Warm leads convert at a rate of 14.6%, while for cold leads, it’s a mere 1.7%. Spending time on warm leads seems like a smarter bet, right? Yes and no.

You see, it’s not just about the numbers; it’s about classifying leads into cold and warm. Figuring out the type of lead you’re dealing with doesn’t just boost your chances of closing a deal; it also streamlines your whole sales process.

Every sales journey begins with a lead, and if you know exactly what each lead is looking for, you’re already a step ahead. This kind of know-how lets you fine-tune your sales pitch and target your efforts more effectively,

What are Cold Leads?

Cold leads are individuals who have never engaged with your company before. They haven’t visited your website, clicked on your ads, or shown interest in your products or services. Typically, you would have found their contact details online.

Why do cold leads matter? They represent potential future customers. Even though they haven’t shown interest yet, they can be nurtured into paying customers if approached correctly. The journey from a cold lead to a conversion can be long and requires strategic planning. The upside is that the pool of cold leads is generally large, giving you a broader audience to reach.

How to Market to Cold Leads?

When dealing with cold emails, the challenge lies in grabbing attention and building initial trust. These people have no idea who you are or what your company does, so your first email must be impactful.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

• Customization is Key: Sending a generic email is a missed opportunity. Do some homework on who you’re emailing. If you can point to details like their company’s recent achievements or specific needs, you can show them that the email isn’t just another mass message.
• Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse: Provide value right from the get-go. This could be a special discount, a free trial, or an eBook that solves a common problem in their industry. The aim is to provide immediate value to capture their interest.
• Connect on Social Media: If email marketing isn’t getting the desired response, encourage the cold leads to connect with you on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter. Share industry insights, stats, testimonials, and success stories regularly on your profiles.

What are Warm Leads?

Warm leads refer to potential customers who have already engaged with your brand in some way but haven’t yet made a purchase. Unlike cold leads, warm leads have shown a certain level of interest, whether by signing up for your newsletter, following your social media accounts, or visiting your website multiple times.

The essential characteristic that sets warm leads apart is their familiarity with your company. They may know what you offer, and there’s a chance they’re considering whether your product or service could be a good fit for them.

Since they have already shown interest, they usually require less effort to convert. You can fast-track them through the sales funnel because the initial steps of brand introduction and interest generation have already been covered.

How to Market to Warm Leads

Warm leads are different; they’ve already engaged with your brand to some extent. This prior interaction makes catering to their specific needs and interests easier. Here’s how to go about marketing to warm emails:

• Offer Content They’ll Appreciate: Use the information you have about their prior interactions with your brand to offer content you know they’ll value. This could be a product recommendation or eBook.
• Personalize the Emails: Use your collected data to personalize the message. Personalized emails often see higher engagement rates.
• Offer Exclusive Discounts: Show appreciation for their continued interest in your brand by offering something exclusive.

Key Takeaways

Knowing what kind of leads you have and managing them correctly makes it easier to get them through the sales funnel. By differentiating between them and understanding what these leads are looking for, you can tailor your marketing messages to be more effective, leading them closer to making a purchase.

Here’s a recap:

• Cold leads are people unfamiliar with your brand, making them a larger but more challenging audience for conversion.
• Warm leads are potential customers who have already engaged with your brand in some way but haven’t converted.
• Warm leads are easier to convert because they already know your brand.
• To attract cold leads, write personalized emails and make offers they can’t refuse, like a special discount or free trial.
• To convert warm leads, focus on deepening the relationship by offering tailored content based on their past interactions and extending special offers or exclusive discounts.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Jeremy Chen discusses telemarketing and cold calling. Jeremy Chen is from Jeremy Chen Sales, which helps businesses transform their sales strategies. Whether you’re looking to define sales processes or develop a brand new one, they provide the services that you need.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Why cold calling and telemarketing work better now than ever before
• How the pandemic has affected telemarketers
• Why it is essential to distance your real-life persona from your telemarketing one

Telemarketing Is Not Dead

Many “experts,” say that telemarketing and cold calling are dead. Jeremy Chen doesn’t only disagree with this idea, but he believes that cold calling and telemarketing work better than ever. He says that he loves when people tell him that these practices are dead because it means there’s that much less noise for him to compete with.

The reluctance to pick up the phone seems endemic now, not just among salespeople. In Jeremy’s opinion, cold calling is like a highly competitive sport. Any high-performing athlete trains for their discipline every day, and if you’re not trained, it shows. The same is true for cold calling.

Pandemic Effect

Many salespeople are reporting that, after the pandemic, it is easier to get people on the phone than it had been in the past. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that more people are now at home, having been cut off from their surroundings in the office, so they are more receptive to answering the phone and talking to a stranger.

In that sense, this is arguably a better time than ever for telemarketers and cold callers. Interestingly, Jeremy points out that the connection rate over the phone had been miserable during the pandemic, although the actual conversion rate and revenue didn’t drop.

Playing a Character

Cold calling is an art as much as it is a science. It is important to remember that when you’re making a phone call, you’re presenting a particular personality or version of yourself that doesn’t necessarily correlate with your character in “real life.”

Jeremy is not affected by rejections during his working hours, even if they are the most unpleasant experiences at the moment, because he considers his caller personality a sort-of character, like an actor would in a play or a movie.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.