Strategic Sales Solutions: Changing the Temperature of Leads

The traditional concept of hot, warm and cold leads is slowly diminishing in the present context, since organizations understand that giving up on a cold lead is just not the smartest move. Earlier, strategic sales solutions fundamentals used to insist on pursuing only the hot leads. Gradually, the concept of warm leads also came into the picture, as things were getting difficult with the increasing competition. Today, even cold leads are not completely ignored, or at least that’s the way it should be. This is simply because the rate at which competition is increasing and the manner in which the number of prospects are increasing are way apart, i.e., there’s more competition than the increase in prospects.

 In a scenario like this, the prevalent strategic sales solutions are certainly not going to be as helpful as a slightly modified approach would be. The traditional definition of a cold lead is one that might be in the target market, but has no interest in purchasing the product or service. A warm lead is one that is from the target market, may or may not have a similar product, and is interested in buying or upgrading. A hot lead, the salesperson’s dream, is a prospect that requires the product or service extremely urgently.

However, today when a lead is pursued, even if the person at the other end refuses point blank, effective sales persons do not just give up on the pitch, but instead take a different question-answer route, asking about the business model, the kinds of product or service they have, and then try to prove the superiority of their offering. With the kind of research tools that are available and the internet at everyone’s disposal, more and more avenues are opening up to counter the competitor’s offering and prove that one’s product or service is superior. All it takes is the implementation of new-age strategic sales solutions and a little extra effort.