Acquiring business leads is one of the most fundamental practices of any business. Unfortunately, that’s one of the most common reasons why 65% of businesses fail within the first ten years of opening. Conversely, with a strong and comprehensive sales generation strategy, you can enjoy relative security over the long run. Let’s talk about the benefits of hiring a lead generation specialist for your B2B enterprise!
What Is a Lead Generation Specialist?
Before we go over the advantages, let’s first understand what a lead generation specialist is and what they do. Lead generation specialists’ primary responsibilities are to drive new leads. They aim to increase the number of interested buyers at the top of your sales funnel.
While there are many strategies to achieve this, you can think of them as a cohesive mix between a marketing and sales team. Instead of having two separate teams focused on their own goals, a lead generation specialist or agency can help optimize the entire process of customer acquisition.
Demand Generation vs Lead Generation
One common confusion to overcome is the difference between demand generation and lead generation. While they work toward the same goal, there are differences.
Essentially, demand generation is based on marketing campaigns. The idea is to build demand or interest in your product or service.
Conversely, lead generation marketing is based on campaigns to collect information about potential customers and turn them into leads. A common example of this is account-based marketing, where you reach out to customers individually or in smaller segments based on their perceived demand.
To put it simply, demand generation seeks to build interest, whereas lead generation seeks to convert those interested into buying the product or service.
10 Benefits of Hiring a Lead Generation Specialist
Now that you know what lead generation is, let’s talk about how it applies to your business. Here are some key reasons to invest in lead generation services.
1. Lead Generation Specialists Can Analyze Your Existing Strategies
Before you even begin, the right lead generation team will look at your marketing and sales strategies. Afterward, they can determine how which marketing channels and sales strategies are most beneficial and which need improvement.
For example, some minor adjustments to your website could make a world of difference. Your website is the center of your digital marketing strategy, and users tend to leave quickly if the pages don’t load, they can’t find the information they want, or they face other challenges.
Small changes like this can directly save your company money and improve your lead generation results. A team of dedicated lead generation experts can help you determine where to double down and where to reduce expenses. From there, they can help you build and implement a strategy to pursue moving forward.
2. Specialists Can Help You Build a Strategy
If you’re a business owner and you haven’t yet thought about a concrete lead-generation strategy, you’re not alone. There’s a lot to focus on in any enterprise, which is why you should leave strategy to the experts.
In today’s competitive marketing and sales worlds, operating without a concrete game plan is like being the only one in the race with a blindfold on. The right specialist can help you establish concrete SMART goals based on your current metrics and standings.
From there, they can help you implement these strategies piece by piece. Over time, they can even offer detailed reports on how the strategy is working. That brings us to our next point.
3. Building a Sales Funnel
Lead experts will help you establish a clear sales funnel. This is a visual representation of how your company will drive interest, generate leads, and convert sales.
Depending on the nature of your business, this funnel can work differently. You can even fit your funnel into your existing strategy.
Moreover, this sales funnel should use stages. These include building:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
- Loyalty
Regardless of your strategy, this provides a clear strategy for your marketing and sales teams to follow.
4. They Offer Expert Analytics
The right lead generation teams will know which business analytics matter most to your strategy. Of course, the right team will adapt to your needs. However, there are some key performance indicators (KPIs) that lead generation specialists particularly care for.
Using state-of-the-art business analytics tools, your team can easily measure the results of your strategy. From there, you will receive detailed reports about its performance, allowing you to make adjustments or changes as you see fit.
For more information, read about some of the most important B2B KPIs to plan for.
5. Specialists Save Time
While entrepreneurs and small business owners often serve as a jack of all trades, there are only 24 hours in a day. Taking certain tasks off of your plate is inevitable in any business.
Like it or not, sales and marketing require a lot of work. It’s nearly impossible for a business owner to take on such a heavy load, especially if you intend to scale your business any time soon!
Therefore, having a dedicated lead generation team can make a world of difference for your bottom line. Remember, the ability to find and retain customers is the foundation of a healthy business.
6. They’re More Efficient
Not only do they save you time, but they’d likely do it better and more efficiently than you would. That’s not to suggest you or your in-house team can’t handle lead generation. Rather, there’s no substitute for having dedicated workers specializing in the field.
Even if you have sales and marketing professionals on your staff, having lead generation specialists will only help optimize your sales funnel.
7. Experts Can Build Trust
Lead generation experts know how to build organic traffic. Everything from optimizing your landing pages to direct customer outreach will help establish trust among your target demographics. If executed correctly, this will pay dividends for a long time!
Optimizing your sales funnel and personalizing your marketing campaigns can help build trust among your target audience. The authenticity that a specialist can provide to your sales and marketing funnels can make a world of difference.
Think about how much trust can benefit your funnel. Building positive brand awareness can have lasting results across all of your marketing campaigns.
8. Expanding Your Reach
Every marketing strategy has limitations. Lead generation experts will try to identify and eliminate yours.
Growing your potential audience will help you make more impressions and build more awareness. The more potential buyers you bring into your sales funnel, the more customers you’ll ultimately achieve.
Like it or not, it’s this first step that typically requires the most attention. Fortunately, the right team will know exactly how to grow your reach within your target audience.
9. They’re Cost-Effective
Of course, if a lead generation specialist provides expert sales generation services, then you get what you pay for. Even so, many small businesses may worry that they can’t afford these services. Fortunately, that’s not true.
While you can hire a full marketing team to generate leads, there are other options that won’t break the bank quite as much. Instead, you can hire a lead generation agency to lower your costs and have access to a team of dedicated lead generation professionals.
What’s more, they can handle everything for you in your lead generation strategy for a fraction of the cost of a full sales and marketing team. That includes sales development, B2B appointment setting, and more.
Moreover, the right account-based marketing agencies will have a lead or demand generation manager serving as your primary point of contact. This will allow you to make adjustments, improve in-house functions, and ask questions throughout your strategy.
In 2022, global marketing spending crossed the $600 billion threshold for the first time. Optimizing your strategy is the best way to protect yourself from rising marketing costs.
10. They’ll Work With Your Needs
Your business needs, goals, and policies are your business. Nobody is going to tell you to change them.
Instead, lead generation professionals will work with you based on your current business standings to craft a comprehensive strategy based on the criteria that you choose.
That means working with your policies like meeting with accounts by appointment only, tracking specific metrics that you care about, or anything else that you want. It’s your business, we’re just here to help!
Generate New Leads Today
Now that you know what lead generation specialists can do for you, hire the right team today and get started. The sooner you do, the sooner you can see results in your marketing and sales strategies. Again, competition is only getting worse across industries, so it’s more important to have the help of a lead expert than ever before.
Stay up to date with our latest tips for your business, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or for help with your strategy!