{"id":2851,"date":"2017-09-12T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:47","slug":"turn-up-heat-on-warm-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/turn-up-heat-on-warm-leads\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things Sales Pros Can Do To Turn Up The Heat On Warm Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Everyone likes to feel productive, so when sales teams receive a set of \u201cwarm leads\u201d \u2014 prospects who have been nurtured through marketing and have indicated an interest in being contacted \u2014 the first temptation might be to call or e-mail as many of them as possible. And preferably as quickly as possible, before they grow \u201ccold.\u201d<\/p>\n

But wait! You may be making a mistake.<\/p>\n

The point of warm leads is not to get through them as though they were a set of items on a to-do list. Warm leads are the building blocks of a company\u2019s growth strategy, and as they convert into real customers they bring critical data to CRM such as Sales Cloud<\/a>. Whether they fully realize it or not, they have started on a journey with you, but even though there are elements that marketing and sales departments can control, warm leads can choose to step off and end the journey at any time they choose. At that point, they don\u2019t just become cold \u2014 they sometimes freeze out any future attempts to contact them.<\/p>\n

Bear in mind that warm leads might describe themselves as \u201clukewarm\u201d at best in many cases. They were interested in something, but not necessarily a purchase, and they may feel they can avoid contact with sales long enough that they\u2019ll eventually be left to their own devices again. That\u2019s what makes the following best practices so important as you proceed:<\/p>\n

1. Do Your Own Temperature Check<\/h3>\n

How warm is \u201cwarm?\u201d Sales and marketing teams should agree on this well before any lead generation programs are established, of course, but it\u2019s surprising how often there are misunderstandings here. What counts as a marketing qualified lead (MQL) could include downloading a white paper or eBook. To sales, that may not feel very warm. They might prefer someone who has downloaded an eBook but also subscribed to the company\u2019s blog, and who has shared some of its content with their social media followers with a positive comment attached. There is obviously a difference between those two levels of engagement, and it will determine which leads sales prioritize and those that marketing will need to nurture.<\/p>\n

2. Look At The Long-Range Forecast<\/h3>\n

Will a warm lead shower you with not only one sale but ongoing business? Or will they dry up soon after being contacted? This is where having a robust CRM in place<\/a> begins to show real value, because it allows sales teams to benchmark warm leads against similar kinds of decision makers and companies who have already become customers. Some of the things you should look for may include:<\/p>\n