A warm lead can be defined by the word itself. Warm means positive, closeness, good contact and safety. A good example is a children’s game where one kid hides something and the other one has to find it. When the searcher is getting closer to the object, the hider shouts “Warm!”.Therefore we can say that a warm lead is someone who is ready to close a deal. A cold lead is exactly the opposite: you are far away from closing a deal or finding a lead, and there is probably a long way to go until the cold lead turns into a warm one.
What does it mean in sales?
Sales activities are set in place to get from point A to point B. Point B stands for a successful deal or sales. There are many different possibilities and channels for getting to point B. [Check out our post Sale channels – how do they work?]
Sales channels create a way which can be either easy or hard. The easy way means that you have to put in less effort to achieve the same results compared to doing it the hard way. The key component in an easy way is a warm lead.
A warm lead is an icebreaker, a conqueror of the first barrier, the remover of the first filter – you have quickly made your way to a point where it would otherwise take a long time to get to. Figuratively, you have just taken an elevator straight to the top of a skyscraper by just pressing one button, while your competitors have to take the stairs instead.
The most common channels to obtain a warm lead, starting from the warmest and ending with the coldest, are:
Recommendations – a friend, a partner, a relative, a client, a competitor or whoever recommends you as someone selling great products or services.
A current client – they know you, you have an established relationship.
Re-marketing – a person who has seen your brand somewhere and knows something about you. This could happen through newsletters, advertising campaigns, websites, social media.
LeadFellow is focusing on the first channel – recommendations. Refer someone through our software and control and monitor your best salesman basically for free!
