Leads Synonym – Humanizing Leads

There’s no denying that leads are a vital part of any successful marketing strategy. In this blog, we’ll provide an overview of leads in sales, from understanding what they are to the strategies you can use to acquire, nurture and convert them into customers. But most importantly, we’d like to help you humanize those leads and therefore give you a leads synonym. Because guess what? Leads are humans! And we know that as a heart-centered entrepreneur you care about the humans you want to serve.

Introduction to Leads in Sales

Typically, leads in sales are potential customers who have expressed interest in a company or product by providing contact information, such as their email address or phone number. This contact information, if acquired in legitimate ways, can be used to nurture a relationship with the lead and hopefully eventually convert them into a paying customer.

Leads are an integral part of the sales process, as they are the first step in converting prospects into customers. Leads can come from a variety of sources, such as online forms, email campaigns, webinars, Social Media and more (see paragraph about lead magnets below).

However, leads don’t always convert into customers, and it’s up to you to nurture them and encourage them to take the next step in the sales process.

Types of Leads

The usual marketing lingo distinguishes three types of leads:

Cold leads in sales:

These are leads that have no prior knowledge of your brand or product. They may have visited your website, but they are not familiar with your brand or offerings. Cold leads are often difficult to convert into customers, as they have no existing relationship with your business.

Warm leads in sales:

These are leads that have some prior knowledge of your company or product. They may have visited your website, subscribed to your email list, or interacted with your social media accounts. Warm leads are usually more likely to convert into customers than cold leads, as they have a preexisting relationship with your business.

Hot leads:

These are leads that are ready to purchase. They may have already expressed interest in your product or service, and they are ready to take the next step. Hot leads are the most valuable type of leads, as they are the closest to converting into customers.

What is a Lead Conversion Funnel?

Often these different types of leads are represented in the form of a lead conversion funnel, also called Sales Funnel. The goal of a lead conversion funnel is to identify and engage with potential clients, gather their information, and nurture them into becoming qualified leads who are ready to make a purchase.

This process typically involves several stages, which form the shape of a funnel.

At the top of the funnel (cold leads), you try to gather a large number of potential customers through various marketing efforts, such as social media ads, search engine optimization, content marketing, and email marketing (see more details below). As these potential customers engage with your brand and provide their contact information, they become leads and move further down the funnel.

At the middle of the funnel (warm leads), you will use lead nurturing techniques, such as email campaigns and personalized content, to build relationships with leads and educate them about the product or service. As leads become more interested and engaged, they move further down the funnel.

At the bottom of the funnel (hot leads), leads are considered to be qualified and are ready to make a purchase. At this stage, you will use sales techniques, such as sales calls, to close the deal and convert the lead into a customer.

Overall, the goal of a lead generation funnel is to attract potential customers, nurture them into qualified leads, and then convert those leads into customers through a series of targeted marketing and sales efforts.

Humanizing Leads in Sales: let’s find a leads synonym!

Ok, so far that’s pretty standard marketing information. But maybe you have noticed that you’re on a site called Humane.Marketing where we are all about marketing for the generation that cares: for ourselves, our clients and the planet!

So we do things a bit differently here. Actually, we do things radically differently.

So I’d like to invite you to think of your 10 favorite current and past clients right now.

See them sitting in your living room or at your favorite café or if you have read Selling Like We’re Human you know about the Serene Garden, which is our ‘top of the funnel’. Got it? Ok. These amazing human beings are leads. Or they used to be leads before they became your favorite clients. Doesn’t it strike you as pretty awful to call them ‘leads’? As Humane Marketers we find the word ‘leads’ and the idea of shoving them through a sales funnel very dehumanizing and not at all humane. So…

Leads Synonym: Leads become Ideal Clients and the Lead Conversion Funnel becomes a Gentle Sales Path

What if instead of calling it Lead Conversion Funnel (or Sales Funnel) we name our way of getting to know our ideal clients the ‘Gentle Sales Path’? And we say ‘ideal clients’ instead of ‘leads’.

Do you feel that the energy is different?

A gentle sales path is different for every client, and it’s not forceful (like a funnel), but instead, it empowers the client to make their own buying decision.

To create a gentle sales path, we create different signposts that help our prospects find out more about us and our services. Instead of all forcing them through the same funnel, they make their own journey through our Gentle Sales Path with the help of our signposts.

So since we are changing our language and now call leads ‘our ideal clients’, we also need to change the commonly used term ‘lead magnet’. Which is, by the way, another pretty forceful image if you think about it.

🚩 If you’re new to Humane Marketing you will really appreciate our Humane Marketing Words Glossary. It includes a series of words we love, and also many reframes for the pushy marketing language such as leads and lead magnets.

Lead Magnets Synonym: Signposts

Signposts are different rest stops that guide your potential client along the way to your Serene Garden (your Sales Call). Their purpose is to educate your client about your area of expertise, get to know you, your values, and your worldview, and showcase your products and services and how they can help them.

Signposts can be various things: a free ebook, a blog post, a podcast episode, a speaking event etc. More about that below.

Your ideal clients will then have different opportunities to get to know you and your solution along their journey.

When they get on a call with you, you barely have to do any selling – they are naturally ready to buy from you.

Nurturing leads (ideal clients) in sales

Once your ideal clients have entered your Gentle Sales Path, it is your job to nurture them and gently nudge them along your path.

Here are a few examples on how you can nurture your potential clients:

1. Emails: Personally I love email marketing. It’s where I feel most comfortable expressing my thoughts, sharing information and knowledge and sharing more of me and my worldview.

2. Webinars or other Zoom calls: These webinars are different from the ‘lead generation’ webinars above in that you recognize that they are geared towards your ideal clients who are already in your world. It’s a way to give them a deeper look into your work, share more value and just truly connect with them on a human-to-human level.

3. Social Media: Engage with potential clients on social media platforms by responding to comments, answering questions, and sharing relevant content. This helps build relationships and increase the know, like and trust factor.

Leads Synonym Conclusion

I hope that by now you have a good understanding of what leads in sales and marketing are and will start to use the leads synonym: ideal clients. Again, our mission here at humane.marketing is to make marketing more human and humane. So if you only take one thing away from reading this article, dear heart-centered entrepreneur, then I hope that it’s the understanding that each so-called lead is a human, with his/her/their story, desires and universal need for love and belonging. If you’d like to learn more about Humane Marketing, you can start by downloading my 1-Page Humane Marketing Plan and find out more about the 7Ps of Marketing.