IT Marketing: Who Should Be the Lead Generator?
The lead generator is one of the most important roles in IT marketing. Not only does it make sure that the content being marketed is clear and direct for your target audience, but it also helps to translate the marketing message into easy to understand language that people can relate to.
One of the most important roles in IT marketing.
- Relateable content that accurately reflects your company's brand.
- Easy and effective conversion strategy for generating leads.
- High conversion rate for generating qualified leads.
- Strong sales and marketing relationship.
The lead generator's role, however, can be tough. It's not easy to set up a technical team that answers every call they get, or to know everything they need to know about the company and its needs, or even to find out exactly what information they will need and when they will need it.
And most people don't have the skills necessary to do this job well. Here are some things you want to avoid in selecting your lead generator:
- That person that knows the product better than anyone else. (You don't need that, and they won't help you.)
- A salesperson stuck in a world of closed calls. (They can't help with turn-about, since they have to deal with them as well.)
- Someone who expects someone else to do a job for which they have no experience or training. (You don't need that, either.)
- A person who keeps on giving out information to everyone he meets in the company. (This leads to lost opportunities; people don't buy from people who give away their information.
- Constantly talking over people's heads. (You don't want to do this either.)
- Someone who doesn't really have the authority to help people with their problems; that person is actually in trouble for not helping them. (They should never be the lead generator.)
- That person with a lot of ideas, but no real focus or ability to realize their strategy. (You don't want that, either.)
So what kinds of people should you look for? There are three categories of candidates, and you only need one from each group:
1. The TypeA person: These people are enthusiastic about marketing; they enjoy meeting new people, giving and hearing information and advice or selling products and services. They are extremely busy with their own jobs, and they are not in sales. They can get on the phone with someone or sit down at the computer and find the information they need quickly. The typeA will be your lead generator.
2. The Salesperson: A good salesperson can sell ice cubes to eskimos. Also, you don't want them calling on people when it isn't appropriate; you only want them to call when it is appropriate, and then close a sale for you (or get an appointment). So train them to do that job well; that's what they are good at! The salesperson is your close person.
3. The Sales Manager: This manager is responsible for the salespeople's results (or lack of them), and he needs to know exactly what is going on in the company. He should be able to do all the things that a salesperson does, plus more. If you ever have a question about why someone isn't buying, or when they will buy, this person can find out why and tell you when they will buy it. The sales manager is your inside man!
These are the three roles that make up your lead generation team. You need one from each group to be effective.
The lead generator may have a tough job, but once they are trained well, they shouldn't have any problem doing it. It is also a very rewarding job. The lead generator feels good about helping people solve a problem or making them money by giving them something they really need to have.
How do you find this type of person? It can be tough, but here are a few things you can do:
1. Find out what the company does or makes that causes calls to come in and ask for information; for example, if people are calling about storage area networks (SANs), then obviously the company sells storage area network solutions. The lead generator should know this!
2. Find out what questions people have about your products or services; don't tell them what you think they want to hear, tell them how it really is!
3. Find out who is doing well for your company. Find out about their results and the reason; then look around for the person that had a good year and why. Find out what they did, who they worked with and what they said about them; learn from them.
4. Find out what people are asking for, either at work or at home, or both (such as the storage area network).
5. Learn more about the company's sales figures: what products succeed, why your salespeople don't sell much these days, how you can do better next year and so on.
6.
Conclusion:
There is a lot more to marketing than just having a product and selling it. It's about knowing your audience and providing information that makes each person interested in the product want to buy it. That is the key to successful marketing.
This article was originally published on Aug 13, 2011 by IT Marketing Guide on LinkedIn. Read the original article here .
The previous post from this series: The Definitive Guide to Effective IT Marketing: Why You Should Be Selling, Not Just Marketing Your Product/Service was published on Nov 1, 2010.