Buying signal
A buying signal is an observable event that suggests a company has the problem you solve right now, which makes it the reason to write to them today rather than at some point.
Also called Trigger event, Intent signal.
A buying signal is an observable event suggesting a company needs what you sell now rather than in principle. Fit tells you who could buy; a signal tells you when, and timing is most of why outreach works or does not. The same email to the same person is welcome the week they start looking and ignored the month before.
Signals differ in how much they are worth. The strongest are specific and public: a job posting describing the exact problem you solve, a funding round that releases budget, a migration announcement, a new executive who owns the area and needs an early win, a public complaint about a competitor. Weaker ones are generic company growth or a page visit, which say something is happening but not what. The strength of a signal is roughly how well it explains why this week.
The operational value is that a signal gives you something true to open with. An email that references a specific hire or announcement is doing work no template can, because it demonstrates the message was written after looking rather than assembled from a list. That is also the failure mode: a signal cited wrongly or six months late is worse than no signal, because it shows the looking was automated and careless.
In practice
- A job posting for a role whose responsibilities are the problem your product removes.
- A funding round announced last week at a company that already matches your profile.
- A new VP of engineering, three weeks in, who owns the system you replace.
- A weak signal: the company grew headcount this quarter.
Questions
What is the difference between a buying signal and intent data?
A buying signal is a specific observable event, such as a particular job posting or funding round. Intent data usually means aggregated behavioural inference sold by a vendor, such as a claim that accounts at a company have been researching a category. Signals are verifiable and explain themselves; intent data is probabilistic and often cannot be traced to anything you could reference in an email without sounding like surveillance.
How quickly does a signal go stale?
Days to a few weeks for most, and the decay is steep. A funding round is interesting for a month and old news after that. A job posting is live until it is filled. Referencing a stale signal actively hurts, because it tells the recipient the message was generated from a list rather than written after paying attention. If you cannot act within the window, it is better to write without the signal than to cite it late.
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