Signals & Intent: Finding the Right Time to Sell
10 July, 2025
5 min read
Even if someone fits your ICP perfectly, they won’t buy if the timing is off. That’s where intent signals and trigger events come in — clues that a prospect might be open to hearing from you now.
Knowing when to reach out can make the difference between silence and a real conversation.
What Are Intent Signals?
These are signs that a company or person may be in-market for a solution like yours. They fall into two buckets:
1. External Triggers (Company-Level Events)
These are public changes that suggest buying readiness:
Funding rounds → New budget, growth priorities
New exec hires → Often a sign of change and tech reevaluation
M&A or expansion → Signals new needs, bigger teams
Tech stack shifts → Adding/removing tools = potential pain or interest
Regulatory changes → Triggers urgency (e.g., privacy compliance tools)
2. Behavioral Signals (Individual or Team Actions)
These are subtler, but powerful:
Job changes → Champions switching jobs bring opportunities
Email or website engagement → Clicking pricing, case studies = high intent
Social posts or forum questions → Publicly asking for tool advice
Complaints about competitors → Frustration creates urgency
Why It Matters
Intent signals help you focus. If two prospects look the same on paper, but one just raised funding, you know who to reach out to first.
Tailoring outreach around that signal makes you feel relevant, not random.
Example:
“Congrats on the Series A – we often help teams at this stage onboard new CS hires faster.”
It’s specific. It’s timely. It gets replies.
Where to Find These Signals
LinkedIn: Job changes, posts, company news
Google Alerts: For company mentions
Crunchbase: Funding and M&A
Sales tools (e.g., SalesIntel, Triggr): Track tech installs, hiring trends, and more
Your own site: If someone keeps visiting your pricing page — that’s a signal
Examples You Can Act On
Hiring Spree:
“Saw you’re adding 10+ SDRs – we help teams ramp reps faster.”
New Privacy Law:
“The new data law hits soon — we help healthtech teams stay compliant.”
Website Visits:
“We work with teams like yours on [pain point] — happy to share a few things we’ve learned.”
(No need to mention their visit — just use it to prioritize.)
Competitor Outage:
“Noticed [Competitor] had issues this week — let me know if you'd like to see how we handle uptime.”
Timing Is Key
Reach out while the event is still fresh — ideally within a few days. Most companies make buying decisions quickly after major changes. And sales data shows the first vendor to respond often wins the deal.
Don’t wait weeks. Even a quick, relevant note is better than missing the moment.
How FuseAI Can Help
Tools like FuseAI can surface these signals for you — funding events, job changes, site behavior, even competitor tech usage. It might say:
“Company X hired a new CISO + added Okta. Consider messaging this week.”
This saves you hours of research and helps you focus on hot leads. You can even ask:
“Which accounts showed intent this week?” — and get a ranked list.
FuseAI connects the dots across news, LinkedIn, tech data, and web engagement so you don’t have to chase every lead manually.
Final Takeaway
Intent signals = better timing. You don’t need to email 1,000 people blindly. You need to email the right 20 when they’re most likely to care.
So build signal monitoring into your weekly GTM motion — even if it’s just skimming LinkedIn alerts or news about top accounts. When the signal shows up, reach out fast with context.
It turns cold leads into warm conversations — and warm conversations into real pipeline.