What sales person doesn’t prefer a call with a Warm Lead to a cold call?  (okay, there’s always somebody) 

A warm lead is more likely to buy, or at least move a little further down the sales funnel.

You know that someone who’s even a little interested has a higher chance of converting than someone you catch off guard who may not want to be called (brrr, you can just feel the cold air).

Of course first you need to get those Warm Leads. And then, importantly, you need a good warm calling strategy.

In this guide to how to call warm leads, you’ll learn tips to find warm leads and scripts to help you close more sales.

What Are Warm Leads?

Warm leads: sounds cozy, right?

These are the prospects that have stepped into the realm of your business and shown an interest in what you have to offer. They’re not just window shoppers, but they haven’t pulled out their wallets yet either. Maybe they’ve interacted with a form on your website, signed up for a newsletter, or even attended one of your webinars. They’re curious. They’re engaged. They’re, well, warm.

In the universe of leads, sales folks know about the three main types: Cold, Warm, and Hot.

• Cold Leads: These are the cool customers on the block. They’re like explorers who have just discovered your business but aren’t familiar with your offerings yet. You haven’t met, and they might not even know they need your products or services. Your job? Illuminate them with dazzling marketing campaigns.
• Hot Leads: These are the superstars. They’re hot on the trail of making a purchase and might have already reached out to your team directly or added a product to their cart. These folks know what they want, and they’re ready to make it happen.
• Warm Leads: These are your Goldilocks leads. They’re not too cold, not too hot. They’ve shown or expressed some interest, but they’re not quite ready to hit the ‘Buy Now’ button. 

So why do businesses love warm leads?

Because they’ve already given us a signal that they’re interested. They’ve walked in the door, checked out the menu, and they’re considering a meal. But they’re going to need a little more persuasion, a little more engagement to nudge them towards that final decision.

That’s where your stellar sales and marketing efforts come in, warming them up from a simmer to a full boil.

While they need a bit more TLC than your hot leads, they offer a better potential return than your cold ones. So, add that extra effort, and you’ll watch your warm leads heat up to a sale.

How do you get more warm leads?

Ah yes, the million-dollar question: how do you get more warm leads? Here’s a few effective strategies to help heat up your leads and keep interested prospects coming down the pipeline. 

Valuable Content 

Compelling, relevant, and valuable content is irresistible to your audience. Engage them with insightful blogs, catchy infographics, gripping webinars, or even an e-book that positions you as an expert. When your audience is consuming and loving your content, they’re warming up to you.

Engaging Social Media

Connect with your audience where they’re spending lots of their time—on social media platforms. Strike conversations, share behind-the-scenes content, respond to comments. Create a friendly, engaging space that stirs up their curiosity and interest in your brand.

Email Marketing Sequences

Think of emails as your personal messages to your prospects. Craft a series of emails (or drip text messages, if you have the right consent) that are informative, provide value, and highlight the benefits of your product/service. A well-planned email sequence can nurture your leads from being merely-interested to ready-to-buy.

Retargeting Campaigns

Remember those who visited your website but didn’t take any action? They’re like warm cookies just out of the oven. With a well-crafted retargeting campaign, remind them of what they left behind and motivate them to come back for more.

Referral Programs 

Let your satisfied customers become your brand ambassadors. Incentivize them to bring in more warm leads. It’s a win-win situation. They get rewards, and you get trusted, warm leads.

Buying Leads 

Purchasing leads is a common practice, however, it’s one that must be done with caution. It’s recommended to pay for high-quality, highly targeted, documented, and consenting leads.

Moreover, you should have robust reporting tools to understand outreach performance. And strongly consider the ROI of tools that help protect you from lead fraud and TCPA compliance violations. 

While these strategies aren’t exhaustive, they are a great place to start. Remember, turning up the heat on your warm leads takes a blend of art and science, creativity and strategy.

But with the right mix, your pipeline will be filled with warm leads ready to become customers—as long as you have the right strategy for closing warm leads.

How to Call Warm Leads: What to Include in a Warm Calling Strategy

You have your warm leads and you’re ready to call them. You know that warm calling can be a highly effective way to convert leads into customers. But what’s your strategy to increase your chances of success?

As with any sales strategy, the more information you have about your target audience, the better.

Before making a call, research your customers and develop customer personas. This can help you tailor your pitch to common pain points and build rapport.

If your business relies heavily on data pertaining to individual leads, such as for health insurance sales, you may want to use your call center software’s progressive or preview dialing mode.  These give agents a chance to review customer info ahead of a call.

Closing Warm Leads with the Right Script

Using your research, develop warm calling scripts.

While you don’t want to sound robotic, having a call script can help agents stay on track and ensure they cover all the important points. Ultimately, a well-crafted script is like the perfect recipe: it brings together the right ingredients in the proportions, but it still needs the right cook—er, sales agent—to bring it all together successfully. And this sometimes requires a bit of improvisation.

Be sure that your warm call script includes the following ingredients:

1. Personalized information: Warm leads have already interacted with your brand, so they aren’t total strangers. Reflect that in your conversation. Make them feel recognized and valued by mentioning their previous interactions with your business.
2. An understanding of their needs: With the right questions and active listening skills, it’s crucial to understand what your leads need and what they’re looking for. Addressing their specific concerns or needs in the conversation shows that you care about providing them with the right solutions.
3. Relevance and value: Showcase your product or service as the answer to their needs. Highlight the benefits, provide real-life examples, or share customer testimonials. Show them the value they’ll get from choosing you.
4. Address objections: Every customer may have some reservations or sales objections. A well-prepared script anticipates these concerns and counters them with thoughtful responses. This is like the perfect seasoning that takes your dish from good to great.
5. Call to action: Finally, don’t forget the cherry on top—the call-to-action. Whether it’s booking a demo, scheduling a consultation, or trying a free trial, your script should guide the lead toward the next step. Make it easy and inviting for them to move forward, and make it clear that they have nothing to lose by taking the next step.

Remember, the best scripts sound natural. They’re guidelines for a conversation, not strict scripts to be followed to the letter. Keep it flexible and allow space for genuine, organic interaction. With the right script in hand, you’re ready to serve up some sizzling sales conversions from your warm leads.

Retain Value with the Right Warm Lead Follow-Up Practices

Keep in mind that plenty of conversations—even those with the warmest of leads—won’t end in a sale.

But that doesn’t mean the lead is lost. Implementing the right sales lead follow-up best practices can help you nurture relationships and continue to move a lead closer to a sale. Sometimes, closing a warm lead is as simple as trying again on a different day. 

And even when a successful sale is made, a warm calling strategy doesn’t end once an agent or sales rep hangs up the phone. Using quality assurance software and reporting tools, managers can review individual calls and overall trends to better understand and adjust the approach to warm leads.

With this improved approach and the right warm calling scripts, calling your valuable (and costly) leads can be an effective and efficient way to close more sales and grow your business. 

Need a hand jumpstarting your scriptwriting for warm leads? Download the script templates below to get some inspiration.

The post How to Call Warm Leads: Tips and Scripts for Closing Warm Calls appeared first on Convoso.