The definition of a warm market is “a target audience or potential customer base with which you already have some form of relationship or history.” The term is used in both direct marketing and traditional sales. Simply stated, the warm market is made up of people you know, including friends, relatives, existing customers and their referrals to you. In reality, every direct marketer or salesperson needs a way to continuously increase his or her warm market. The law of probability indicates that the more leads and contacts in your warm market, the more people you will be able to sponsor into your business.
Developing a wider warm market is akin to enlarging your circle of friends and acquaintances. To do this successfully, the key is to build trust and rapport by providing value, both perceived and real, with solutions to their needs. With patience, steadfastness and repetition, your warm market will begin to appreciate and understand what you are offering. When they accept your solutions, they join your network or client base. Best-case scenario: acquaintances become friends, and friends become closer, because you share something in common.
Each person within your warm market brings multiple contacts. Your challenge is to convert those contacts to being part of your warm market. Once those contacts see your success and the success of the person you helped, they may very well contact you. This is the natural cycle of networking.
Another aspect of the warm market is that the very people who you think are the most likely to join you in your pursuits may turn out to be the most reticent. Relatives and close friends may have you “pegged” in a certain slot and “business partner” may be quite distant from their perception of you.
The best rule of thumb is to share and connect with everyone within your warm market, methodically, consistently, and repeatedly, but not to get frustrated or dissuaded. Most importantly, don’t have any preconceived notions. The one person you may think is the least likely to join you, may jump in full steam ahead and become one of your primary business leaders. Networking is all about people and people are full of surprises.
Over the long term, you need to find people you don’t know and bring them into your warm market. To do this successfully, you need to give them something without expecting anything in return. Learn about their needs, and focus on contributing something that can improve their well being—this really translates to product, opportunity and lifestyle. See how you can be of assistance. The good old-fashioned salesperson is really someone who is willing to serve. With this attitude of respect, helpfulness and generosity, you grow your prospects’ trust in you. With trust comes respect. Face it, people want to join the ones they trust, respect and like.
Once you begin developing a relationship with someone new, show that you are a good leader. Invite them to conference calls, webinars and events. Accompany them whenever possible, stay connected and they eventually will engage.
In direct marketing, what you do becomes part of who you are. So, get the word out. The more people who know what you do and who you are, the more successful you will be in growing your warm market and your business.