# The Core Four

> There are only four ways to turn attention into leads: warm outreach (1:1, they know you), cold outreach (1:1, they do not), content (1:many, warm), and paid ads (1:many, cold). Every campaign is a combination of these four, the grid makes channel audits complete.

- Canonical URL: https://www.convios.com/en/methods/core-four
- Language version: https://www.convios.com/de/methodik/core-four
- Status: Convios method toolkit
- Method library: https://www.convios.com/en/methods — Markdown: https://www.convios.com/en/methods.md

## Problem

Your lead generation hangs on a single channel, or the channel discussion gets lost in tactical detail ("should we run a webinar?"). What is missing is a complete grid showing which fundamental paths to leads are being worked at all and which lie fallow.

## Approach

1. Map current lead generation into the four-quadrant matrix: warm/cold × 1:1/1:many.
2. For each quadrant, record which activities run, at what effort, with what result.
3. Identify fallow quadrants, often warm 1:1 outreach (existing customers, network, past contacts) is the unused lever with the best effort-to-yield ratio.
4. Do not maximize all four at once; deliberately build up one neglected quadrant.
5. Use the matrix as a recurring audit grid, not a one-off exercise.

## Example

A typical case: a B2B SaaS sources nearly all leads from paid ads; rising click prices squeeze margin. The channel audit along the four quadrants shows warm 1:1 outreach is practically unused, past trial users, existing customers with expansion potential, the founders' network. The team builds up that quadrant systematically, reducing dependence on the ad channel before investing in new paid formats.

## Limits

The grid organizes channels but does not prioritize them. Which combination works depends on ACV, audience, and maturity. It comes from a transactional context; in long-cycle B2B, content works with far more delay than the grid suggests. Building all four channels at once overwhelms most teams.

## Metric

Record leads, pipeline, and cost per quadrant and watch the dependence: what share of pipeline hangs on the single largest channel?

## Sources

- Bryce Ryan, Neal C. Gross: The Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn in Two Iowa Communities, Rural Sociology 8(1), 1943, 15–24; erweiterte Fassung als Acceptance and Diffusion of Hybrid Corn Seed in Two Iowa Communities, Research Bulletin 372, Iowa State College, 1950 — Iowa State College, Agricultural Experiment Station (Volltext ueber Iowa State University Digital Repository), 1943 · academic and scholarly literature · supports the underlying mechanism. The study is the first to separate empirically the channels through which people first learn of something from the channels that move them to adopt: commercial outside contacts (salesmen 49 percent, 70 percent including farm press and radio of all first knowledge) informed, while personal proximity (neighbours 45.5 percent versus salesmen 32.0 percent) persuaded, the authors call this the functional split into introductory and activating media. (https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1986bec6-690e-4fe8-a034-bae6b68d2dcb/content)
- Copy This Marketing Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your Business, Alex Hormozi — Alex Hormozi (YouTube), 2025-07-03 · practitioner source · describes the method. Talk in which Hormozi develops the four routes to lead generation as an exhaustive list and delineates them from one another; carries definition and core mechanics. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaRXece2ItE)
- Lead Generation Playbooks, Acquisition.com — Acquisition.com, LLC, 2026 · practitioner source · describes the method. Publicly available teaching catalogue from the same author; shows that the framework is organized there into related channel groups (cold outreach, paid advertising, content, referrals and partners). Because those groups do not map exactly onto the four quadrants and the source comes from the same author, it is not independent confirmation that the grid is exhaustive. (https://www.acquisition.com/training/leads)
- Everett M. Rogers: Diffusion of Innovations, The Free Press, New York, 1. Aufl. 1962 (hier geprueft in der 3. Aufl. 1983, Kap. 5, S. 198–202), 1962 · academic and scholarly literature · supports the underlying mechanism. Rogers crosses exactly the two axes the Core Four are built from: interpersonal versus mass media (one-to-one versus one-to-many) and localite versus cosmopolite (inside one's own social system versus from outside, i.e. warm versus cold). His generalizations 5-12 and 5-13 state that mass and cosmopolite channels matter more at the knowledge stage, interpersonal and localite channels at the persuasion stage. (https://archive.org/details/diffusionofinnov00roge_0)
- Philipp Schmitt, Bernd Skiera, Christophe Van den Bulte: Referral Programs and Customer Value, Journal of Marketing 75(1), 2011, S. 46–59, 2011 · academic and scholarly literature · supports the underlying mechanism. Panel of about 10,000 customers of a German bank: customers acquired through referral (warm) show higher contribution margins, markedly higher retention and at least 16 percent higher customer value than comparable non-referred customers. Evidence for the warm-beats-cold asymmetry in modern customer data, not for the four-cell grid itself. (https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Schmitt-Skiera-vandenBulte-2011-Referral-Programs-Customer-Value.pdf)
- Primary source: Bryce Ryan, Neal C. Gross: The Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn in Two Iowa Communities, Rural Sociology 8(1), 1943, 15–24; erweiterte Fassung als Acceptance and Diffusion of Hybrid Corn Seed in Two Iowa Communities, Research Bulletin 372, Iowa State College, 1950 (https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/1986bec6-690e-4fe8-a034-bae6b68d2dcb/content)
- Adapted from: Alex Hormozi ($100M Offers/$100M Leads, YouTube-Langform)

## Related

- Method: [Warm Outreach Engine](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/warm-outreach-engine)
- Method: [The 3.5:1 Give-to-Ask Ratio](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/give-to-ask-ratio)
- Method: [Lead Magnet Logic](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/lead-magnet-logic)
- Tool: [lemlist](https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox/lemlist)