Talk to any sales person in a B2B company, and they’d be willing to give you an arm and a leg for an account book or a lead list full of hot leads ready for the picking.
What are hot leads and why are hot leads valuable?
In the sales or GTM context, a hot lead is a qualified lead that has shown high intent to buy a product like yours in the immediate or near future. Hot leads are sought after because they have high conversion rates and the deal cycles are usually much shorter than other cases where an ideal lead needs to be nurtured for a while before the deal is closed.
What makes a lead ‘hot’ and what B2B buying signals can you decipher to qualify a lead as a hot lead?
Here are a few characteristics that define a hot lead, and set it apart from others in your CRM:
- They’re qualified and high-intent. A hot lead is one that has shown positive buying signals that indicate interest in buying, not just browsing.
- A hot lead knows the space or category you're in. They’re familiar with your industry, segment, and other products like yours.
- They have the budget and authority to make decisions and move the deal forward.
- They’re clear and specific when they talk to you about the product. They articulate their needs, expectations, and plans to buy.
- A hot lead is one that is clearly problem-aware. They know exactly what they need and see your product as the solution.
- A hot lead, unlike a cold one, is responsive and acts fast. They’re engaged, and work with you to take the conversation forward and possibly close the deal.
- They may already know you. They could be a past prospect, someone referred by a customer champion, or someone you’ve identified through tracking job changes.
Hot vs Warm vs Cold Leads
Broadly, hot leads, warm leads, and cold leads are how you can categorize leads based on how likely they are to buy your product immediately, how familiar you are with the prospect, and whether or not you’ve interacted with them earlier.
Hot leads are those that have shown high intent and interest in purchasing your product.
Cold leads are those that match your ideal customer profile but have not shown any intent or buying signals that indicate that they’re ready to be pulled into the sales cycle. From a B2B sales pipeline point of view, they’re probably in the first phase of the pipeline and need to be nurtured before they can be converted into a customer.
And as you may have guessed already, warm leads are those that are neither hot nor cold.
A warm lead is one that has shown interest in buying a product similar to yours or has given out some other kind of buying signals like clicking on an ad or commenting on your social media post, but is not necessarily in a place where they can be converted into a customer immediately.
How to Identify Hot Leads
It is essential to identify hot leads among your exhaustive list of ICP leads, because hot leads need to be nurtured differently. They’re far easier to convert, and it is essential to act upon the high-intent signals to ensure you don’t lose them out to your competitors.
You can easily identify hot leads based on the following factors:
- Website behavior patterns – are they spending time on your product feature pages and pricing pages? Have they submitted forms requesting demos of your product?
- Content engagement metrics – have they downloaded ebooks or other pieces of gated content from your website? Have they shared your content on social media?
- Direct inquiries and demo requests – has the lead emailed you, enquired about your product on some channel, or requested a demo of your product?
- Budget confirmation – have they indicated that they have the budget required and the decision-making authority to buy your product?
- Timeline clarity – has the lead demonstrated an immediate need for a product like yours and have they had conversations with you about the implementation timelines?
Strategies for Generating Hot Leads
Every company wants hot leads pouring in, but generating hot leads requires deliberate effort. A generic B2B lead generation strategy could bring in leads, but not the kind you can quickly convert into customers. If you’re keen on generating hot leads, there are two ways to handle it:
Digital Marketing Approach
The first, is to tackle digital marketing differently. Rather than focusing all efforts on brand marketing and advertising to generate leads, focus on generating the kind of leads you can easily convert.
- Content marketing and SEO – investing in creating and distributing content that appeals to your audience can help generate hot leads. A well-researched blog article, or an exhaustive features page on your website can bring you leads that are explicitly looking for a product like yours.
- Email marketing campaigns – running well-thought out email marketing campaigns can get people to reply to emails, which is a clear signal that they’re a hot lead.
- Social media engagement – investing in social media publishing can help you cultivate an audience and engage with them consistently so you’re able to identify hot leads from among your social audience.
- Targeted advertising – rather than advertising on billboards addressing the general public, advertise to your target audience. A lead that clicks on a target ad is a hot lead you can chase.
Sales Development Activities
As the digital marketing efforts take effect, your sales teams can, in parallel, do their bit to generate hot leads.
- Personalized outreach – Establishing a personal connection with a lead and reaching out to them with customized messages and conversation starters can help generate a hot lead. They’d enter the funnel with some familiarity and knowledge about you and your product, making it easier for you to convert them into a customer.
- Customer success stories – publishing and sharing customer success stories is a great way to generate hot leads because, in most cases, a person reading a customer story is probably evaluating multiple products like yours, making them a hot lead you can chase.
- Nurturing Leads from Cold to Hot - Getting a nice hot lead in hand is every sales development representative’s (SDR) dream, but this doesn't happen as frequently as they’d like. Most times, sales people have to nurture a lead and gradually turn them from a cold lead to a warm one and finally a hot lead that can be pitched to.
Let’s break this into two phases:
Cold to Warm Conversion
The first stage involves turning a cold lead unaware of your product or perhaps even the category you’re in, into someone that knows about you and your brand.
Building initial relationships
You start with engaging with the cold lead on social media, communities or forums they spend time in, etc. Tell them about your product, your brand, and how you add value to your customers.
Share information and collateral they can use
Give, before you ask. Share books, informative videos, and other pieces of content that are useful to them before you ask them for their time for a demo or a pitch meeting. This helps foster a bond with them that will live outside the vendor-customer relationship.
Warm to Hot Conversion
Once the lead is warmed up, you can start working on bringing them further down the sales pipeline and turn them into a hot lead that the sales teams can pitch to. Here are a few easy ways to turn a warm lead into a hot one:
Be responsive and quick
Generating hot leads is tough, so when a hot lead does come your way, responding to the lead instantly is non-negotiable. Be sure to take immediate action so you don’t lose an easy opportunity to a competitor. Real-time signals help engage leads when they’re most receptive and quickly convert them from a hot lead into a customer.
Product demonstrations
The best way to strike a lead when it is hot is to give them a demo of your product. Show them what they’re missing out on and what they stand to gain if they buy your product.
Case studies and customer testimonials
In addition to giving the hot lead a product demo, show them how other customers and their peers are using your product and what benefits they have seen. Case studies and customer stories help establish credibility.
Best Practices for Managing Hot Leads
Managing hot leads takes skills, smarts, and the right kind of GTM tools. You need to configure your sales processes and tools such that the hot leads are handled efficiently, and also inculcate soft skills and processes to ensure you engage the deals well and close them.
Here are some best practices you should follow to ensure you don’t lose any of those precious hot leads you have before you.
Managing your CRM efficiently
- Use lead tracking systems to monitor buying signals closely. Highperformr provides you real-time intent signals that help you reach out to the right lead at the right time.
- Automate your GTM workflows. Highperformr enables you to use AI and automation to track real-time intent signals and take action on those signals instantly. For example, you can use the AI agent to periodically monitor your contacts for signals, and set up workflows to use AI agents to create personalized conversation starters to engage the lead effectively.
- Ensure that you invest in sales pipeline management, track sales pipeline metrics regularly and ensure that no leads fall through the cracks.
- Make sure the sales and marketing teams are aligned and collaborate on GTM process and tackle each hot lead efficiently.
- Even a hot lead needs to be engaged and nurtured well for them to convert into a customer smoothly. Use tools such as Highperformr to consistently engage with your leads consistently and establish a relationship with them.
- Tardiness is unacceptable when it comes to dealing with a hot lead. And it isn’t enough to just be responsive; every response has to be meaningful for the person, so they are incentivized to keep the conversation going.
- Personalizing the conversation can make a huge difference to how a hot lead responds to you. It adds context to the conversation, makes the interaction more personal and less transactional, and increases the possibility of their continuing the conversation with you rather than move to a competitor.
- It isn’t just cold leads that require follow up. Hot leads do too, especially because they might be having similar conversations with other brands like yours. Follow up regularly and make sure you don’t drop the ball, while also ensuring that you’re not being too intrusive or overbearing.
Highperformr’s Sales AI Agent can be used to automate the process of turning signals into action, and creating personalized conversation starters based on the real-time intent signals you receive from the hot lead.
Common Challenges and Solutions
Managing hot leads comes with its own set of challenges. Here are a few common pitfalls you should watch out for:
1. Time management
Given how important timeliness is when it comes to managing hot leads, every sales person has to be smart with managing their time. Plan your work and outreach such that you are able to handle your time efficiently and engage with every lead meaningfully.
2. Lead qualification accuracy
Qualifying a lead accurately is critical. Incorrectly tagging a lead as a hot lead could lead to wasted efforts, and at the same time, missing out of a genuine opportunity could delay your sales cycle or even result in you losing a deal.
3. Follow-up consistency
A hot lead is one that has shown interest in your product, but that doesn’t mean they don’t require follow up and nurturing. Not following through on the conversation could lead to the deal falling through.
4. Pipeline optimization
Hot leads need to be carefully nurtured and pushed through the B2B sales pipeline. Not optimizing the process can lead to a hot lead becoming cold.
Conclusion
Hot leads are precious, and every hot lead in your CRM needs to be handled well so you can easily turn opportunities into revenues. Taking a signal-centric approach, getting real-time intent signals, and swiftly taking action on those signals can help you bag a deal with little effort or stress.
To learn how you can use Highperformr to track signals, identify hot leads, and automate the GTM process, schedule a demo with our GTM engineer today!
