What is a Lead Generation Specialist?

Lead generation is one of the most important functions in marketing. After all, without new prospects, your company will dry up and cease to exist.

However, lead generation seems to be a misunderstood role among small business owners as well as professionals who specialise in sales.

Who’s Job Is Lead Generation Anyway?

The truth is, lead generation isn’t just for marketers; leads should be generated by almost anyone from an individual who works in sales and services, up to the highest levels of executive management.

In fact, most people participate in lead generation out of habit rather than necessity.

Even executives who rely on marketing professionals to generate leads often make excuses for themselves that they “don’t have time” or that it’s somebody else’s responsibility.

It doesn’t matter whether you are in business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) sales – all companies need new prospects in order to grow.

What Does a Lead Generation Specialist Do?

The duty of a lead generation specialist is to not only generate leads, but also manage those leads so they are subsequently nurtured through the sales cycle.

Whether you call yourself a lead generation specialist or not, it’s your job to make sure new prospects are captured and managed effectively using marketing automation and CRM systems.

One For The Fellow Lead Gen’s

Depending on the size of your company and what you do within it, your role may vary.

If you’re in a B2B environment, you could be working with senior management directly, while in a B2C environment your focus will likely be on marketing campaigns that drive traffic to your site where they will sign up for more information.

Regardless of how many hats you wear at work though one thing is for sure, if you don’t generate leads your employer will simply find someone else to do it. So we’re here to help you keep on top of the trends, as they happen.

Go Out And Find Them

Now that you know what a Lead Generation Specialist does you may be asking yourself ‘How do I become one’ or even better ‘How can I start generating more leads immediately?’

The answer lies not only in learning new skills but also making changes to how you think. Instead of waiting for prospects to come knocking looking for new solutions, you need to go out and find them, get in front of them and present your solution to them.

It’s no longer acceptable to wait for leads to find you, and it never will be. That’s why many people consider a career as a lead generation specialist so appealing because they are REQUIRED to meet new prospects daily.

Your life won’t change overnight but if you have the right attitude and actions in place, within six months your business results will be almost unrecognisable compared with how you did things before.

The Main Benefits of Hiring a Lead Generation Specialist

The main job of a lead generation specialist is to generate new sales leads. You may find there are plenty of additional benefits when dealing with an external lead provider.

If you aren’t dedicated enough to generate your own leads then it’s time for you to hand it over to someone who can. Here’s why:

1) Focus Your Time on Sales

A common problem faced by small business owners and executives is “I’m spending too much time generating my own leads”, or “My marketing department isn’t doing a good enough job” (even though I could do it better myself).

This lack of focus results in poor ROI and frustration among staff members. As soon as new prospects start to roll in though, priorities change dramatically – your best people get focused on sales and marketing support, leaving you free to do what you do best – run the business.

2) Increase Your Lead Volume By an Alarming Amount

There’s nothing worse than constantly feeling like your lead generation campaign is failing, or that you are missing out on opportunities

If this sounds familiar then it’s time for you to think about outsourcing your lead generation campaigns so that more people see your brand and become aware of the products or services that you offer.

3) Eliminate Boredom

Boredom is a common problem faced by small businesses owners and managers. Think about it; if all day long all you did was generate leads for one company wouldn’t bore quickly? You’d hate every minute of it.

4) Outsource The Things You’re Not Good At

The truth is if you are constantly trying to generate your own leads, especially when you’re not an expert at it, then chances are it isn’t providing you with an income or any real reward (and certainly not an enjoyable one).

The best thing about handing over your lead generation responsibilities to someone else is that you will get results every month, and won’t need to worry about generating new leads so you can get on with running your business.

Should You Hire a Lead Generation Specialist?

If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur who wants to grow your income and really take control of your future then it’s worth considering hiring a lead generation expert.

There’s a lot of compelling reasons to work with a lead generation agency, like Lead Genera, but it’s best that you first consider your options and commit fully to outsourcing this service. As with everything, there are pro’s and con’s to weight up.

What To Consider If You Do Work With A Lead Gen Specialist

1) Consider Your Options

Once a suitable candidate has been found (and shortlisted), it’s worth considering all of your options. You may be looking to hire someone on an ongoing basis or you might want to outsource a project for just one month… either way it’s important that you’re honest and realistic about what you expect from the lead generation specialist.

Always remember that they are ultimately working for YOU!

2) Research Contractual Agreements

When you have chosen your lead generation specialist it’s important to draw up a bespoke contract between yourself and them because without one, both parties can end up with unexpected bills or charges if things go wrong.

3 ) Get Feedback

Once you have hired a lead generation specialist, make sure that you get regular feedback about their progress and also ask if there are any suggestions as to how they can improve their service.

4) Find Out What They Need From You FIRST…

If your chosen company don’t ask for this then walk away!

What Makes a Good Lead Generation Specialist?

So, what kind of person makes the perfect lead generation specialist? Here are some signs that they may be right for you:

1) Experience

They already have experience working in sales and marketing roles within other businesses (especially customer facing roles).

Experience as an independent contractor is always good but not essential because many large companies provide training and support to new contractors.

Many people enter this profession with no previous experience but find that they pick it up fairly quickly due to their strong interest in the mechanisms of marketing.

2) Excellent Written & Spoken Communication Skills

This goes without saying and speaks for itself. Excuse the pun.

3) An Enthusiastic Problem Solver

Leads don’t generate themselves. And they certainly don’t sell to themselves very often. You need to have someone who will work hard and solve problems so you don’t need to.

4) Commitment and Dedication

The one thing that really sets the best lead generation specialists apart from the rest is their dedication… stay at home mums, students looking for some extra cash and people with another job are all welcome but passion and a sense of urgency in getting more business for your company is essential.

5) Skills in Lead Generation Research

A good lead generation expert will be well versed in multiple styles and techniques of lead generation, as each owes itself to the other and can help to create a truly extraordinary strategy.

Nobody is too wise to continue researching in a digital landscape that’s ever changing.

Picture this: you hire a lead generation specialist that can only do one thing. A one trick pony. Let’s take Facebook ads as an example. Even if you hire the best FB lead gen expert in the world, if they only work on Facebook/Instagram ads platform, what happens if FB goes bankrupt or their servers get hacked so the website goes down for a week? Answer: the lights shut off. Your inbound enquiries cease fire.

6) A Willingness To Learn New Skills

Without a willingness to learn new skills, you’ll end up with a partner that gets outdated very quickly. The internet is ever changing, and digital marketing techniques are fleeting and fluid. The masterful lead generation specialist understands the constant of change and works to not only survive, but thrive, in such a landscape. Without a willingness to learn, and change, you’ll get left behind.

Conclusion: Should You Hire a Lead Generation Specialist or Lead Gen Agency?

Your lead generation specialist should be able to identify new prospects, generate leads from social media and the web, create content that promotes your company’s products or services.

They can also help you improve your customer experience in many ways.

A good lead generation specialist will know how people think by understanding neuroscience principles like decision-making processes and cognitive biases.

If you’re not sure whether it’s time for Lead Generation Specialist (or if one is even necessary), consider these three questions before hiring someone:

1. Do I have enough resources?
2. Is my budget sufficient?
3. Am I confident in my ability to hire qualified candidates myself?

Remember, this isn’t an easy process; there are plenty of things to consider when deciding on who you want as part of your team.

When you’ve got all of this information… what’s left to do is find a specialist that can help grow your business. Hiring a lead generation specialist isn’t necessarily easy but it doesn’t have to be hard either!

If you take the time and effort to ensure that you’re hiring someone who I hope will work hard for your business! If you don’t call us first, happy hunting!