Lead heat
Lead heat is a quick rating of a lead’s interest, usually Hot, Warm, or Cold, that the rep records at capture to signal how urgently the follow-up owner should act.
Heat is your rep’s read of the conversation while it’s fresh. It’s fast for reps to set and easy for you to sort by, so it’s a common field on booth lead forms.
How does heat differ from fit?
Heat measures the interest a person showed in a conversation. Fit measures how closely the account matches your customer profile, and you see it in the account’s ICP tier.
A Hot lead at a poor-fit account and a Cold lead at a top-tier account call for different plays, so use both to set your follow-up order.
What does each rating mean?
Write your team’s definitions down, so every rep rates the same way:
- Hot: the buyer asked for pricing, a demo, or a meeting, or named a timeline.
- Warm: the buyer described a real problem your product solves, with no timeline yet.
- Cold: the buyer was gathering information, or came by for the giveaway.
Your reps rate what they heard, so a senior buyer who showed no interest is Cold, and a junior one who asked for a meeting is Hot. Judge fit separately, with the account’s ICP tier.
How do you use heat in follow-up?
Heat sets the order and the clock. Write your follow-up SLA so Hot leads get the shortest window to first touch. Put the rating where your lead owner works, in their follow-up queue, next to your rep’s notes from the conversation. Then the owner sees how hot the lead is and why.
Where do you find it in FieldXM?
In the FieldXM mobile app, your reps set lead heat to Hot, Warm, or Cold.
Related terms
- ICP tierAn ICP tier is a fit band derived from an account's ideal-customer-profile score, which sorts a long account list into a few ranked groups so the best-fit accounts get attention first.
- Qualification questionsQualification questions are the short, event-specific questions a team wants every booth lead to answer, such as timeline, budget, or current tool, so the team can compare and prioritize leads after the show.
- First touchFirst touch is the first recorded sales activity on a captured lead, such as a call, an email, or a sequence enrollment, and the moment that stops its follow-up clock.
- Follow-up SLAA follow-up SLA is an agreed deadline for the first sales touch on a captured lead, with a clock that starts at capture and a breach when the deadline passes with no activity.
- Booth visitA booth visit is a recorded stop by an attendee at a company's exhibit, an engagement signal that ranges in depth from a swag grab to a demo to a booked meeting.
- Lead scoringLead scoring is a method of ranking leads by how likely they are to buy, combining fit signals about the person's company with interest signals from what the person said or did.
See it in FieldXM
- Universal lead captureYour reps keep talking while the FieldXM mobile app writes the notes and fills in your own qualification questions. They scan any badge at any show.
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