What is a Warm Lead?

The holy grail of marketing is the “warm lead.” Warm leads are people who have already shown some interest in you or your service or already know who you are.

There are generally three types of warm leads:

Family and Friends: Your family, friends, and coworkers are the most obvious forms of warm leads because they already know you.

Former Clients: A little more removed from family and friends but still warm leads are former clients and potential clients who’ve called your office or came in for a consultation but did not hire you.

Signed up on Your List: Finally, a warm lead can also be people who have filled out your contact form, or your email capture pop-up form on your website.

The Cold Call

The opposite of a warm lead is a cold lead. The real term you’ve probably heard of is “cold calling.”

An example of a cold call is when someone calls your office out of the blue and says they will get you on the first page of Google. You probably have never heard of them before.

They’ve called you because you’re on some list that they have. You don’t know them, and they don’t know you, and that’s why it is a cold call.

Another vivid example of a cold lead is when I check my physical mailbox at my house and stand over a trash can dropping mail into it. Typically, I have 3 to 5 letters and 10 pieces of “junk mail” that I throw away.

What I call junk mail is some business’ hard-earned marketing dollars going to waste. Fortunately, businesses are not upset that I’m throwing away their advertisements because they expect 999 out of 1000 people to do the same thing.

They know the numbers, but they’re only hoping for the 1 person who did not throw their flyer away to become a customer. This is why businesses still send junk mail and do cold calling even in 2024.

Cold calling is obviously inefficient. Think about it: When you cold call someone offering your drinking and driving advertisement, the person who answers may not even drive or own a car.

Finally, while not as intrusive, mass media is also a form of cold calling. Because so many people watch TV and listen to the radio, businesses who advertise during the commercials can’t possibly know whom their message is reaching.

This is the old “spray and pray method.” While TV advertising works for law firms with million-dollar budgets, most lawyers cannot afford mass media rates.

Warm leads are much better.

So why do warm leads work?

Know you, trust you, like you,

Warm leads are very efficient. With warm leads, you are not wasting, i.e., they know you, trust you, and like you. The people already know you because you already have their email addresses.

The number one rule in business:

People do business with you if they know you, like you, and trust you.

If someone knows you, likes you, and trusts you, the main reason he or she will not hire you is that he or she doesn’t need your services at the moment. 

In contrast, even if you need a product or service now, you probably will not buy it from someone who calls you out of the blue.

For example, you may need an investment advisor now, but you are not going to hire a cold caller if your best friend is an investment advisor.

In summary, a warm lead is so much better than a cold lead because the potential customer is already familiar with you. While your message does not reach the same quantity of people, the quality of people who receive it is much better.