Sales Leads Relationships: Cold, Warm, Qualified

Every business needs sales to survive. In order to get sales the business must have leads to contact and time to allow for relationships to grow.

What exactly is a sales lead? 

A sales lead is a person or business who may eventually became a client. 

People and businesses can become leads, also known as “prospective clients,” hence the term “prospects.” 

Leads (prospects) have specific terms based on certain stages throughout the relationship.  

The first and farthest from a sale are… 

COLD LEADS

Cold leads are people who have never contacted you nor shown any interest in your products or services. 

Cold leads are taken by surprise and often turn negative.

Gentlemen, would you ask a lady to marry you within five minutes of meeting her? It would most likely scare her away. If she agreed with your proposal and you went through with it, you might realize too late you’ve made a big mistake.  

Ladies, don’t you want to get to know a man before walking down the aisle? Don’t you want to know, trust and love him before making the commitment? 

Allowing prospects to know you, allows them to like and trust you. Establishing trust is an integral part of the sales process. 

This leads us to our next step in the sales relationship… 

WARM LEADS

Warm leads are sales leads formed out of a pre-existing relationship or expression of interest. 

These types of leads have shown interest in learning more about your products or services. They’re much more valuable than cold leads, but really only consist of someone who’s contact information has now been captured. 

A warm lead can be thought of as someone you’ve met and now they’re interested in dating you. The warmer the lead, the higher chance you’ll have of converting the sale.

I’ve discovered a few tips for nurturing warm leads:

Focus on building rapport. 

Growing and maintaining a strong business is all about relationships. 

Follow up regularly.

You don't want to be a pest, but you don't want to be forgotten either. It's a delicate balance between coming on too strong and being too distant. Make sure each follow-up has a purpose.

Stay connected anyway possible.

This is easy in today’s world of social media. Make it a habit of following your prospects on their favorite platforms. Support them with “Likes” and engage with their posts.

Listen more than you talk.

The focus should be on them, not you. People like to talk. They want to be heard. They want to know you care. 

Be patient.

Building the relationship could take weeks, months or years. Trust the process. Just wait and be there when they decide they’re ready.

Cultivating and nurturing your warm leads will keep you in the game. Then the next phase will be… 

QUALIFIED LEADS

Qualified leads are people with high potential of becoming your customers based on information they freely provided.

Qualified leads are the best types of leads because these people tend to be closest to the buying stage of the sales cycle. For example, a person who Google searches for a specific product or service that you provide is a qualified lead because their need has potentially brought them to you. 

Establishing a qualified lead can be determined by answering a few questions.

Budget? 

Does the prospect have enough money for your products or services?

Authority?

Does your contacted person have the power to make a purchasing decision or do they have to answer to someone else? 

Need?

Do they truly have a need that your product or service will fill?

Timescale? 

Does your prospect have a specific time period when they intend to make a purchase? 

The more you learn about your prospects the better you can determine if those potential customers are ready to close a deal. 

When the time is right for both you and your prospect to commit, you’ll know it. That “yes” will change everything. 

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