According to lead generation strategist AJ Cassata, only 3% of any market is ready to buy right now. But another 10% is actively in the buyer’s journey, checking you out, following your content, even booking calls they never showed up for.
The problem is that most businesses wait for these people to raise their hands instead of reaching out first.
That’s where a lead generation system built on warm outreach changes everything. Instead of chasing cold prospects, you systematically work through your existing database. The result? Higher conversion rates, lower acquisition costs, and sales that scale without burning out your team.
Why Your Database Is Your Best Lead Source
Every business has a database of past leads who never converted, former clients, and people who follow you on social media but never took the next step. AJ puts it simply: “Every business owner is sitting on some sort of gold.”
Warm leads convert at significantly higher rates than cold outreach because these people already have context. They’ve heard of you. They’ve engaged with your content. The cost to reactivate them is practically nothing compared to acquiring new prospects through paid ads.
AJ breaks warm leads into three levels:
- Level 1: Social media followers and website visitors who are aware of you but haven’t taken action yet.
- Level 2: Past leads who opted in for something like a guide or webinar but didn’t convert into customers.
- Level 3: Past sales conversations and former clients who represent your hottest opportunities for reactivation.
Each level needs a different approach, but all three are worth systematically working through.
Building Your Warm Lead Generation System
Before launching campaigns, audit what you have. Pull reports from your CRM, email platform, and social accounts. How many past leads exist? How many followers do you have? How many former clients haven’t heard from you in six months?
AJ recommends identifying “buckets” of leads by engagement level and starting with the warmest, meaning people who’ve had sales conversations or were past clients.
His system works in two phases.
Phase 1: Bulk reactivation campaigns for old leads, run monthly or quarterly. Most founders focus only on new inbound because they’re busy running the business. But those old leads still have the problem you solve.
Phase 2: Real-time automation for new warm leads. Once you’ve caught up, set up systems to reach out automatically when someone follows you or downloads content. Intent is highest right after action.
For tools, you need a CRM to organize your database. LinkedIn tools like Expanded let you scrape posts for engaged users. AI automation handles initial outreach at scale, especially useful for businesses with thousands of old leads they’ll never manually call.
How to Execute Warm Outreach That Converts
The biggest mistake? Sending generic mass messages. AJ balances automation with authenticity by referencing something specific like a post they liked or a guide they downloaded. The message should remind them why they engaged, then ask: “Are you still looking into this?”
Save human touch for high-value conversations. Once someone responds, have a real person take over.
AJ’s own business proves this works. He built a Facebook group around lead generation, and most sales came from proactively reaching out to members, not from people who eventually booked calls on their own.
He also shares insight from Cole Gordon’s Closers.io, which runs paid ads to webinars. Here’s the kicker: 70 to 80% of their webinar funnel sales come from people who never attended. As soon as someone registers, the sales team reaches out. The highest-value buyers often don’t sit through marketing funnels.
The lesson? Don’t wait for people to complete your funnel. Reach out as soon as they show intent.
Social media followers are massively underutilized. If you have 1,000 followers, that’s 1,000 people who didn’t follow by accident. They’re potential customers.
Optimize Lead Flow With Sales Team Efficiency
If you have a sales team, . Use setters or SDRs to handle initial outreach and qualification. They work through the database and book qualified calls. Closers focus on high-value conversations.
As AJ says, salespeople want to work for companies that provide warm leads rather than forcing them to do only cold outreach. This helps you attract and retain top talent.
AI takes this further. AJ mentions colleagues using AI bots to handle reactivation for local businesses like real estate companies. The bot sends outreach, handles responses, qualifies leads, and books appointments, all without human intervention until the call happens.
Use AI for volume and initial qualification, then hand off to real people for closing.
Measuring Success
Track performance by source. Key metrics include:
- Response rates by lead bucket
- Conversion rates from outreach to closed deal
- Cost per reactivated customer versus new acquisition
AJ considers a 30% close rate strong, but that still means 70% of leads didn’t convert. Those are your opportunities.
Once your backend is optimized, you’ll feel more confident spending money on marketing because you’ll extract more value from every lead.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Waiting too long to reach out. Intent fades fast. If someone downloads something or follows you, reach out within days, not months.
- Sending generic messages. Avoid “just checking in” emails. Reference something specific about their engagement with your company.
- Ignoring social media followers. These people didn’t follow by accident. They’re in your market and represent real opportunity.
- Not tracking what works. If you don’t measure conversion rates by bucket, you won’t know where to focus your effort.
- Over-automating conversations. Use AI for volume and initial qualification, but humans should close high-value deals.
- Focusing only on the 3% ready to buy now. The other 10% in the buyer’s journey is where the real opportunity lives.
Turn Your Database Into a Revenue Machine
Your database isn’t just people who didn’t buy. It’s warm leads who already know who you are and what problem you solve. AJ’s lead generation system gives you a repeatable process: audit your database, segment into buckets, launch bulk campaigns, set up real-time automation, and use AI for volume with humans for closing.
Start small. Pick one bucket this week, whether that’s past clients or LinkedIn followers, and reach out. You’ll be surprised how many people respond.
