What Is a Sales Lead? Comparing Warm vs Cold Leads

Every sales lead corresponds to a unique individual who might purchase from a company in the future
Cold leads have not had any prior conversation with a particular seller that would indicate interest.
A warm lead is one that has already expressed some interest in a seller’s product or service
Smart Funnel helps companies generate more warm leads for stronger sales funnels

Any company that depends entirely on people finding them and walking into their office is going to run into a brick wall at some point. Whether it’s a physical product or an intangible service you’re offering, you need to be proactive in one way or another. You do that first by identifying the kinds of people who are most likely to need and want your product. Sales leads are the information that allows you to contact those potential customers and turn them into prospects. They are data that include names and contact information, which you can use for outreach via email, phone calls, personal visits, and traditional mail. They also help to target broad advertising campaigns in regions where many of them are concentrated. Every sales lead corresponds to an actual person or company who could possibly become a paying customer. Leads come in two types: warm and cold.

Cold Leads

Cold leads are those where the individual in question has little to no prior contact with your company. The information that makes up these leads usually comes from public databases. Some companies offer other organizations lists of cold leads for sale.

These cold leads can be a good way to jumpstart a sales process. When most companies are just starting out, they have little to no brand exposure, so there are few other ways for them to earn customers than by contacting cold leads directly.

The downside to cold leads is that they’re cold. Contacting them can be a more emotionally straining process on sales teams. Many people strongly dislike getting cold calls and emails because they take up a lot of time out of their already busy schedules. Contacting someone who’s not expecting to hear from you, about something they might not be at all interested in, puts up a lot of hurdles.

It’s possible to overcome these hurdles, though, and turn cold leads into warm ones, and even into viable prospects.

Warm Leads

Warm leads can come from a variety of sources, and chief among them are marketing campaigns and networking events. The key characteristic that distinguishes warm leads from cold ones is an expression of interest. A warm lead is one where the individual shows that they want to learn more about the product or service that’s for sale.

Not all warm leads turn into prospects or conversions, but they’re more likely to, because of the interest they have. Some warm leads are only looking for new information, but others are comparing their options on the way to a purchase.

Using Smart Funnel for Sales Leads

Smart Funnel helps companies implement a wide array of powerful strategies to bring in qualified leads. We’ll help you optimize your online content to bring it front-and-center on search engine results pages. We provide easy management of PPC and other online advertising campaigns. We make it easy to set up email marketing sequences, with newsletter opt-ins to help you gather valuable contact information from interested prospects. We’ll even help you strategize for your next major marketing event appearance. And you don’t even have to think about the work of reaching out for the first time to cold leads. We’ll handle that for you!