# Who counts as a *warm* lead?

Anyone who has noticed you and hasn't contacted you yet. Some are much warmer than others, and all of them cool down. Here's the order to work them in.

**The short answer:**
A warm lead in B2B outbound is someone who fits your ideal customer profile and has already interacted with you or your space: viewed your LinkedIn profile, liked or commented on your posts, followed your company page, visited your website, or engaged with a competitor's content. The closer the interaction is to you, and the more recent it is, the warmer the lead.

## The rings, from warmest to coolest.

Ring 1
### Almost on the planet
Started a signup and stopped. Visited your pricing page. Commented with a question. Act within hours.

Ring 2
### The atmosphere
Profile viewers, post engagers, website visitors. Curious about you this week. Act within one to three days.

Ring 3
### Followers
They want to hear from you, but haven't shown urgency. A slower list that never stops filling.

Ring 4
### Borrowed orbit
Engagers and followers of competitors and category creators. Interested in the problem, not yet in you.

## Warmth expires like milk.

A profile view is a moment of curiosity. On Monday they're wondering what you do. By next Monday they've forgotten they looked. That's the part most teams miss: they collect warm leads in a weekly export and message them when the warmth is already gone.

| Source | Warmth | Act within | Where to find it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Profile viewers | High | 1-3 days | LinkedIn "Who viewed your profile" (full list needs Premium or Sales Navigator) |
| Post engagers | High | 2-4 days | Reactions and comments on your posts |
| Website visitors | High | 1-2 days | A visitor identification tool on your site |
| Company page followers | Medium | 1-2 weeks | Your LinkedIn page analytics |
| Competitor post engagers | Medium | 2-4 days | Comments and reactions on competitors' posts |
| Competitor and creator followers | Low-medium | Weeks | Their follower lists |

## No audience? Borrow one.

You don't need ten thousand followers to do warm outbound. The people engaging with your competitors' posts about the problem you both solve are in the market right now, and they have no loyalty yet. [How to start with no audience](https://warmoutbound.site/no-audience/).

One story we like: someone followed a tax-compliance creator on a Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, that creator's competitor messaged them. They became a customer. The competitor understood something simple: following that creator meant the problem was live.

## Warm is not the same as qualified.

Your orbit is full of people who will never buy: other founders, job seekers, recruiters, vendors, friends, your own team. Warmth tells you *when*. Your ICP tells you *who*. You need both.

- Filter out your own company, competitors, recruiters and vendors first.

- Score the rest against your ICP: industry, size, role, region, what they sell.

- For a high-ticket product, expect to keep roughly 10-30% of the people in your orbit. The rest is applause, not pipeline.

Next: [how to run warm outbound every day](https://warmoutbound.site/playbook/).

---
Source: https://warmoutbound.site/who-is-warm/  
Written by Zayd Ali, Founder & CEO of Valley (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zayd-syed-ali-4201101a9/). Published by Valley (https://joinvalley.co/?utm_source=warmoutbound). Last updated 2026-10-27.