Cold Leads v. Hot Leads - What’s The Difference?

If we want to increase our customer base, then we must tell more people about the things that we do and speak to them more effectively.

Having built out the foundations within our marketing…mapping the data we need to track, crafting our offer and identifying our target market, reviewing customer buying patterns and how relationships are formed, and…of course…nailing down the flow of our sales funnel…now we can dive deep into how we distribute our message to the world.

…or at least the part of the world that we want to know about the things we do…

Developing our distribution hub - telling more people about what you do and communicating effectively depending where they are in their journey.

I am sure you have heard of the concept of lead temperature: cold leads, warm leads, hot leads, etc. If not, Ill break each down here in a moment.

When developing how we distribute our message to our target audience, it is important that we understand how “warm” the leads are. This will give us a basis for the language we use and the journey we must take them on to guide them where we want them to go.

So, lets break down lead temperature…

Hot Leads:

These are leads who aware of you, your product, and the solution to the problem they have. They tend to be actively looking for a solution and know that you are someone who can provide it. They are the MOST aware and the closest to being ready to buy from you.

Warm Leads:

These are leads who may be product or solution aware, but are unlikely to be aware of you. There is little to no relationship or credibility built up yet. These leads may be searching for a solution to their problem, or may not yet be in enough pain to have the solution provided now. In either case, they tend to be aware that they have a problem and that a specific solution does exist. These leads need a bit of guidance to make a decision today…and more importantly, recognize that you can provide the solution they seek.

Cold Leads:

These leads are the least aware. They tend to be, at most, problem aware, but not product or solution aware. These leads tend to recognize that they have a ‘pain’ somewhere in their life, but are not fully aware of what the cause is or what solutions may look like to resolve. Due to this, they have no idea that you exist. These leads take the most work to convert to a sale.

Now, I get it, you may be reading this and saying “yes, I know, hot leads are easy to sell and cold leads are not…so what?”

I have found that understanding lead temperature makes is much easier to craft and distribute my message. As we grow our business, to increase our pool of potential new customers, we will have to increase the amount of marketing we do to warm leads and cold leads. Eventually, we wont be able to rely on hot leads alone.

When I know that I am creating messages that are likely to be read by cold leads, rather than hot or warm leads (think of those who are on your email list), then I know that I need to meet them where they are. If the leads don’t know what the problem is or that a solution exists, then I need to focus my message around the generalized problem they feel today and bridge the gap to help them understand the root cause…and eventually the solutions available. Then, having bridged that gap, I can begin to introduce them to my business and the specific solutions I provide.

If I were to communicate with them the same way I do with my hot leads, I would likely leave them stranded. They would be unable to connect the dots on what it has to do with them or how it can improve their lives.

The key point is simple - meet your prospects where they are…then build the bridge to where you want them to go. The colder the leads, the longer the bridge will need to be.

Bringing this all together - as we look back on developing our consideration system (building relationship), the move from cold to warm to hot is, in essence, what we are striving to accomplish. We bring them into our sphere of influence where they are today, and we nurture and build relationship over time to bring them further down the marketing funnel.

Next week we will be revisiting our target audience and continue to achieve detailed clarity on who is best suited by the solutions we provide.

See you in the next one!