What counts as warm — the signal hierarchy
Not all warm contacts are equally warm. Signal strength varies sharply by type:
- Hot (warmth score 85-100): Previously a customer at another company. Champion who left and joined a target account. Direct prior business relationship.
- Warm (60-80): Attended your dinner or event with the team. Replied to a cold sequence in the past. Met your founder at a conference.
- Lukewarm (30-50): Engaged with 3+ content pieces on your site. Connected on LinkedIn within last 90 days.
- Barely warm (10-20): Opened an email but didn't click. Visited the site once.
Why warm contact does NOT equal warm intro
Common confusion: "warm contact" describes a state of the prospect. "Warm intro" describes a mechanism for reaching them. You can have a warm contact you reach via cold email (because no connector exists between you). You can warmly introduce a cold contact (no prior signal but a connector who knows them).
The warm contact playbook by tier
For each warmth tier, a different outreach pattern works:
- Hot contacts — DM on LinkedIn, reference the prior relationship in the subject line. 60-80% reply rate. Don't waste this with a generic sequence.
- Warm contacts — personalized email with specific engagement reference ("noticed you registered for our Sept dinner — couldn't make it work?"). 25-40% reply rate.
- Lukewarm contacts — sequence with personalization based on engagement type. 8-15% reply rate.
- Barely warm — treat as cold. Generic sequences. 1-3% reply rate.
The biggest mistake: treating all warm contacts the same
Most sales teams run one cadence for everyone, ignoring warmth tier. Result: hot contacts get burned with generic sequences, lukewarm contacts get over-personalized outreach they're not ready for. Pipeline conversion drops 40-60% from this single mistake.
How Boomerang scores warmth automatically
Boomerang ingests CRM, calendar, email, LinkedIn, and intent data — then computes a relationship strength score per contact per account. Sales reps see who's warm before they spend time on cold outreach. Pipeline builds 3-4x faster because attention goes to high-conversion contacts first.
