Many sales professionals divide their leads into "warm" and "cold" leads. The working assumption is that "warm" leads are more interested and more engaged than "cold" leads.
Most sales professionals assume that it will be much easier and they will be much more successful by reaching out to "warm" leads. Here is a question I recently received from a coaching client who was importing leads into his database and wanted to know the best way to handle them:
"These prospects have had 3 postcards from us already this year…. Would we still consider it a cold situation, a follow up call or maybe even a warm salutation?"
Here are at least six scenarios that I can easily envision happening when prospects receive marketing postcards:
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Scenario #1: Prospect's assistant throws postcard out without reading it
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Scenario #2: Prospect's assistant reads postcard and files it somewhere
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Scenario #3: Prospect throws postcard out without reading it
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Scenario #4: Prospect reads postcard then throws it out
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Scenario #5: Prospect reads postcard and files it somewhere
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Scenario #6: Prospect reads postcard and contacts whomever sent the postcard because they are interested
In the six scenarios above, the only one that is truly "warm" is #6: The prospect reads the postcard and then contacts the sender. Just because you have sent someone a postcard, or an email, or a letter, or your brochure or anything else at all, does not mean that your prospect is interested, engaged and ready to talk to you.
