. This will allow you to convey your message to your potential customers without any confusion or ambiguity.
Another crucial aspect of communication skills that is often ignored is empathy. Being empathetic means being a good listener and listening with the intent of understanding and not responding. Empathy allows you to help the buyer resolve their pain areas by showing how your product can help them, i.e., you can demonstrate what’s in it for them.
3. Cold Sales Cold sales is often the most dreaded aspect of lead generation or sales. Cold selling could mean cold calling and email, and the reason it’s dreaded is because of the high probability of rejection. Prospects often don’t entertain cold approaches due to many reasons.
The golden rule to connect with a prospect is always to email them first. The purpose is to build rapport and reduce the hesitation when you eventually connect with them over a call. The lead generation specialist should strive to deliver value from the get-go by leveraging content marketing. As you build rapport over time, you can schedule a call to pitch your offerings and take it ahead from there.
4. Lead NurturingLead nurturing is a process of establishing relationships with your prospects at every stage of their journey. Lead nurturing is an essential skill as it helps you decide which leads to pursue first so that the sales team closes the leads that are most likely to convert.
Lead nurturing also involves evaluating the stage of the buyer’s journey the lead is in, their behavior, lead fit, i.e., determining if the lead is worth pursuing. Based on this information, you need to rate them on a scale of 1-10, i.e., lead scoring. Higher the score the sooner they should be pursued.
The other aspect of lead nurturing includes following-up with leads regularly by sending personalized content, offering demos, and offers to nudge them to become a customer.
5. Social SellingSocial selling is the process of connecting with your prospects via social media platforms. With the rise of B2B and B2C facing platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, it has become easy to communicate with your target audience. For example, hashtags on Twitter and groups on LinkedIn provide ample opportunities for lead generation specialists to connect with prospective buyers.
While it’s become easy to approach the prospects directly, it’s still a cold approach nonetheless. Therefore, keep in mind that your purpose should always be to cultivate a relationship, and it would be different compared to cold emailing. For instance, instead of leveraging content marketing, you can use social listening to find the relevant queries in your niche, answer them, and initiate a conversation. This way, you’ll develop trust and credibility.
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