Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Inbound Lead
💰 $55,000 - $75,000
🎯 Role Definition
As our Inbound Lead, you are the engine of our sales pipeline and the voice of our brand for new prospects. You will be responsible for managing and qualifying a high volume of marketing-generated leads that come through our website, webinars, and other digital channels. Your primary mission is to engage with these potential customers, understand their business needs, and determine if they are a good fit for our solutions. By conducting discovery calls and nurturing relationships, you will create a pipeline of high-quality, sales-ready opportunities for our Account Executive team, directly contributing to our company's revenue growth and market expansion. This position is a perfect blend of sales, marketing, and strategy, offering a fantastic launchpad for a successful career in tech sales.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Sales Development Representative (SDR)
- Marketing Coordinator or Specialist
- Customer Service or Success Representative
Advancement To:
- Account Executive
- Inbound Sales Team Lead / Manager
- Customer Success Manager
Lateral Moves:
- Marketing Operations Specialist
- Sales Enablement Coordinator
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Act as the first point of contact for all inbound leads, promptly responding to and engaging with inquiries generated from our website, marketing campaigns, and events.
- Conduct high-level discovery and qualification calls to deeply understand a prospect's business challenges, objectives, pain points, and overall needs.
- Utilize established qualification frameworks (like BANT, MEDDIC, or similar) to systematically assess and qualify leads, ensuring they meet our ideal customer profile.
- Masterfully articulate our company's value proposition, demonstrating a strong understanding of our product suite and its benefits to address prospect needs.
- Schedule qualified product demonstrations and strategy meetings between prospects and the appropriate Account Executives, ensuring a seamless and well-documented handoff.
- Achieve and consistently exceed monthly and quarterly quotas for key performance metrics, including response times, call volume, and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) generated.
- Meticulously maintain and update prospect and company information in our CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), ensuring data accuracy for forecasting and reporting.
- Nurture early-stage or not-yet-qualified prospects through strategic follow-up, providing them with relevant content (case studies, whitepapers, blog posts) to guide them through the buyer's journey.
- Manage a high-volume pipeline of leads effectively, prioritizing follow-up activities to maximize conversion rates from MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) to SQL.
- Develop and execute multi-channel outreach strategies, using a combination of phone calls, personalized emails, and social media (primarily LinkedIn) to connect with prospects.
- Become a subject matter expert on our industry, target personas, and competitive landscape to engage in more meaningful and consultative conversations.
- Handle initial prospect objections with confidence and skill, reframing challenges and setting the stage for deeper conversations with the sales team.
Secondary Functions
- Collaborate closely with the Marketing team to provide real-time feedback on lead quality, campaign performance, and messaging resonance based on your direct conversations with the market.
- Work in tandem with Account Executives to develop territory-specific strategies and ensure alignment on opportunity qualification and pipeline development.
- Contribute to the continuous improvement of the inbound sales process by identifying bottlenecks, testing new outreach cadences, and suggesting new tools or tactics.
- Participate actively in team meetings, sales training, and skill-building sessions to enhance your performance and professional growth.
- Analyze lead source data to identify trends and report on which marketing channels are delivering the highest quality leads.
- Assist in creating and refining email templates, call scripts, and other sales enablement materials for the inbound team.
- Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover new opportunities or insights within our lead database.
- Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by ensuring high standards of data hygiene within the CRM.
- Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements for better lead tracking and reporting.
- Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the broader sales and marketing teams to ensure cross-functional alignment.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- CRM Proficiency: Extensive experience using and maintaining a CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot for lead, contact, and opportunity management.
- Sales Engagement Platforms: Hands-on experience with tools such as SalesLoft, Outreach, or similar platforms to manage and automate outreach sequences.
- Lead Qualification Frameworks: Practical knowledge and application of sales methodologies like BANT, MEDDIC, or CHAMP for qualifying opportunities.
- Productivity Suites: High proficiency with Google Workspace (G-Suite) or Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
- Communication Tools: Familiarity with business communication platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams and VOIP phone systems.
-Marketing Automation Familiarity: Basic understanding of marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Pardot, or HubSpot Marketing Hub to understand lead flow and scoring. - Social Selling: Experience using LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting, research, and engagement.
Soft Skills
- Exceptional Communication: Articulate, professional, and compelling communication skills, both written and verbal, with an ability to tailor your message to different audiences.
- Active Listening: The ability to listen intently to understand a prospect's true needs and challenges, not just waiting for your turn to talk.
- Innate Curiosity: A genuine desire to learn about different businesses, industries, and the people who run them.
- Resilience & Coachability: A positive attitude, the ability to handle rejection gracefully, and a strong desire to receive and implement feedback for continuous improvement.
- Time Management & Organization: Superb organizational skills to effectively manage a high volume of tasks, prioritize activities, and meet deadlines without fail.
- Goal-Oriented & Self-Motivated: A results-driven mindset with a strong internal drive to achieve and exceed targets in an autonomous environment.
- Empathy & Interpersonal Skills: The ability to build rapport and trust quickly with a wide range of personalities.
- Problem-Solving Mindset: A knack for thinking on your feet, navigating objections, and creatively finding solutions to prospect challenges.
- Collaborative Spirit: A true team player who enjoys working with marketing and sales colleagues to achieve shared company goals.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
High School Diploma or equivalent. We believe strongly that demonstrable experience and a track record of success can be just as valuable as formal education.
Preferred Education:
Bachelor's Degree
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Business Administration
- Marketing
- Communications
- Liberal Arts
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
1-3 years of experience in a customer-facing role such as sales development, inside sales, marketing, or customer success.
Preferred:
- At least 1 year of direct experience in an Inbound or Outbound SDR/BDR role within a B2B technology or SaaS company.
- A proven track record of meeting or exceeding performance metrics and quotas.