Lead Customer Acquisition Specialist

Role Purpose & Context

Role Summary

The Lead Customer Acquisition Specialist is here to make sure our new business pipeline is always full and flowing. You'll lead a small, focused team of Customer Acquisition Specialists, guiding them to find and qualify the right prospects who genuinely need what we offer. This role sits right at the very start of our sales process, making sure we're talking to the right people from day one, which directly impacts our overall revenue. When you and your team do this well, we're bringing in a steady stream of high-quality opportunities for the Account Executives, meaning more closed deals and faster growth for the business. If it's not done well, our sales pipeline dries up, and everyone feels the pinch. The challenge, honestly, is balancing your own individual contribution with the demands of coaching and managing your team, especially when priorities shift. The reward, though, is seeing your team develop, hit their targets, and knowing you're a critical part of the company's growth engine.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: Manager, Customer Acquisition
• Direct reports: Roughly 3-8 Customer Acquisition Specialists
• Matrix relationships: Sales Development Lead, Business Development Lead, SDR Team Lead,

Key Stakeholders

Internal:

• Manager, Customer Acquisition (your direct boss)
• Marketing Leads (for lead quality and campaign alignment)
• Account Executives (the folks who close the deals you generate)
• Sales Operations (for process improvements and reporting)

External:

• Key Prospects and Decision Makers (the people your team is trying to reach)
• Industry Peers (for best practices and market intelligence)

Organisational Impact

Scope: You're directly responsible for a significant chunk of our new business pipeline. Your team's ability to consistently generate high-quality Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) is crucial for our revenue targets. Get it right, and you're helping us open up new markets and grow. Get it wrong, and the entire sales engine slows down. You'll also play a big part in developing our next generation of sales talent, which is pretty important for the long run.

Performance Metrics

Quantitative Metrics

1. Metric: Team Pipeline Generated
2. Desc: The total value of new opportunities your team has qualified and passed to Account Executives.
3. Target: £1.5M - £2.5M in new pipeline per quarter (depending on market conditions)
4. Freq: Weekly and Quarterly
5. Example: Your team generated £1.8M in Q2, which was 105% of the target, meaning the AE team had plenty to work with.
6. Metric: Team MQL-to-SQL Conversion Rate
7. Desc: The percentage of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) that your team successfully converts into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).
8. Target: Consistently above 25%
9. Freq: Monthly
10. Example: Out of 100 MQLs, your team converted 28 into SQLs, showing strong qualification and messaging.
11. Metric: Team Activity Volume & Quality
12. Desc: The average number of calls, emails, and social touches your team completes, balanced with the quality of those interactions (e.g., reply rates, meeting booked rates).
13. Target: Average 80+ activities per rep per day, with >5% reply rate on emails and >15% meeting booked rate on calls.
14. Freq: Daily and Weekly
15. Example: Your team averaged 85 activities daily, and their email reply rate jumped from 4% to 6% after you coached them on new subject lines.
16. Metric: Sales Cycle Velocity (Early Stages)
17. Desc: How quickly your team moves prospects from initial contact to a qualified meeting.
18. Target: Average 10-14 days from first touch to SQL.
19. Freq: Monthly
20. Example: Your team managed to shave 3 days off the average time to SQL, meaning AEs get opportunities faster.

Qualitative Metrics

1. Metric: Team Coaching Effectiveness
2. Desc: How well you're developing your direct reports, helping them improve their skills and hit their individual targets.
3. Evidence: Junior reps consistently improving their metrics quarter-over-quarter. Positive feedback from team members in 1-on-1s and skip-level meetings. Successful promotion of at least one team member to a higher level within 18 months.
4. Metric: Process Optimisation & Contribution
5. Desc: Your ability to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the acquisition process and propose/implement solutions that benefit the wider team.
6. Evidence: You've introduced a new call script that increased connection rates by 10%. You've streamlined the lead handover process, reducing AE complaints. Your ideas are often adopted by the wider Sales Development team.
7. Metric: Strategic Alignment with Marketing
8. Desc: How effectively you work with the Marketing team to ensure lead quality, campaign alignment, and consistent messaging.
9. Evidence: Regular, productive meetings with Marketing where you provide actionable feedback on lead quality. Joint initiatives with Marketing that result in higher quality leads. Marketing consistently seeks your input on new campaigns.
10. Metric: CRM Data Hygiene & Best Practices
11. Desc: Ensuring your team maintains accurate and complete records in Salesforce, setting a high standard for data integrity.
12. Evidence: Your team's CRM data accuracy consistently scores above 95% in audits. You're proactively identifying and resolving data issues. New hires are quickly onboarded to CRM best practices, thanks to your guidance.

Primary Traits

• Trait: Resilience (Thick-skinned, for yourself and your team)
• Manifestation: You're the kind of person who can hear 'no' all morning, have a challenging 1-on-1 with a struggling rep, and still come back in the afternoon with a plan and a positive attitude. You don't just bounce back from rejection; you help your team do the same. When a big deal pushes or a prospect ghosts, you analyse what happened, learn from it, and then help your team move on, rather than letting it fester. You understand that in sales, a bad day is just a bad day, not a bad career.
• Benefit: This role is a constant battle against rejection and shifting priorities, both for you and your team. If you can't handle the inevitable setbacks, you won't be able to coach your team through theirs. Without this, activity levels drop, morale sinks, and the pipeline dries up. It's the bedrock for consistent performance, especially when you're responsible for others' success.
• Trait: Empathy (Genuine Listener & Coach)
• Manifestation: When a rep comes to you with a problem, you listen, really listen, before jumping in with a solution. You ask probing questions to understand their perspective, just like you'd expect them to do with a prospect. You can put yourself in a prospect's shoes to help your team craft a message that actually resonates, rather than just pushing a product. You're the person who can tell if a prospect is genuinely interested or just being polite, and you can teach your team to do the same.
• Benefit: Empathy isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a critical sales skill, and even more so for a leader. You need it to build trust with your team, understand their challenges, and coach them effectively. You also need it to help your team understand their prospects better, leading to more meaningful conversations and higher quality leads. Without it, you're just barking orders, and your team's outreach will sound generic and pushy, which frankly, no one wants to hear.
• Trait: Articulateness (Clear & Concise Communicator & Trainer)
• Manifestation: You can explain complex sales concepts or product benefits in a way that your team immediately 'gets' it. You draft emails that are so clear and compelling they get replies, and you can teach your team to do the same. During a team meeting, you get straight to the point, deliver actionable feedback, and leave everyone knowing exactly what they need to do. You're the one who can craft a 30-second voicemail that actually gets a callback, and then break down exactly why it worked for your team.
• Benefit: As a Lead, you're constantly communicating—to your team, your manager, and sometimes even to prospects. If you can't articulate your message clearly and concisely, your coaching won't land, your team won't understand the strategy, and your own interactions will be ineffective. In sales, every word counts. Waffling or using jargon just wastes everyone's time and loses opportunities. Clarity builds credibility, both for you as a leader and for your team in their outreach.

Supporting Traits

• Trait: Coachability
• Desc: You're always looking for ways to improve, not just for yourself but for your team. You actively seek feedback from your manager and peers, and you're not afraid to admit when something isn't working. You then use that feedback to refine your approach and help your team do the same.
• Trait: Innate Curiosity
• Desc: You have a genuine interest in understanding how businesses operate, what challenges they face, and how our solution can genuinely help. This curiosity drives you to dig deeper with prospects and encourages your team to do the same, moving beyond surface-level conversations.
• Trait: Competitiveness (Healthy)
• Desc: You have a strong desire to win, not just against competitors, but against your own previous best. You push your team to achieve more, celebrating their successes and learning from their losses, always with an eye on the bigger picture.
• Trait: Process-Minded (Flexible)
• Desc: You appreciate the value of a structured approach to sales activities and CRM hygiene. You can follow a playbook, but you're also keen to find ways to optimise it, always looking for efficiencies without sacrificing quality. You understand that a good process makes consistent results possible.

Primary Motivators

1. Motivator: Developing and Seeing Your Team Succeed
2. Daily: You'll spend a good chunk of your day listening to call recordings, giving specific feedback on emails, and running role-plays. When a rep you've coached closes their first big meeting, you'll feel a real sense of accomplishment. You're genuinely invested in their growth.
3. Motivator: Solving Strategic Challenges & Optimising Processes
4. Daily: You'll be looking at team metrics, trying to figure out why one sequence is performing better than another, or why a certain industry isn't responding. You'll then design and test new approaches, always looking for that edge. It's like being a detective for sales performance.
5. Motivator: Direct Impact on Business Growth
6. Daily: Your team's pipeline generation directly feeds the Account Executive team. You'll see the impact of your work in the company's overall revenue numbers and understand how your efforts contribute to the bigger picture. You're not just making calls; you're building the future.

Potential Demotivators

Honestly, this role isn't for everyone. You'll rerun the same analysis three times because your manager or Marketing keeps changing the question. The 'urgent' request that disrupted your Thursday will get deprioritised on Friday, and you'll have to explain that to your team. You'll build a beautiful new sequence that you're convinced will be a game-changer, only for it to fall flat. You'll also deal with team members who struggle, despite your best efforts, and that can be tough.

Common Frustrations

1. Receiving 'hot' MQLs from Marketing that are clearly not qualified, and then having to explain to your team why they're wasting their time.
2. Spending hours coaching a rep, only for them to ignore your advice and continue making the same mistakes.
3. Having your team's quota or commission plan changed mid-quarter, which can be incredibly demotivating for everyone.
4. The constant pressure to hit team targets, even when market conditions or lead quality are challenging.
5. Dealing with internal politics between Sales Development and Account Executives regarding lead quality or handover processes.

What Role Doesn't Offer

1. A purely individual contributor role where you're only responsible for your own numbers.
2. A role with entirely predictable days and no urgent, last-minute changes.
3. A role where every single initiative you launch will be a resounding success.
4. A role where you won't have to deal with difficult conversations or performance management.

ADHD Positives

1. The fast-paced nature of sales and the constant need to switch between coaching, strategising, and individual outreach can be highly engaging.
2. The variety of tasks—from analysing data to role-playing calls—can prevent boredom and keep your mind stimulated.
3. The immediate feedback loop in sales (did the prospect reply? did the call go well?) can be very rewarding and help maintain focus.

ADHD Challenges and Accommodations

1. Managing multiple direct reports and their individual needs, alongside your own responsibilities, can be a lot. We can help with structured meeting templates and tools to keep track of coaching points.
2. The need for meticulous CRM hygiene across your team might be a challenge. We can provide clear guidelines and automated reminders to help.
3. Prioritising urgent requests from various stakeholders can be tricky. We encourage using 'time blocking' and will help you set clear boundaries and expectations with other teams.

Dyslexia Positives

1. The emphasis on verbal communication, active listening, and building rapport in sales is a huge strength here.
2. Strong spatial reasoning can help with understanding sales processes and pipeline flow in a visual way.
3. Often excellent at 'big picture' thinking, which is crucial for strategic account planning and team-level strategy.

Dyslexia Challenges and Accommodations

1. Writing clear, concise emails and reports for your team and management is essential. We offer tools like Grammarly, and we're happy to review your written work for clarity, not just grammar.
2. Detailed CRM entry and reporting might be a hurdle. We can provide templates, checklists, and screen-reading software if needed.
3. Reading and analysing large sales reports or training documents. We can provide audio versions or summarise key points verbally in 1-on-1s.

Autism Positives

1. A strong logical and analytical approach to sales processes and performance data can be incredibly valuable for optimising team strategies.
2. The ability to focus intensely on specific tasks, like designing a new outreach sequence or deep-diving into market research, can lead to significant breakthroughs.
3. Often excellent at pattern recognition, which is key for identifying successful sales behaviours or common objections across the team.

Autism Challenges and Accommodations

1. Navigating the nuances of team dynamics, coaching different personalities, and managing interpersonal conflict can be complex. We offer structured leadership training and peer support groups.
2. The expectation for spontaneous social interaction in a sales environment might be overwhelming. We encourage clear, direct communication and respect individual preferences for social engagement.
3. Adapting to sudden changes in sales strategy or market conditions. We aim for transparency and provide as much context as possible for any shifts, with time for processing.

Key Responsibilities

Experience Levels Responsibilities

1. Level: Lead Customer Acquisition Specialist
2. Responsibilities: Lead and coach a team of 3-8 Customer Acquisition Specialists, helping them hit their individual and collective pipeline targets. This means regular 1-on-1s, call reviews, and personalised development plans.
3. Design and optimise multi-channel outreach strategies and sequences for your team, constantly testing new messaging, subject lines, and call scripts to improve conversion rates. Get it wrong, and your team wastes a lot of time.
4. Run weekly team meetings that are actually useful. Share best practices, review performance, and keep everyone motivated and aligned with our overall sales strategy.
5. Collaborate closely with Marketing to ensure lead quality, provide feedback on campaigns, and help refine our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). You'll be the voice of the SDR team for Marketing.
6. Be accountable for your team's pipeline generation numbers. That means forecasting accurately, identifying potential blockers, and putting plans in place to address underperformance.
7. Onboard and train new Customer Acquisition Specialists, getting them up to speed quickly on our product, sales methodology (like MEDDICC), and tools. You're setting them up for success.
8. Analyse team performance data in Salesforce and Tableau to spot trends, identify areas for improvement, and report back to your Manager on what's working and what isn't. You'll need to tell the story behind the numbers.
9. Supervision: You'll have monthly strategic alignment meetings with your Manager, Customer Acquisition. For day-to-day execution and tactical decisions, you're pretty much autonomous. You're expected to bring solutions, not just problems, to your manager.
10. Decision: You have full authority to make tactical decisions regarding your team's outreach strategies, messaging, and daily activities. You can approve minor software licences or training materials up to £5K. Hiring recommendations for your team carry significant weight, but final approval rests with your Manager. For anything above £5K or major process changes affecting other teams, you'll need to consult your Manager.
11. Success: Your team consistently hits or exceeds their quarterly pipeline generation targets. Your direct reports are developing well, and you're seeing measurable improvements in their individual performance. You're a recognised contributor to the overall sales development strategy, and other teams (like Marketing) actively seek your input. You're building a high-performing, motivated team.

Decision-Making Authority

• Type: Team Outreach Strategy & Messaging
• Entry: Follows pre-defined scripts and sequences. Suggests minor edits.
• Mid: Adapts existing sequences, personalises messages based on prospect research. Proposes new messaging angles.
• Senior: Designs and builds new multi-channel sequences from scratch. A/B tests messaging. Makes recommendations for team-wide adoption.
• Type: Lead Qualification & Disqualification
• Entry: Qualifies leads based on strict BANT/MEDDICC criteria. Escalates ambiguous leads.
• Mid: Independently qualifies leads, applies judgment to edge cases. Provides feedback on lead quality to Marketing.
• Senior: Refines qualification criteria based on market feedback. Trains junior reps on advanced qualification. Challenges Marketing on lead quality.
• Type: Team Performance Management
• Entry: Focuses on own activity and results. Seeks feedback from manager.
• Mid: Manages own pipeline and activity. May informally mentor new hires.
• Senior: Consistently exceeds own targets. Formally mentors 1-2 junior reps. Provides peer feedback.
• Type: Budget Allocation (Small Scale)
• Entry: No budget authority. Requests resources from manager.
• Mid: Requests specific tools or training. Justifies cost to manager.
• Senior: Researches and recommends tools/training up to £1K. Justifies ROI.

Competency Requirements

Foundation Skills (Transferable)

Beyond the sales-specific stuff, you'll need a solid set of core skills to thrive in this Lead role. These are the foundational abilities that let you work effectively with people, solve problems, and keep things moving forward.

• Category: Communication & Influence
• Skills: Active Listening: Genuinely hearing what your team and prospects are saying, not just waiting for your turn to speak. This is crucial for effective coaching and discovery.
• Coaching & Mentoring: The ability to guide and develop junior team members, providing constructive feedback and helping them improve their skills and confidence.
• Presentation Skills: Clearly and concisely presenting team performance, strategic plans, or new initiatives to your manager and other internal stakeholders.
• Negotiation & Persuasion: Guiding your team on how to handle objections and negotiate effectively, and using these skills yourself when dealing with internal stakeholders or vendors.
• Written Communication: Crafting clear, compelling emails, internal reports, and team-wide communications that get the message across without waffle.
• Category: Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
• Skills: Analytical Thinking: Breaking down complex sales problems (e.g., why isn't this sequence working?) into smaller, manageable parts and using data to find solutions.
• Strategic Planning: Developing short-term and medium-term plans for your team to hit their targets, considering market conditions, lead flow, and team capabilities.
• Prioritisation: Deciding what's most important for your team to focus on, especially when you have multiple urgent requests coming from different directions.
• Root Cause Analysis: Digging beyond surface-level issues to find the real reasons behind underperformance or process breakdowns.
• Category: Leadership & Team Development
• Skills: Performance Management: Setting clear expectations, monitoring performance, and providing feedback (both positive and constructive) to help your team members grow or address underperformance.
• Motivation & Engagement: Keeping your team energised and focused, especially during challenging periods. This means celebrating wins and building a positive team culture.
• Conflict Resolution: Mediating disagreements within your team or between your team and other departments, finding fair and effective solutions.
• Delegation: Knowing when and how to assign tasks to your team members, empowering them while ensuring quality.
• Category: Adaptability & Resilience
• Skills: Change Management: Helping your team navigate shifts in strategy, tools, or market conditions, making sure they understand the 'why' and feel supported.
• Stress Management: Effectively managing your own workload and the pressures of leading a team, and helping your team do the same.
• Continuous Learning: Staying up-to-date with new sales methodologies, market trends, and coaching techniques to keep your team at the top of their game.

Functional Skills (Role-Specific Technical)

These are the specific sales and technical skills you'll need to not only perform your role but also effectively coach and lead your team. You'll be expected to be an expert in these areas.

Technical Competencies

• Skill: Lead Qualification Frameworks (MEDDICC/BANT)
• Desc: You don't just know these acronyms; you live and breathe them, and you can teach your team how to apply them rigorously. You'll use these frameworks to assess the quality of leads, coach your team on discovery calls, and challenge Marketing on MQL definitions.
• Level: Expert
• Skill: Outbound Prospecting Strategy & Execution
• Desc: You'll be designing and optimising multi-touch, multi-channel outreach cadences for your team. This means moving beyond generic templates to hyper-personalised messaging based on persona, industry triggers, and competitive intelligence. You'll be the architect of your team's outreach playbook.
• Level: Expert
• Skill: Pipeline Management & Velocity
• Desc: You'll understand the science of managing an opportunity pipeline at a team level. This involves accurately staging deals, identifying and mitigating stall risks, and calculating key metrics like sales cycle length and stage-to-stage conversion rates to build a predictable team forecast. You'll be coaching your team on how to keep their individual pipelines healthy.
• Level: Advanced
• Skill: Consultative Discovery & Questioning
• Desc: You're a master of the discovery call and can teach your team the art of it. This means skillfully asking open-ended questions to uncover latent pain, quantify the business impact of a problem, and position your team as trusted advisors, not just product-pushers.
• Level: Expert
• Skill: Objection Handling & Negotiation
• Desc: You can systematically categorise and respond to common objections ('we don't have the budget,' 'we're happy with our current vendor') and, crucially, you can teach your team how to do this effectively. You'll also coach them on navigating initial commercial discussions.
• Level: Advanced
• Skill: Territory & Account Planning
• Desc: You'll move your team from a reactive to a proactive sales approach. This involves analysing a sales territory to identify top-tier accounts, mapping out key stakeholders ('multi-threading'), and developing a strategic plan of attack for penetrating key logos. You'll teach your team how to 'hunt whales' effectively.
• Level: Advanced

Digital Tools

• Tool: Salesforce
• Level: Advanced
• Usage: You'll be running complex reports on team performance, monitoring pipeline health, ensuring data hygiene across your team's records, and using it to coach reps on their individual pipelines. You'll also understand object relationships and may use Process Builder/Flow for minor automations to help your team.
• Tool: Outreach / Salesloft
• Level: Expert
• Usage: You'll design and build complex, multi-channel sequences from scratch for your team, analyse sequence performance data to optimise team-wide strategies, and coach your team on effective messaging and execution within the platform. You're the go-to expert for this tool.
• Tool: LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Level: Advanced
• Usage: You'll employ advanced search tactics (e.g., Boolean) to help your team build targeted lead lists, leverage TeamLink for warm introductions, and train your team on social selling techniques and how to use the platform effectively for prospecting and engagement.
• Tool: ZoomInfo / Cognism
• Level: Expert
• Usage: You'll manage data cleansing projects, build complex ideal customer profile (ICP) searches to identify new target accounts for your team, and train your team on efficient and ethical data sourcing. You'll ensure your team has the best contact data available.
• Tool: Gong / Chorus.ai
• Level: Advanced
• Usage: You'll build and manage your team's call library of best practices, create custom trackers for new initiatives, and use analytics to identify winning talk tracks, common objections, and coaching opportunities across your team's calls. You'll use this for targeted, data-driven coaching.
• Tool: Tableau / Power BI
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: You'll connect to CRM data to build custom reports on team performance, visualise team metrics for QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews), and identify trends in conversion rates or deal velocity to inform your coaching and strategy. You'll be able to interpret and present data insights.

Industry Knowledge

• Area: Sales Methodologies & Frameworks
• Desc: Deep understanding of various sales methodologies (e.g., Challenger Sale, Sandler, SPIN Selling) and how to apply them to different sales scenarios. You'll be able to teach and reinforce these with your team.
• Area: Market & Competitive Landscape
• Desc: A solid grasp of our industry, our key competitors, and how our solution differentiates itself. You'll use this knowledge to help your team craft compelling value propositions and overcome competitive objections.
• Area: Customer Journey Mapping
• Desc: Understanding the typical buying journey of our target customers, from initial awareness to decision. This helps you and your team tailor outreach and qualification processes to match their needs.

Regulatory Compliance Regulations

• Reg: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• Usage: You'll ensure your team's prospecting activities, data sourcing, and email outreach are fully compliant with GDPR. This means understanding consent, legitimate interest, and data handling best practices. You'll train your team on this and monitor adherence.
• Reg: PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)
• Usage: You'll guide your team on the rules around unsolicited electronic communications (emails, calls) to ensure all outreach is compliant, especially regarding B2B vs B2C distinctions and opt-out mechanisms. This is critical to avoid fines and maintain our reputation.

Essential Prerequisites

• Proven track record of consistently exceeding individual Customer Acquisition Specialist targets for at least 3-5 years.
• Demonstrable experience informally mentoring or coaching junior sales professionals.
• Strong understanding of the entire sales cycle, from prospecting to close, even if your direct experience is limited to the top-of-funnel.
• Ability to analyse sales data and translate it into actionable insights for a team.
• Experience designing and optimising sales outreach sequences and messaging.

Career Pathway Context

To step into this Lead role, you won't just be a great individual contributor; you'll have already shown signs of leadership, perhaps by being the go-to person for new hires, or by consistently helping peers improve. You've proven you can not only hit your own numbers but also positively influence others. This isn't a jump from being a good rep; it's a jump from being a good rep who also makes everyone around them better.

Qualifications & Credentials

Emerging Foundation Skills

• Skill: AI-Driven Sales Strategy & Ethics
• Why: AI is already transforming how we prospect, personalise outreach, and analyse conversations. As a Lead, you'll need to not only use these tools but also understand how to integrate them into your team's workflow ethically and effectively. Competitors are already using AI to gain an edge, and you'll need to ensure your team isn't left behind.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Prompt Engineering for Sales', 'description': 'Crafting effective prompts for AI tools to generate highly personalised emails, call scripts, or research summaries for your team.'}, {'concept_name': 'AI Output Validation', 'description': 'Teaching your team how to critically evaluate AI-generated content for accuracy, tone, and brand voice, ensuring it sounds human and authentic.'}, {'concept_name': 'Ethical AI Use in Outreach', 'description': "Understanding the ethical implications of using AI for prospecting and personalisation, ensuring transparency and avoiding 'creepy' or misleading tactics."}, {'concept_name': 'AI-Powered Coaching Tools', 'description': 'Using advanced conversation intelligence features to identify nuanced coaching opportunities and deliver more impactful feedback to your team.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Experiment with ChatGPT/Claude to draft personalised emails and call openers for your team. See what works.
• Next quarter: Identify one AI sales tool (e.g., Lavender, Regie.ai) and pilot it with your team, measuring its impact on productivity.
• Month 3-6: Attend a webinar or online course on AI ethics in sales and marketing, then lead a team discussion on best practices.
• Month 6-12: Work with Sales Operations to integrate an AI tool more deeply into your team's workflow, documenting the process and ROI.
• QuickWin: Start using AI to generate quick summaries of prospect company news for your team's pre-call research. It's an immediate time-saver and shows your team the power of these tools.
• Skill: Advanced Data Storytelling for Sales
• Why: As more data becomes available, simply presenting numbers isn't enough. You'll need to tell compelling stories with data to influence your manager, Marketing, and even Product teams. This is about translating complex metrics into clear, actionable narratives that drive decisions.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Narrative Structure in Data', 'description': "How to build a compelling story around your team's performance data, with a clear beginning, middle, and end."}, {'concept_name': 'Visualisation Best Practices', 'description': 'Designing dashboards and reports that are easy to understand and highlight key insights, not just raw data.'}, {'concept_name': 'Contextualising Metrics', 'description': "Explaining 'why' certain numbers are important and what they mean for the business, rather than just stating them."}, {'concept_name': 'Actionable Insights', 'description': 'Moving beyond observations to recommend specific actions based on your data analysis.'}]
• Prepare: This month: When presenting team metrics, focus on one key insight and explain its 'so what' impact in 2-3 sentences.
• Next quarter: Take an online course on data visualisation or storytelling (e.g., from Tableau, Coursera).
• Month 3-6: Redesign one of your regular team performance reports to be more visually engaging and narrative-driven.
• Month 6-12: Practice presenting your team's performance to your manager, focusing on the story and recommended actions, not just the numbers.
• QuickWin: For your next team meeting, pick one key metric and prepare a 60-second 'story' about what it means and what action the team should take.

Advancing Technical Skills

• Skill: Sales Engagement Platform (Outreach/Salesloft) Architecture
• Why: As the platform evolves, you'll need to move beyond just building sequences to understanding how different features interact, how data flows, and how to troubleshoot issues. You'll be responsible for ensuring your team gets the most out of the platform.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Advanced Sequence Logic', 'description': 'Designing complex sequences with conditional steps, A/B tests, and branching paths based on prospect engagement.'}, {'concept_name': 'Integration with CRM', 'description': 'Understanding how data flows between the sales engagement platform and Salesforce, ensuring accurate logging and reporting.'}, {'concept_name': 'Reporting & Analytics Customisation', 'description': 'Building custom dashboards and reports within the platform to track team performance and identify areas for optimisation.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Deep-dive into the advanced reporting features of your current sales engagement platform.
• Next quarter: Build a 'master' sequence with multiple A/B test variations and conditional steps.
• Month 3-6: Shadow Sales Operations to understand how the platform integrates with Salesforce and other tools.
• Month 6-12: Lead a training session for your peers on an advanced feature of the sales engagement platform.
• QuickWin: Identify one underutilised feature in your sales engagement platform and implement it with your team, measuring its impact.
• Skill: CRM (Salesforce) Process Optimisation
• Why: You'll need to understand not just how to use Salesforce, but how to make it better for your team. This means identifying inefficiencies, proposing solutions, and working with Sales Operations to implement changes that improve productivity.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Salesforce Object Model', 'description': 'Understanding the relationships between Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities, and how they impact reporting.'}, {'concept_name': 'Process Builder / Flow Basics', 'description': 'Learning how to build simple automations to streamline common tasks for your team (e.g., updating lead status, creating follow-up tasks).'}, {'concept_name': 'Reporting & Dashboard Design', 'description': 'Creating custom reports and dashboards in Salesforce that provide actionable insights for your team and manager.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Identify one manual task your team does in Salesforce that could be automated. Research how.
• Next quarter: Complete a Salesforce Admin beginner trailmix on Trailhead (Salesforce's learning platform).
• Month 3-6: Work with Sales Operations to implement a small automation or process improvement you've identified.
• Month 6-12: Design a new Salesforce dashboard that helps your team track their progress more effectively.
• QuickWin: Create a new custom report in Salesforce that gives your team a unique insight into their pipeline or activity.

Education Requirements

• Level: Minimum
• Req: A-Levels or equivalent vocational qualification (OFQUAL Level 3-4).
• Alts: We're big believers that experience can trump formal education. If you've got a proven track record of sales success and leadership, we're interested. So, if you don't have the formal qualifications but have the experience and the drive, please still apply.
• Level: Preferred
• Req: Bachelor's degree (OFQUAL Level 6) in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
• Alts: Relevant professional certifications in sales or leadership, combined with extensive practical experience, would be considered equivalent.

Experience Requirements

You'll need roughly 8-12 years of progressive experience in a B2B sales environment, with a significant portion of that time spent in a Customer Acquisition Specialist (SDR/BDR) role. Crucially, you'll need at least 1-2 years of demonstrable experience leading, mentoring, or coaching a small team or a group of peers. We're looking for someone who has consistently exceeded their individual targets and has a clear passion for developing others.

Preferred Certifications

• Cert: Challenger Sale Certification
• Prod: Challenger, Inc.
• Usage: Demonstrates a modern, insight-led approach to sales, which is critical for coaching a high-performing acquisition team.
• Cert: Sandler Training Certification
• Prod: Sandler Training
• Usage: Shows a strong understanding of consultative selling, objection handling, and effective qualification, all vital skills for a Lead to teach their team.
• Cert: Salesforce Administrator Certification (Associate or Admin)
• Prod: Salesforce
• Usage: While not a full admin role, this shows a deeper understanding of the CRM, which is incredibly useful for reporting, process optimisation, and troubleshooting for your team.

Recommended Activities

• Regularly reading industry blogs (e.g., Sales Hacker, Gong Labs) and books on sales leadership and coaching.
• Attending sales conferences or webinars focused on sales development and team leadership.
• Participating in peer coaching groups or mentorship programmes within the sales community.
• Taking online courses on advanced Excel, data visualisation (Tableau/Power BI), or AI for sales to enhance your analytical capabilities.
• Actively seeking feedback from your manager and peers, and implementing it into your coaching style.

Career Progression Pathways

Entry Paths to This Role

• Path: Senior Customer Acquisition Specialist
• Time: 3-5 years as a Senior CASP
• Path: High-Performing Account Executive (AE)
• Time: 5-8 years as an AE
• Path: Sales Operations Analyst (with SDR experience)
• Time: 4-7 years in Sales Ops

Career Progression From This Role

• Pathway: Manager, Customer Acquisition (L5)
• Time: 2-4 years as a Lead CASP
• Pathway: Principal Customer Acquisition Specialist (L5 - Individual Contributor)
• Time: 3-5 years as a Lead CASP

Long Term Vision Potential Roles

• Title: Director, Sales Development / New Business (L6)
• Time: 5-10 years from Lead CASP
• Title: VP, Sales / Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) (L7)
• Time: 10-15+ years from Lead CASP
• Title: Head of Sales Enablement (L5/L6)
• Time: 7-12 years from Lead CASP

How Zavmo Delivers This Role's Development

DISCOVER Phase: Skills Gap Analysis

Zavmo maps your current competencies against all requirements in this job description through conversational assessment. We evaluate your foundation skills (communication, strategic thinking), functional skills (CRM expertise, negotiation), and readiness for career progression.

Output: Personalised skills gap heat map showing strengths and priorities, estimated time to competency, neurodiversity accommodations.

DISCUSS Phase: Personalised Learning Pathway

Based on your DISCOVER results, Zavmo creates a personalised learning plan prioritised by impact: foundation skills first, then functional skills. We adapt to your learning style, pace, and neurodiversity needs (ADHD, dyslexia, autism).

Output: Week-by-week schedule, each module linked to specific job responsibilities, checkpoints and milestones.

DELIVER Phase: Conversational Learning

Learn through conversation, not boring modules. Zavmo uses 10 conversation types (Socratic dialogue, role-play, coaching, case studies) to build competence. Practice difficult QBR presentations, negotiate tough renewals, and handle churn conversations in a safe AI environment before facing real clients.

Example: "For 'Stakeholder Mapping', Zavmo will guide you through analysing a complex enterprise account, identifying key decision-makers, and building an engagement strategy."

DEMONSTRATE Phase: Competency Assessment

Zavmo automatically builds your evidence portfolio as you learn. Every conversation, practice scenario, and application example is captured and mapped to NOS performance criteria. When ready, your portfolio supports OFQUAL qualification claims and demonstrates competence to employers.

Output: Competency matrix, evidence portfolio (downloadable), qualification readiness, career progression score.