7 Actionable Tips To Keep Warm Leads From Growing Cold
This article was originally posted on our company website. SalesBlink helps sales teams go from Prospecting to Outreach to Closing at a lightning-fast speed.
Collecting a pool of different leads is not a difficult job anymore. Everything seems quite consistent so far, the challenge lies with managing the funnel of warm leads. One of the hardest parts of this funnel, which requires considerable effort is to keep warm leads from growing cold.
In this article, we have put together a few actionable ways to stay in touch with warm leads.
Types of Sales Leads
You all must have encountered this situation while generating leads. All leads are not alike, so how do you differentiate among all the leads generated?
In the process of lead generation, there are three types of leads:
1. Hot lead
2. Cold lead
3. Warm lead
Let’s have a look at how they are different from each other.
1. Hot leads
As the term says, hot leads are ones who already know you, have worked with you, have read about you, or have been in touch with you. These leads exist in your list and a connection is already formed with them.
They can be a recommendation or those who are looking for your product or service. In order to convert them, you have to put in some efforts.
2. Warm leads
Warm leads are those who don’t know you. You might have some common contacts but directly they don’t know you.
3. Cold leads
Cold leads don’t have any idea of who you are. They are the most difficult to convert. They can’t trust you so early as you are completely new to them. No awareness of what you offer.
Lead generation is an essential step in the business. The concept is easy to understand. The challenge lies in how to stay in touch with warm leads.
To create an opportunity for your business to thrive, you need to be in front of the target audience. One of the key areas that the business must master is how to stay in touch with warm leads.
Why Keep Warm Leads from Growing Cold?
Every organization needs to follow up and nurture warm leads as part of its sales process.
The benefits of staying in touch with warm leads are-
1. They are far more promising than cold leads
2. They are more flexible as compared to others.
3. They appear to be more lucrative.
4. Warm leads are simpler to convert into sales than cold calls.
Therefore, you must try to convert warm leads into sales.
7 Ways to Keep Warm Leads from Growing Cold
If you think you are stuck in how to stay in touch with warm leads, get a headstart through these tips and tricks.
Use multiple channels
In today’s age, there are a lot of options to connect with people. You must use them for your benefit and connect with warm leads across different channels like email, phone, SMS, and personal meetings.
The more diversified your contact methods are, the better it is in building relationships with leads.
Appropriate use of social media
To keep warm leads from growing cold, you need to actively interact with them on social media.
Social media is one such tool where you can be in touch with them at their comfort. This is the area where you can easily tap and increase your presence. You need to take out multiple ways to interact on a regular basis.
73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business.
Follow up regularly
While regular follow-up is a sales mantra that works, you have to go a little easy with it.
Striking a balance is important. You must neither be a pest nor be too tardy. Be somewhere in the middle of both extremes. Being aggressive will scare your leads away.
On the other hand, if you are too laid back, it will seem as though you don’t care about selling your product or service, and the lead would lose interest in you. Chances of warm leads forgetting about you are also high once you go out of sight.
It is good to follow up with a purpose. You can give the prospect information about your business, the latest offers and services and provide them with the latest news.
Choose to check-in casually in between but do keep a purpose or choose to add value. Prospects like it when there is something in it for them.
Make them Friends
It is not necessary to always have sales pitch conversations with them. Try to have more friendly conversations with the prospect on common topics of interest. It helps to build trust and take forward the sales process. Show genuine interest in them.
Don’t make the prospect feel that you are faking it at any point.
Wish them on their birthdays and anniversaries to give them a special feeling. The same goes for festivals. It will help in keeping the connection alive, and you can stay in touch with warm leads.
Try to add value in some way or the other. You can send them gifts like free trials, ebooks, consultations, special discounts, and much more. Do keep their personal interests in mind while sending the gifts. It will bring positive feedback and enhance your relationship with them. This is a good way to keep warm leads from growing cold.
Talk less and listen more
You have to focus on the leads and not on yourself.
Do you know that people like to engage in conversations and enjoy it when someone listens to them?
Talk about what interests the lead and gain their interest. Closely listen to what they have to say. Making the prospect feel important can go a long way in helping you close a sale.
All you need to do is lend an ear and be an active listener.
Generate enriching content
After taking a close look at your leads and understanding what they care the most about, create high-quality content. You can nurture warm leads by providing them with content that adds value to their lives.
Create and share online stuff such as blogs, articles, e-books, webinars, whitepapers, how-to videos, infographics, and many more. Sending these as personalized messages would be even better as the lead would feel that you value their desires.
Relevant and useful content will promote your brand-wide and create an interest in the warm leads. It would be best to find the right balance of communication to stay in touch with warm leads.
Bring the spotlight on what is New
If your lead lost interest in you, it’s ok.
You can always revive their interest by letting them know about a new launch by your company. It could be a new product or service, new features or some exciting offer.
Never miss out on the chance to tell leads about the recent developments even if they have gone cold. You can’t predict when a lead gets interested in you again.
Test Drive
Think about this: before purchasing a car, you like to go for a test drive. Only after a test drive can you decide whether you want to buy the car or not.
Similarly, to keep warm leads from growing cold, you need to offer your product or service test drive. It is quite natural that prospects would want to try your service or product for sometime before going ahead and investing their money in it.
After some time, this test drive will call for a sales action. So, if you do not have the test drive option, there are high chances of losing out to competitors who provide it.
Email Optimization
In order to boost your warm leads, try the following ways out-
1. Try to attract them through incentives, free trials, discounts, and many more.
2. Integrating contact form submissions, to loop them in your email subscribers list.
3. Try to use urgency. People tend to react faster when you offer them a limited period. They generally spend rapidly when it comes to limited period offers.
All these tips boil down to few more important points-
Cold Emails have a bad reputation. But here are a few general concepts you need to keep in mind before you send an email to warm leads.
i) Customize your Email for decision-makers. You need to understand what is the purpose of your email. When sending warm emails, the only purpose is to start the communication. Don’t hop for discounts and deals.
ii) Email Length- Before you start writing a long story, keep in mind they are not interested in your story. They did not ask you to narrate a story. So be short and crisp. They are not interested in giant texts that have nothing to do with them.
Nobody will be keen to read a novel in the email body and that is one big reason why you should keep your emails short. Try to catch the recipient’s attention in the opening of the email.
iii) Try to build the connection, wherein they can relate your product or service to their existing problem. You have to explain how well your product or service fits into the needs of the prospect.
And over the years, in an attempt to be professional, you tend to ignore small informal talks.
Here are a few warm follow up templates:
Template 1:
Hey [Name],
Last time we talked you wanted to get in touch around June. Since we are in the last week of May, I wanted to reach you and touch on your goal.
What is a good date to schedule a meeting with you? I am looking forward to our succeeding steps.
Cheers
[Your name and contact info]
Template 2:
Hi Name,
I just saw you were still looking for a photographer for your wedding photos on Instagram! We understand that wedding memories are special to the heart. We make sure that these bright and colour moments live forever in the form of pictures. My organization gives you the necessary skills and knowledge to take your photo-editing to the next level! Here’s the link to all our reviews. Should we chat again soon?
Looking forward to the next steps and details about the function.
Cheers
[Your name and contact info]
Template 3:
Hi {recipient name},
Hope you are having a pleasant day. It’s been quite a while since we last got in touch. {Your organization} ran a trial of {our service name} for the purpose to generate quality leads.
I have recently hit some groundbreaking improvements since you last signed up.
How about having a quick discussion this week? I would be really happy to walk through these improvements.
Does Friday, 5 P.M sound good to you?
Tip:- Always mention the important updates in your product or service to gather the attention of the lead. It increases the chances of them saying yes to a meeting. Remember these emails depend heavily on personalization.
Conclusion
Staying in touch with warm leads can be a little challenging, but these simple tips can set you in the right direction and be of immense help to keep warm leads from growing cold. It will also help to build that trust and rapport among your warm leads. By not being too salesy all the time, you win more points.
There is always a sense of uncertainty as warm leads may not convert all the time. But by following the best lead nurturing practices mentioned above, you will inch closer to your goal.
The best strategy for your business to drive sales is to stay in touch with warm leads and be genuinely interested in them.
