Cold leads can be tough for even the most seasoned salesperson. After all, they’re leads that are, well, cold. They might warm up, or they might not, but ultimately, marketing to them can be risky because it might not pan out. They might stay icy, shivery, and disinterested, which can be hard on team morale.
What Are Cold Leads?
Cold leads, as the name suggests, are leads that have shown minimal interest in your business; they are ‘cold’ towards your brand’s many benefits and perks. These people probably came into contact with your business through coincidence, not from seeking you out.
Perhaps your company gained access to their contact information via the internet somehow, either from searching them out or from buying a marketing list of potential customers. Basically, these people don’t actually know that your brand exists or what you have to offer them––yet.
How Do Cold Leads Differ from Hot Leads?
Hot leads obviously mean something entirely different than cold lead advertising. However, before hot leads, there is also such a thing as warm leads. Creative, right? Warm leads are prospective clients who have shown a mild, lukewarm interest in your business.
Meanwhile, hot leads, again as the name suggests, are leads that almost definitely pan out and convert to sales. Hot leads are people who are aware of your brand and the various products and services you offer and more often than not, they are willing to commit to you and become loyal customers.
Most businesses employ the BANT framework to determine the heat potential of hot leads. This is done by looking at the customer’s Budget, looking at whether they have the Authority to make the purchase, determining how well your offered product or service matches their Need, and then establishing a predicted Purchase Timeline.
How to Generate Cold Leads
There’s always more than one way to get things done and generating cold leads is no different.
Cold Calling
Cold calling leads can be one strategy to make contact if you have a list of phone numbers available to call. This is actually a very common sales strategy, where a whole sales team is dedicated to contacting people through their phones, telling them about their company, outlining products and services offered and asking them if they’d be interested in learning more. However, this is a very invasive method and has a high failure rate.
Cold Emailing
Similarly, cold emailing involves sending a detailed email about your company and services to any cold lead contacts you have and evaluating their level of interest that way.
Social Media Outreach
Social media is an amazing tool if you know how to use it properly. You can reach out to cold leads through social media if you want to take a more relaxed approach. Sharing pictures, videos, and even text on social media can be an excellent way of reaching out to people who have not yet interacted with you. However, we recommend supplementing this method with a tried and true social media marketing strategy to succeed.
Use Lead Generation Tools
Lead generation tools can be an excellent way of generating leads based on your chosen location, your industry, and other criteria.
How to Convert a Cold Lead
One of the best ways to convert a cold lead is to remind them why they were interested in you in the first place. Why they came to your website’s landing page or change up your social media platform, or reference it through a referral from a client or a business gathering? This context can humanize and personalize the interaction for them. Whether this context is provided through cold calling, social media outreach, or sending custom-designed emails to cold leads, is up to you.
When to Give Up on a Cold Lead
While there is no hard and fast rule for when to give up on a cold lead, the rule of thumb is to give it a few tries before giving up. However, a high-potential lead might require or deserve more effort to be converted, whereas a low-potential lead might deserve less. This needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis while staying realistic about their probability of warming up or converting.
Cold leads can be an effective part of your marketing strategy to bring in new business, especially if you have a talented team good at warming cold leads up and converting them.
Need Help With Leads?
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