Keeping Your Lead Generation Representative Productive

As a sales executive, your lead generation representative is one of your most valuable human resources, if not your most valuable human resource. In my observation, most sales executives invest only nominally in their lead generation representative by merely expressing their thanks when appropriate. Imagine investing more. If you could close one more deal this year by investing in your lead generation representative, how much time and effort would you be willing to invest to get that one more deal closed? Or perhaps, you are now officially the manager of a lead generation team. There are plenty of articles online about empowering lead generation teams to be more effective. Most of them are about metrics. This post is focused on what I consider the most important things to do to make a lead generation representative as productive as possible, regardless of the metrics.

High Morale is the Top Priority

One of the highest turnover jobs is call center sales jobs. These individuals face constant rejection. All sales executives face rejection of course, but those on the front line regularly making initial contact receive rejection at the highest and most consistent rate. Lead generation representatives are bombarded with words and actions designed to make them unproductive by draining them of their morale. The goal then is to seize every opportunity to provide positive reinforcement, including praise and thanks. But it also means investing in the person and her success which is what is covered below. If you are actually investing your time in your lead generation representative, your praise and thanks (as well as you telling them to shake off someone else’s negativity) will have a greater, more powerful and longer lasting impact.

Asking for the Meeting is King

The primary goal is to get initial sales meetings (or sales calls) with real prospects. Make sure your lead generation representative’s strategy and approach is always headed in the direction of scheduling a meeting. My current lead generation representative even has a very successful email template that asks for a meeting in the subject line.

Coordinate Phone and Email

For whatever reason, people seem much more likely to respond to the combination of an email and a voice mail. One without the other comes across as spam. Together, people who never seem to answer their phone seem to suddenly take the outreach effort seriously. An email that begins “I just left you a voice mail” or a voice mail that begins “I just sent you an email” gets the attention of executives who otherwise feel bombarded with sales inquiries.

Maximize A and B Marketing Generated Leads

Most current demand generation systems have a ranking system for inbound leads. A major problem I have observed is the number of strong inbound leads is usually so small that lead generation representatives waste a lot of effort trying to mine lower quality leads. In turn when marketing is challenged to bring in strong leads, it will be tempted to pursue strategies that figure lower quality leads are better than no leads at all. And if lead generation does not expend sufficient energy pursuing these lower quality leads, marketing feels justified in complaining. It is a vicious cycle at many companies that must be broken.

Target Accounts, not Just Leads from Marketing

Relying upon marketing generated leads alone leaves out the entire demographic that is disinclined to respond to such marketing efforts. Any account that is a strong target that has neither been disqualified nor already engaged by a sales executive needs serious outreach to engage the right executive. Allowing the lead generation team to call into these accounts is a great way to ensure no lead generation representative is limited by what marketing provides her.

Review Calls and Accounts Regularly

I try to have a formal one hour sit down with my lead generation representative during non-peak hours at least twice per month. It is important to be non-judgmental in these meetings, since the goal is to improve not to judge. I often find that good habits can give way to old habits if not tracked. When cold-called, executives try to put newly presented solutions into a familiar box, and will often conclude too early that a new innovation is merely a competitor to an old innovation already owned. The subtleties of the key differences and the ability to articulate those key differences before the prospect hangs up are the most difficult aspect of the lead generation executive’s job and need to be reinforced constantly.

Collaboratively Update the Templates

It is important to remember in these situations that your lead generation representative is not you. How a seasoned sales executive who has taken sales from cold call to closure summarizes information to gain interest may not be something a person making scores of dials each day is capable of doing. Work with your lead generation representative to get conversational, voice mail and email templates not only harmonized but something she is comfortable executing. If the lead generation is comfortable, the prospect is more likely to be comfortable; likewise an uncomfortable lead generation representative will make most prospects uncomfortable.

Include Her on Discovery Calls

Perhaps your lead generation representative will schedule one, two or maybe even three discovery calls for you per week. The training value of the time it takes her to join you far outweighs the time lost, even during peak calling hours. Some discovery calls will go well, while others will go poorly and some will fall somewhere in between. In all cases, being present for the discovery call will allow the lead generation representative make the mental connections between what was said in any prior conversations to how things play out during the discovery call. That extra insight could make a very positive difference in future interactions.

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Bringing it all together, the reason to invest in your lead generation representative is to help her win and by extension, you help yourself win. Your efforts raise her social confidence, product knowledge, industry knowledge and understanding of the challenges professional in the target market face. Imagine what would happen if you invested in your lead generation representative just a little bit more.