Lead Generation For Dummies
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When recruiting for a rock-star lead generation team, there are specific personality traits or soft skills that you should be looking for. Beyond just looking at years of experience and degrees, you need to assess a candidate's ability to thrive in today's technology-driven marketing environment. No matter what industry you are in, whether it is hotel management, construction, or anything else, lead generation is largely done online, so you must have your finger on the pulse of the ways consumers are researching in order to know where your customers are.

Having a solid understanding of technology

This is one of the most important skills to look for when hiring for a lead generation role in today's marketing environment. You need to leverage many technologies in lead generation including CRM tools, marketing automation, social media, Google Analytics, and more. You need a team of people who not only understand why technology is critical to lead generation, but can also learn at an accelerated pace as new technology is released.

Many methodologies of hiring refer to this trait as being a digital native, digitally fluent, or a digital citizen. Here are some signs that the person you are about to hire is digitally fluent:

  • He reads multiple different industry blogs.

  • She uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and so on, for her own enjoyment.

  • He writes for different industry blogs or has a desire to do so.

  • She is fluent in multiple different marketing technologies or has a desire to learn.

You may interview many people who are in varying stages of being a digital native, but most importantly, look for examples of a desire to learn new technology platforms. Curiosity is an important trait to focus on in your hiring decisions.

Possessing fantastic communication skills

All of your marketers should be content creators. Your team should have excellent writing skills that can be leveraged in all aspects of your lead generation strategy including ebook creation, blog writing, online ad writing, email crafting, social media updates, and so on. And each member of your team should be able to be called on at any given time to help create content. Particularly with your blog, you want diversity in voice, so each member of your marketing team should have a desire and passion to contribute to content in some way.

The more your team can create remarkable and useful content, the bigger your presence can be and the more leads you can generate.

Here are some signs that the person you are about to hire possesses fantastic communication and writing skills:

  • He submits a well-organized and structured resume and cover letter, with no typos or bad grammar.

  • She is able to give well-thought-out, linear answers in your interview questions.

  • He reads multiple industry blogs and has written blog posts in the past.

  • She might have an English degree or journalism background.

  • He has a passion for writing and can excel at any writing exercise.

  • She can sum up your core business differentiator in two or three sentences.

  • He is active on social media channels and frequently uses them to search for content.

Owning analytics

Measuring lead generation performance and being able to iterate programs in order to improve what you are doing is absolutely critical to successful lead generation. And analytical skills, as a marketer, are a fairly new need for businesses. But as marketing continues to get more sophisticated, you need people on your team who understand and have a natural passion for measurement. That means people who love numbers and tying efforts to outcomes, coupled with an intense love for spreadsheets and all things data.

Here are some signs that the person you are about to hire possesses the right amount of analytical skills:

  • She loves data in all forms and particularly gets a kick out of creating spreadsheets, VLOOKUPS, statistics, and pivot tables.

  • He is a master of project management and loves the details.

  • She gets a kick out of experimenting with data-based what-if scenarios and problem-solving.

  • He is not afraid to dig deeper into an issue or bottleneck to find out what went wrong.

Hiring and interviewing for analytical thinking is harder than it sounds. Many people say that they are analytical without truly knowing what you mean by "data-driven." Consider giving them a data-set or a problem to solve that demonstrates what you mean by analytical thinking within your own organization. Listen to how they would approach answering a question like, "How many phone booths are there in the United States?"

About This Article

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About the book author:

Dayna Rothman is the senior content marketing manager at Marketo, a leader in the marketing automation space. Dayna leads content creation and strategy at Marketo and is the managing editor for the Marketo blog, which receives more than 400,000 unique visitors per year. Dayna has also been featured as one of the top 25 content marketers to watch according to Kapost, and one of the top 50 content marketing influencers according to Onalytica.

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