As you grow your business, you may find yourself drowning in lead generation work. You follow up multiple prospects and score and qualify a number of leads. Surely, you have a marketing team to help you, but they also have their own set of tasks. They need to work on marketing campaigns and branding efforts for your business. Eventually, they will not be able to keep up with their lead generation work.
So why not hire a lead generation specialist? Hiring one will not only take some load off your marketing team, but it will also help you convert more prospects and bring in more revenue.
Lead generation specialists are essential members of B2B companies. They are responsible for acquiring and evaluating new leads for your business. With more leads, you have more chances of converting them into clients. Having more clients means higher revenue for your business.
The responsibilities of lead generation specialists vary depending on the nature and the industry of a company. However, their core duties include:
Conducting Outbound Marketing
Lead generation specialists handle a significant number of prospects, set up lead sources, and sell products and services. They are experts in doing research on potential leads and initiating conversations by making cold calls and sending them emails.
Pre-qualifying Leads
Lead generation specialists do research and analyses before sending leads to sales. They try to find out who among their leads are more likely to convert, not wasting time on low-quality leads.
Now that you somehow have an idea what a lead generation specialist does, you might have some questions in mind. It’s all good, though, as you do need to ask important questions when hiring any team member. Here are some of the most important questions to ask when hiring a lead generation specialist:
There are many tell-tale signs that it is time for you to hire a lead generation specialist. Recognising them as early as now can make a difference in your company performance and revenue.
Ineffective Lead Generation Tactics
Perhaps, you are using 10 lead generation tactics at a time, or you are using the wrong tools. Regardless, you need lead generation specialists to not only come up with a better lead generation tactic. You also need them to realise that there is something amiss and point out exactly what it is.
Disappointing Conversion Rates
Are you not getting any new clients lately? Do you have fewer clients than usual? Then, you might not be doing enough or proper follow-up. You might also be focusing on leads who are not in the position to buy just yet. With a lead generation specialist, you have an expert who can create an effective communication plan. You have someone in your team who is capable of determining which leads are most likely to convert.
Overworked Marketing and Sales Teams
If your marketing and sales teams are already drowning in work and not getting things done on time, it’s time to get help. A lead generation specialist can take some load off the marketing and sales teams so that they can do more on their end. Besides, by hiring a lead generation specialist, you can have a dedicated team member who can focus on working on the lead generation work for your business.
Lead generation specialists are paid handsomely anywhere in the world. This is only natural given their skills in getting clients and in contributing to your company’s revenue. Therefore, it is important to think about how hiring a lead generation specialist could affect your company’s financial situation. If you ask us, though, hiring a lead generation specialist is worth every dollar, especially if you find the right one.
The average salary of a lead generation specialist varies from country to country, depending on the cost of living. In Australia, for example, if you decide to hire locally, you will have to pay a lead generation specialist an average salary that ranges from AUD 50,000 to AUD 70,000 a year, which is about PHP 1,847,470.85 to PHP 2,586,547.95.
Another option is to outsource the job, which is highly recommended for new businesses as it is way less expensive than hiring locally. Outsourcing to the Philippines, for example, will only cost you PHP 240,000 to PHP 540,000 a year. Imagine how much you can save by working with the right offshore staffing supplier to help you find the right lead generation specialist.
When hiring the right lead generation specialist for your team, try to look for the following attributes. These attributes are valued greatly in any industry as they are the ones that help bring in more clients into the business.
Great Communication Skills
Excellent conversational skills go a long way in terms of lead generation as lead generation specialists are required to communicate effectively to leads, prospects, and even the internal sales and marketing teams.
Lead generation specialists who have great communication skills are able to build rapport through conversation. Leads and prospects feel at ease speaking to them and are comfortable enough to express their needs and concerns. Lead generation specialists should also be able to build on previous conversations with leads and prospects, especially when discussing their problems and providing solutions. In addition, they should be able to relay information accurately to the members of the marketing and sales teams.
Familiarity with CRM Software
To perform well as a lead generation specialist, candidates should be knowledgeable in marketing automation and in most, if not all types, of CRM software, so they can suggest which ones to use for your company.
If they are not that familiar with most types of CRM, they should at least be computer savvy to pick things up quickly, learning from CRM tutorials available online.
Understanding of Sales Funnel
An ideal lead generation specialist is someone who has in-depth understanding of your company’s sales funnel. They need to be familiar with your sales funnel to be capable of pre-selling and pre-qualifying leads.
A lead generation specialist’s ability to qualify and score leads can have a huge effect on your business. Sending low-quality leads to your sales team can be an utter waste of time and other resources but sending high-quality ones can mean more revenue and promotion opportunities.
Data-driven
Lead generation specialists are data geeks. They enjoy looking at and putting individual data points together, analysing them, and making conclusions from them.
A skilled lead generation specialist can discern which elements of the data to factor in, not wasting time on those that serve no purpose at the moment. They can also easily spot errors in the data as they are detail-orientated and organised in everything.
There are a lot of things to consider when hiring lead generation specialists, and you might think, “When will I ever find the time to think about these things?” However, the time you will be spending looking for the right lead generation specialists for your business will be worthwhile because they can definitely help your business grow in the long run.
