Before you invest money and time cold calling or other forms of cold outreach to strangers, start touching those that are already aware of you, know you, met you and have interacted with you.
Don’t ignore this low-hanging fruit.
Pivot points is about getting the most bang for your business development buck. Your fastest and highest business development ROI will come from touching those on your house list. Marketing 101, no-brainer, common sense and almost universally ignored.
Before you drop another dime chasing strangers who’ve never heard of you, you should be ruthlessly mining your current house list: past clients, lost proposals, no-shows, inquiries that went nowhere, even clients who fired you.
Every hour and dollar you spend touching your house list will generate multitudes of the revenue you would get with the same effort reaching out to strangers.
The goal should not be pipeline volume but pipeline velocity.
The problem is not always a lack of leads, but a misallocation of effort away from prospects who have previously signaled some form of intent or need.
The uncomfortable truth is that strategic and consistent re-engagement with six segments delivers revenue faster and easier with a much higher ROI than an equivalent investment of time and resources on cold outreach. They are at least partway down the awareness funnel and at some point, had a need worth exploring.
Sales teams are trained to chase new. More calls. More cold emails. More strangers. That’s the activity culture talking. New leads are exciting, past inquiries are boring. The truth? Most of you reading this are sitting on a goldmine of opportunity that’s cheaper to reach, easier to convert, and faster to close.
I call them the Forgotten Six:
- Those who received a proposal but didn’t buy.
- Those who met with you but didn’t get a proposal.
- Those who inquired but never met.
- Past clients who haven’t returned.
- Clients who left unhappy.
- Referrals from any of the above sources.
Every one of them has already raised their hand once. They are not cold. They’re warm-ish. And they represent your highest-ROI, lowest-friction path to revenue.
The ROI Doesn’t Lie: Warm Leads Outperform Cold Every Time
I am a big believer in the ability of cold outreach done right to generate solid leads and business cost-effectively. But I am also a marketing guy, and the big picture is you must allocate time and money to where it will do you the most good.
If you need to move the needle and you are not consistently touching your house list with helpful information, you need to reallocate your time.
Here’s the math:
- Warm outreach yields 10x–30x higher conversion rates than cold calls or emails.
- Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases.
- Warm leads convert up to 32% faster.
- Referred leads close 30% more often.
Now compare that to cold outreach:
- Average cold call success rate? 0.3%–2%.
- Cold email response rate? 1%–5%, if you’re lucky.
- Time to reach a new cold contact? 8+ attempts on average.
And don’t forget the toll on your team: more rejection, lower morale, higher burnout.
Re-engaging warm leads is strategic. It is also more profitable, faster, and better for your salespeople’s mental health.
Why Sales Teams Ignore the Obvious (And Pay the Price)
If the ROI is so clear, why don’t more teams do it?
Simple: fear, ego, and lack of systems.
- Fear of rejection: They said no once. Reaching out again might sting.
- Ego: Contacting a prospect who wasn’t that thrilled with you requires humility. Most don’t want to face that.
- System failure: Most in-house systems don’t have these records tagged or segmented. There are typically no templates or systems set up to consistently touch these groups.
- Quota pressure: Managers push for “fresh activity,” not necessarily smarter activity.
- Lack of training: Salespeople know how to cold call. They may not know how to reconnect with a dead lead.
- Chasing strangers is more exciting: Reactivating old leads requires a different mindset and expectations and is often neglected..
So they avoid. And the revenue there for the taking is never captured.
This squeeze is worth the juice
Most of you reading this will disregard this as not worthwhile. Or the state of your database much be such that these previous inquiries and prospects might be too hard to update or the contact data on them is incomplete. That does not justify inaction.
Within your dormant house list there is a sub-segment of those that look like your current best clients or are very close to that persona. Even if you feel the task of recontacting dead leads is too much effort, (which it isn’t) there is absolutely no excuse for you not to identify the “A” value subset, those that look like your best clients or are closest to them and start touching consistently with something. No excuse.
Tip: A reasonable look-back period is three years. If you had inquiries from “A” level prospects three to five years ago, I would try to reconnect. If you have D and E level inquiries within three years, those probably are not worth contacting. It is all about probabilities and proper allocation of time and money for best results.
Your fastest cheapest sales boost will come from touching your house list consistently.
- Segment your list: Identify the Forgotten Six.
- Scoring the potential: Use potential value, past activity, and recency to prioritize and segment. Send more to those with larger potential value.
- Building re-engagement cadences: Multi-touch sequences with relevant valuable information that they are not getting from other sources. In time, add multiple channels to the mix and touch them from different directions for more impact.
- Training your team: Equip them with scripts, playbooks, and psychological tools to handle past objections and negative baggage.
- Rethink incentives: Reward reactivation, not just “new leads sourced.”
This is about generating bottom-line revenue quickly and cost-effectively, not vanity metrics.
Messaging That Works: Provide information that is genuinely helpful that they are not getting from other sources.
You and your team are in the field. You see common mistakes to avoid. You see what works. Pass on this information to reinforce your credibility and value.
Assume they are well-read and don’t send them information readily available elsewhere.
Generic “just circling back” emails are trash. You need messaging tailored to reinforce your credibility and the value you provide. You must provide specific examples and specific information and tips that are genuinely helpful and they are not getting from other sources.
Timing may have been wrong when they first interacted with you. Their circumstances may have changed. Information and specifics as to why now may be the right time, and what’s new, different, exciting and working can re-engage them. Touch them with new, relevant, practical value—clear reasons to perceive why now is different—rather than just “checking in.”
Each “touch” reminds them you exist and reinforces your credibility. In time, with multiple touches, even if they don’t read what you sent (and most won’t) they are reminded that you exist and that strengthens their perception of you. You get top of mind awareness.
I have told clients that if they can’t think of anything to write about or send, mail them an empty envelope. I am only half joking. They will at least know you were thinking of them. The value is in the consistent touching, not in tips and content that is earth shattering or scream genius.
Don’t Waste Leads
Reality is most organizations’ hemorrhage leads. They never or rarely re-engage those that drift away.
Ignore the Forgotten Six, and you’re not just wasting money and time—you’re engaging in an act of self-sabotage.
Before you prospect strangers, reconnect and get previous inquiries in play with a consistent touch system.
Get those in process first.
It’s a strategic sales imperative if you want to:
- Close faster.
- Convert higher.
- Protect margins.
- Shorten the cycle.
- And accelerate revenue without blowing your budget.
Don’t overcomplicate this. If you don’t have a touch system, a simple well written two page letter with three – five headlines followed by one or two short paragraphs will do the job well. My suggestion would be to send three out at two-week intervals, then three out at one-month intervals and then bi-monthly or quarterly after that.
The repetition and consistency reinforces and reminds them of your credibility and value.
