Introduction to Cold, Warm, and Hot Leads of B2B Marketing

Is putting leads into boxes a tough job?

So many types of leads are there – warm, cold, hot, etc. It can make you confused!

But you’re running a B2B business, and you should have clarity of everything, especially in marketing.

There’s no rocket science behind this.

Every buyer of your products (or services) discovers your brand differently. Their preference and interests are also different. So marketing to customers as a single group is nothing but a mere draining of your money. Thus, you need to segment your leads into groups: hot, warm, & cold.

Got it? Let’s understand it more in this blog.

You will apply your logic and persuading capacity to the leads only if you know the leads are looking for products similar to yours. The urgency of the leads to get the products matters here, mainly to determine lead types. However, there’s more!

In B2B marketing, things are mostly complex in nature. Sales and marketing teams mostly interact with the leads through the lens of the ideal customer profile (ICP). They make efforts to convert the leads into a client only if the leads align with the brand’s ICP.

More or less, the emphasis is mostly here on the ideal customer profile. Leads are classified into different categories like “warm”, “cold”, “hot”, etc.

Before you label your leads under different categories, you need to keep all these matters in mind. Put leads into your labels only when they fit your ICP.

Based on the interest, urgency of the purchase, and ICP alignments, you can classify leads into different categories. Let’s understand each type of lead here;

As the name reveals the truth of this lead type. Basically, businesses or individuals that show very little interest in your products or services are your cold leads. They seem cold to your response because they may not be aware of your offerings. So, you have to attract them organically and reach out directly.

Suppose your ICP includes mid-range SaaS companies that sell their software to a broad audience. And on the other side, you’re a small marketing company, so you are looking for such companies to promote their products. To make these companies realize your existence, you can reach out to them directly. You must treat these companies as your cold leads.

The entrance of leads into your sales funnel makes them considered as warm leads. They can enter your sales funnels in many ways. It could be signing up for your newsletter, requesting a call, or sending you queries. You must send these warm leads to your salespeople to discuss with them. Oftentimes, they prefer to get guidance rather than any product. So, your salesperson should treat these leads in that way.

Or, if they’re not yet sure about talking to a salesperson, you can send them a highly personalized email. Let the process be transparent and open. B2B relationships are dependent on integrity and trust.

86% of B2B buyers always prioritize integrity before choosing a vendor.

You can consider a lead as warm when the decision-maker is ready to make a purchase of your product. They are eager for your products and they want to take the following actions;

🔷 Discuss the price

🔷 Ask for a demo

🔷 Book a meeting 

Hot leads demand salesperson to quickly close the deals. From your end, the salesperson should be prepared with all details like payment conditions, terms, and other important matters.

Among all the lead types we discussed so far, cold leads are the ones that your marketing team needs to focus on. Because it can reveal the untapped market eventually. As warm and hot leads are already there for you to tackle.

Acquiring cold leads needs a proper strategy to execute. There are multiple channels you can utilize to get your leads. You can start with the following;

LinkedIn is a gem platform for B2B leads. You can typically find B2B decision-makers there and can connect to them directly. All you need to do is use the advanced filters to find a suitable company of your choice. You can search people according to their titles, job roles, industry they belong to, company size, department, and kind of minute details. Also, you can find people from different LinkedIn groups and general posts.

A lot of organizations are there that sell leads, and you can buy from them. Taking this action is quite risky until you find a legitimate and trustworthy organization. Be very sure when selecting your lead provider. Quality of the leads matters the most here, so never compromise on that.