Top Lead Researcher Skills and Tools You Should Have to Succeed

Poor quality leads results from a lack of lead researcher skills in any organization, which lowers the close rate and frustrates the sales team. As a result, lead generation sounds like a vast, terrifying wolf.

A crucial component of a B2B lead creation process is data. It has the potential to make or break the success of your export efforts.

The correct data can help you fill your sales funnel with qualified leads and make your sales team's job easier. That is why you must have the personnel to collect and process your B2B data.

Your organization may have the best pitch and the most devoted SDRs, but if the data quality of your lead list is inadequate, you will waste your lead generation team's efforts.

Surprisingly, several businesses still feel that simply getting a data subscription or a pre-generated contact list will be enough. It's not the case.

Getting the necessary data necessitates a qualified sales lead researcher, but more importantly, tools that collect raw market data.

Here are some of the top sales lead generation research skills and tools to help you get started with customer research and lead generation. But first, let's begin by defining who a sales lead researcher is. 

Who is a sales lead generation researcher?

They, to put it simply, are someone who provide your business with curated, highly targeted, and accurate lead lists. His job is to supplement your sales team's efforts and fill your pipeline with prospects.

The quality of your contact lists determines the efficiency of your outbound prospecting. Purchased contact lists leave out a lot of details that a researcher would notice. Every lead researcher at AI bees bases their work on a client's buyer persona and ICP. 

It is how our team determines which companies require your product and which decision-maker will be the best point of contact.

Typically, their work responsibilities and skills include:

Lead Generation Researcher's Job Description:

They use accessible resources (such as the internet, social media, LinkedIn, and other resources) to gather further information on markets, business sectors and target opportunities to be first in line for future opportunities.

• They find out about potential clients (via phone, web, social media, etc.), track down important decision-makers' names, and double-check and confirm addresses, contacts, email addresses, and phone numbers.
• They maintain market and lead information in the CRM system and appointments made by the sales staff and feedback/subsequent actions after those appointments.

Lead Generation Researcher Skills

1. List Building

Get the contact information for leads that you can't find on pre-made lists. To receive the most accurate and up-to-date data, search every accessible free and paid database—the kind of data that takes SDRs hours, days, or even weeks to compile.

Create lookalike audiences for targeted ad campaigns using your new lists for cold email campaigns, appointment setup, and cold email campaigns.

2. Audience Expansion

Data on social media is immense. However, most teams find that trawling through every platform is a time-consuming rabbit hole. The researcher saves organizations time and effort when their sales reps create relationships and schedule appointments.

The researchers know how and where to look for information: increasing reach, brand awareness, and relevant site traffic.

3. Reverse IP Lookup

A researcher assists businesses in determining which companies are visiting their website. They can identify decision-maker details from these hot leads using complex filtering and segmentation. The company's team is free to do best: make contact, develop relationships, and close deals.

4. Behavior-based Intent Research

A researcher use data from behavior-based research to assist companies in better understanding their leads, such as which software they use, job changes, social media activity, and more.

They can build the correct message at the right time with information on each lead's level of intent, enhancing conversion rates and sales productivity.

5. Competitor Analysis

Researchers gathered competitive intelligence. This data can improve sales calls, target consumer profiles and assist businesses to narrow their competitive advantage.

Now that you know the critical skills of the researchers, let's look at the lead sources you should be using.

What are the best lead sources? 

1. Blogs

Yes, video has grown in popularity over the last few years. However, this does not exclude you from writing and publishing blog posts on your website. Contrary to popular belief, blog posts–particularly long-form blog posts–remain one of the most effective lead sources for your website.

Take a look at this stat:

A blog can be a fantastic and low-cost approach to generating leads for outbound sales. They're also excellent SEO tools that can help you broaden your reach and profile online.

Use data-driven decisions to ensure that your blog is successful. Begin by figuring out who your user is. Then, based on your website's most important keywords, create a content schedule.

Finally, make sure your material is SEO-friendly and promote it on social media to ensure it reaches the proper people.

2. Guest posts

Publishing as a guest on someone else's blog is a terrific way to start when expanding into new markets and reaching new audiences. It might increase visitors to your blog and earn backlinks for your website.

Only distribute high-quality websites relevant to your business to ensure you get the most out of guest posts. Spend enough time on your article's writing, editing, and polishing. Keep in mind that this is the first time someone has heard about you or your firm, so make sure you can meet their expectations.

3. Email Marketing

If you understand how to use email marketing, it can be one of your most cost-effective lead generation tools.

Send personalized emails to each user persona by segmenting your user base. Maintain consistency, and use email marketing tools to make your material more aesthetically appealing and to help you plan ahead of time.

4. Paid Per Click Ads

Paid ads are an excellent way for both large and small businesses to discover leads with a high conversion rate. Each content you create takes Google 90-180 days to index, rank, and show. Your company can't afford to wait that long for results in the online industry, growing increasingly competitive. As a result, many businesses combine their PPC and inbound marketing efforts.

When running a PPC campaign, Google prioritizes your content in their search results page above your competitors (SERP), increasing your material's visibility to your target market.

PPC advertising, in effect, kick-starts lead creation and customer acquisition. Keep the momentum continuing with your content marketing plan.

PPC advertising, on the other hand, necessitates a financial investment to get up and run.

5. Organic Search Traffic

Organic search traffic is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that marketers like you monitor in producing leads.

When you establish a marketing campaign, measuring organic search traffic as a lead source is similar to tracking and monitoring it.

That's because you look at how each of your targeted keywords is performing in both scenarios. To collect the data, you also check the same area in your Google Analytics dashboard. The distinction between the two is how you interpret the information you've gathered.

The more times your content appears for a specific keyword phrase, the more likely that keyword phrase is to generate leads. However, you'll need lead generation tools to capture your audience's attention and get their contact information. Finding the proper ones for your company can help it grow more quickly, create essential connections, and uncover new opportunities.

The Most Powerful Market Research Tools for Generating High Leads

AI bees provide some of the most unique lead generation tools available, which can help you not just generate leads but also convert them.

1. AI Nectar

We use proprietary, patented AI and machine learning algorithms to identify businesses that could potentially be your best clients. We then engage those clients with your content to generate quality leads for you.

2. AI Memory

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Using top lookalike companies, we enhance your account and use it to target prospects that are similar to your best clients. Our AI solution would identify lookalike companies and find opportunities to promote your solution or services.

3. AI Harvest

Harvesting the companies generated by our AI Engines allows us to pinpoint specific personas, who need your solutions and services. We target each specific persona’s pain points and consider what triggers them to avail of your solutions and services.

4. Behavioral Profile Analyzer

We analyze behavioral profiles to target a specific persona who would benefit the most from your solution or service. With that information, we can create a persona branding that focuses on pain points that would affect their task and can be addressed by your solution.

The objective of understanding each persona's behavior is to discover opportunities to optimize the messaging that quantifies the value of your solution to their business.

A personalized messaging that directly targets a persona's pain points will effectively resonate with them and trigger the need to pursue your solution.

5. Psychographic Profile Analyzer

We perform a qualitative analysis from the psychographic profiling of each potential prospect's interest, temperament, personality, quirks, habits, and other idiosyncrasies to understand what influences them in choosing your solution or services. 

Targeting their profile allows us to focus on a strategy that scratches the prospect's itch when marketing. We create compelling messaging with which your prospects can resonate more while making it all more effective for your target market.‍

It is an effective tool in reaching out to prospects by diving deeper into their motivation to choose your solution or service. We produce qualitative analyses from extensive research, data analytics, and customer outreach.

6. Geo-Demographic Profile

As one of the most straightforward paths in market segmentation, understanding the market based on a prospect's Geo-Demographic profiles completely depends on how the data is analyzed. We took it to the next step by creating a data-based analysis that focuses on each demographic variation's similarities and differences. The focus is on targeting demographics with a market preference for your specific solution and how a campaign should start. 

Being one of the most straightforward paths in market segmentation, understanding the market based on a prospect's Geo-Demographic profiles completely depends on how the data is being analyzed.

We focus on bringing your solution close to what a demographic would expect by using messaging that resonates across different regions.

What can you do to improve the performance of your lead generation researchers?

1. Carefully craft your buyer character and ICP.

It would help if you created these profiles for each sale and marketing campaign you run. A single blunder in creating your ICP can lead to a campaign failure.

Your leads may appear to be in perfect condition at first glance. However, if one of your ICP's immediate needs is incorrectly configured, your campaign will go in the wrong direction.

Your SDRs will waste a lot of time knocking on doors that will never open if they incorrectly organize contact lists.

2. Set precise criteria for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Lead accuracy is the key performance indicator for sales lead researchers. Each incorrect lead enables you to pinpoint your researchers' errors, why they make them, and how they might correct them.

3. Reward your sales lead researchers for creating the most accurate contact listings.

Lead research is arduous labor that necessitates a high concentration level and a high level of tedium tolerance. Implement a reward system to elevate your employees' spirits and increase their productivity. It will reward sales lead generation researchers who created contact lists that are free of errors.

4. Outsource

Outsourcing is a cost-effective way to boost your team's production. Adding another pair of hands to your team won't hurt, and it'll be less expensive than hiring someone in-house.

Final Note

Research is the ignition that starts your sales engine, whether you do it internally or through outsourced services. A lead generation researcher provides your firm with reliable and highly targeted lead lists. This work is where the lead generation process begins. The operational side of data researchers' work isn't all that difficult. 

What counts the most is how you do it. Your lead generation researchers should base their work on buyer personas and ICPs.

Need help with lead research? AI bees can help!