Sales Training Article: Lead Gen Reps - Top Strategic Decision

Sales Training Article: Lead Generation - Lead Development Reps: Top 2012 Strategic Decision

By Vince Koehler, Sales Benchmark Index

Hands down, the top opportunity for 2012 among B2B organizations in years is taking the initiative to give birth to the role of Lead Development Representative in your Lead Generation efforts. For organizations involved with a complex sale, this direction is crucial to future competitive viability. World class B2B companies are responding to the needs of the evolving buying process by building teams of Lead Development Representatives, also called LDR’s, to provide a crucial link to connect with prospects at the early stages of the buying process. Results of Sales Benchmark Index customers who have followed this practice as well as many examples across the industry have proven the impact of LDR’s in increasing the quality and quantity of qualified leads for the sales force resulting in stronger pipelines and increased revenue.

Sales representatives are tasked and goaled to produce near-term results. Lead Development Reps fill a vital role of nurturing prospects over time, building trust and rapport that leads to opportunity. This selfless Nurturing and trusting interaction speeds up the buying process and connects sales reps to the prospect at the ideal timing of the prospect's choice.

The Vital Role of the Lead Development Representative – Generating Qualified Leads
The role of the LDR is to generate qualified leads for the sales force. This is done through a combination of inbound and outbound efforts where the LDR team performs outbound prospecting efforts as well as serves as the main point of contact to build relationships with incoming calls and web inquiries. For most companies, outbound calling represents 80% of the LDR’s time with 20% invested in responding to inbound inquiries.

There are three core elements of the Lead Generation LDR role:

• Build rapport with contacts by offering resources (webinar invitations, white papers, relevant blog articles, etc.) and understanding where the prospect is in the buying process

• Gather key information to update the CRM system and assign a nurture path and follow-up strategy

• Identify opportunities that meet a minimum qualification criteria for the sales field

But how is an LDR different from Telemarketing or Inside Sales?

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