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Try tracking every move your prospects make online, and you’ll drown in data – not to mention appear creepy. Someone liked your competitor’s post. Another followed your CEO on LinkedIn. Someone changed their job title, but just added one word to it, such as “Senior”.
Can you tell which ones actually matter? Is it all guesswork? Or do we call it a/b testing and pretend it’s a nuanced science, even though the results are subpar?
That’s the challenge: not every signal is a green light. Some are subtle nudges. Others are red herrings. If you chase every ping (and people are really active online these days), you’ll end up wasting time on prospects who are nowhere near ready to buy – while the real opportunities quietly pass you by.
Triggered Outbound only works properly – or gives you the results you need – when it’s built on the right behavior. And that means knowing which actions are worth tracking, and which ones are just noise.
Wait – What Are Triggers and Signals, Exactly?
A quick glossary pitstop:
- A signal is any observable prospect behavior (or change) that suggests something might be happening inside a company – hiring a new role, updating their tech stack, posting about a pain point, etc.
- A trigger is a signal that actually means something to you, so you use it to trigger a campaign. It’s the kind of behavior that, based on your sales motion, ICP, and offer, is worth acting on.
In other words: All triggers are signals, but not all signals are triggers.
What Makes a Trigger Worth Tracking?
Not all behaviors are created equal. Some tell you your prospect is actively researching a solution like yours – or at the very least might be open to learning about it, based on how you interpret their behavior. Others just mean they’re alive and online. So how do you know what to focus on?
A trigger is worth tracking when it meets at least two of these criteria:
- Recency – Did it happen within the last few days or weeks? If not, it may already be irrelevant.
- Relevance – Does the behavior suggest they might need your product or service?
- Reach – Does the signal come from someone with influence or purchasing power?
The best triggers combine all three: like when a CMO at a fast-growing startup just secured a Series B funding round and is hiring a content team – and you, coincidentally, have a content team to provide. That’s not just a window opening. That’s a whole fleet of aircraft marshals signaling you to please land your message right here, right now.
The trick is spotting it before your competitors do, and then making sure your message leans into that signal – subtly and naturally tie your outreach to the action that prompted you to get in touch with them. Something like this:
“Hey Jamie,
Congrats on the Series B, exciting times ahead! I also noticed you’re hiring for a couple of content roles – looks like you’re laying the groundwork for some serious growth.
We’ve worked with teams at *client 1* and *client 2* right around this stage to help scale their content output without overwhelming their in-house team. Thought I’d reach out in case you’re exploring ways to support the new hires or fill in some gaps while the team ramps up.
Would it make sense to connect for a quick intro next week?
PS: I also have the *client 1* case study ready to send if you’d like to take a look.”
Now, if there really is a fit, and they’re not opposed to outsourcing vs. hiring, you have a decent shot at getting them curious.
The Smartest Signals We’ve Seen Work
In all fairness, there’s no such thing as a bad signal – it all depends on the context in which it happens. Someone posts a product review for your competitor’s tool: if that someone is an intern or a junior developer from the company you’d like to work with, odds are they don’t have the clout to move the needle or get their manager interested.
But to help you figure out which signals you can consider and test, we’ve accumulated our knowledge and we can safely say some signals carry more weight than others – and are more likely to generate more conversions.
*Sidenote: by the time you read this, the relevance of these particular signals might shift, slightly or greatly. We can never know. Stay open to testing new ideas and concepts, and above all, keep learning about your ICP’s particular set of behaviors that might drive those interested replies.
Job Changes and Promotions
When someone starts a new role, especially in leadership, they’re expected to make an impact. They’re often reviewing tools, strategies, partners, and vendors – and more open to change.
Reaching out in the first 30-90 days often leads to surprisingly open conversations. However, be mindful not to reach out too soon. Everyone needs time to adapt to a new role, no matter how experienced they are, and they don’t want to rush into vendor decisions – or even just be perceived as rash.
Hiring Signals (aka Job Ads)
If a company is hiring for roles related to your solution (like “demand generation manager” or “RevOps analyst”), it’s a clear sign they’re investing in that area. Your outreach can show them a potentially faster, smarter, more cost-effective way to solve the problem they’re hiring for.
Funding Announcements
Fresh funding means fresh priorities. It often triggers a wave of new hires, tech stack changes, and growth initiatives. Your message should position your product as a tool to help them scale quickly and efficiently, before their team gets locked into other vendors.
Tech Stack Changes
When a company adopts a new platform (or drops one) it’s usually a sign of evolving workflows, or dissatisfaction with previous solutions. That change could signal an opportunity for you to step in and support that transition.
Website Activity & Intent Signals
Visits to key pages like your pricing, integrations, or case studies often mean someone is actively browsing. Combine that with a strong ICP fit, and you’ve got a great reason to reach out while they’re still exploring.
Content Engagement
If someone’s engaging with posts about pain points your product solves, like commenting on a thread about project management bottlenecks, or posting a review of your competitor’s tool, that’s your moment. These are softer signals, but they can still unlock conversations if your message adds clear value.
ICP – Not Just a Persona, It’s a Path
Your ICP should shape which triggers you actually care about.
Let’s say you sell an AI-powered tool for fast-scaling customer success teams. A company adding a VP of CS, hiring multiple CSMs, and launching a Net Promoter Score (NPS) program? Those are your gold-tier triggers.
But if you’re reaching out to a 5-person team that just hired their first support rep, you’re too early, or just not a fit. Triggers are only powerful when they’re connected to a clear go-to-market motion.
In short: follow behavior in context of your ICP – not in a vacuum.
Trigger Relevance ≠ Trigger Reactivity
Even with great data, timing matters. A strong signal doesn’t always mean “email them now.”
For example, if someone just changed jobs yesterday, they may still be onboarding. Give it a few weeks, or lead with a softer, congratulatory touch. Send them a LinkedIn connection instead, if you’d like to be top of mind for them and get them curious. Conversely, if they posted about a vendor problem 10 minutes ago (and they’re certainly not new to the job), that’s your window.
Track. Prioritize. Personalize. Act.
Good Triggered Outbound isn’t just fast. It’s informed. It often feels like showing up with the solution before the buyer even asks for one – anticipating their needs and goals, which the best vendors truly do.
The Takeaway: Focused Attention Wins More Deals – With More Value
You don’t need to track *everything*.
That would eventually become too similar to cold outreach, and the goal is to diversify your lead gen efforts by tapping into more nuanced avenues.
Much like cold email will always have a place in your stack if you know how to use it, Triggered Outbound needs the same amount of skill and strategy to work. You need to track what matters – and react when it counts.
Just like you wouldn’t walk up to someone just because they coughed in your general direction at a crowded conference on their way to the bathroom, you don’t need to blast every prospect who shows a sliver of activity. Relevance matters. Timing matters. And aligning your triggers with your actual sales goals wins more deals than chasing every shiny notification.
At the end of the day:
Cold email can start a conversation. Triggered Outbound starts it at the right time.
Allocate your attention wisely – your best buyers already do.
Our Revenue Director, Chrisley Ceme, is leading the Triggered Outbound program. Chrisley’s gone deep on this strategy and can walk you through:
- How Triggered Outbound fits with your outbound goals
- What triggers are available (and what’s possible within our platform)
- Pricing, onboarding, and getting started
Try tracking every move your prospects make online, and you’ll drown in data – not to mention appear creepy. Someone liked your competitor’s post. Another followed your CEO on LinkedIn. Someone changed their job title, but just added one word to it, such as “Senior”.
Can you tell which ones actually matter? Is it all guesswork? Or do we call it a/b testing and pretend it’s a nuanced science, even though the results are subpar?
That’s the challenge: not every signal is a green light. Some are subtle nudges. Others are red herrings. If you chase every ping (and people are really active online these days), you’ll end up wasting time on prospects who are nowhere near ready to buy – while the real opportunities quietly pass you by.
Triggered Outbound only works properly – or gives you the results you need – when it’s built on the right behavior. And that means knowing which actions are worth tracking, and which ones are just noise.
Wait – What Are Triggers and Signals, Exactly?
A quick glossary pitstop:
- A signal is any observable prospect behavior (or change) that suggests something might be happening inside a company – hiring a new role, updating their tech stack, posting about a pain point, etc.
- A trigger is a signal that actually means something to you, so you use it to trigger a campaign. It’s the kind of behavior that, based on your sales motion, ICP, and offer, is worth acting on.
In other words: All triggers are signals, but not all signals are triggers.
What Makes a Trigger Worth Tracking?
Not all behaviors are created equal. Some tell you your prospect is actively researching a solution like yours – or at the very least might be open to learning about it, based on how you interpret their behavior. Others just mean they’re alive and online. So how do you know what to focus on?
A trigger is worth tracking when it meets at least two of these criteria:
- Recency – Did it happen within the last few days or weeks? If not, it may already be irrelevant.
- Relevance – Does the behavior suggest they might need your product or service?
- Reach – Does the signal come from someone with influence or purchasing power?
The best triggers combine all three: like when a CMO at a fast-growing startup just secured a Series B funding round and is hiring a content team – and you, coincidentally, have a content team to provide. That’s not just a window opening. That’s a whole fleet of aircraft marshals signaling you to please land your message right here, right now.
The trick is spotting it before your competitors do, and then making sure your message leans into that signal – subtly and naturally tie your outreach to the action that prompted you to get in touch with them. Something like this:
“Hey Jamie,
Congrats on the Series B, exciting times ahead! I also noticed you’re hiring for a couple of content roles – looks like you’re laying the groundwork for some serious growth.
We’ve worked with teams at *client 1* and *client 2* right around this stage to help scale their content output without overwhelming their in-house team. Thought I’d reach out in case you’re exploring ways to support the new hires or fill in some gaps while the team ramps up.
Would it make sense to connect for a quick intro next week?
PS: I also have the *client 1* case study ready to send if you’d like to take a look.”
Now, if there really is a fit, and they’re not opposed to outsourcing vs. hiring, you have a decent shot at getting them curious.
The Smartest Signals We’ve Seen Work
In all fairness, there’s no such thing as a bad signal – it all depends on the context in which it happens. Someone posts a product review for your competitor’s tool: if that someone is an intern or a junior developer from the company you’d like to work with, odds are they don’t have the clout to move the needle or get their manager interested.
But to help you figure out which signals you can consider and test, we’ve accumulated our knowledge and we can safely say some signals carry more weight than others – and are more likely to generate more conversions.
*Sidenote: by the time you read this, the relevance of these particular signals might shift, slightly or greatly. We can never know. Stay open to testing new ideas and concepts, and above all, keep learning about your ICP’s particular set of behaviors that might drive those interested replies.
Job Changes and Promotions
When someone starts a new role, especially in leadership, they’re expected to make an impact. They’re often reviewing tools, strategies, partners, and vendors – and more open to change.
Reaching out in the first 30-90 days often leads to surprisingly open conversations. However, be mindful not to reach out too soon. Everyone needs time to adapt to a new role, no matter how experienced they are, and they don’t want to rush into vendor decisions – or even just be perceived as rash.
Hiring Signals (aka Job Ads)
If a company is hiring for roles related to your solution (like “demand generation manager” or “RevOps analyst”), it’s a clear sign they’re investing in that area. Your outreach can show them a potentially faster, smarter, more cost-effective way to solve the problem they’re hiring for.
Funding Announcements
Fresh funding means fresh priorities. It often triggers a wave of new hires, tech stack changes, and growth initiatives. Your message should position your product as a tool to help them scale quickly and efficiently, before their team gets locked into other vendors.
Tech Stack Changes
When a company adopts a new platform (or drops one) it’s usually a sign of evolving workflows, or dissatisfaction with previous solutions. That change could signal an opportunity for you to step in and support that transition.
Website Activity & Intent Signals
Visits to key pages like your pricing, integrations, or case studies often mean someone is actively browsing. Combine that with a strong ICP fit, and you’ve got a great reason to reach out while they’re still exploring.
Content Engagement
If someone’s engaging with posts about pain points your product solves, like commenting on a thread about project management bottlenecks, or posting a review of your competitor’s tool, that’s your moment. These are softer signals, but they can still unlock conversations if your message adds clear value.
ICP – Not Just a Persona, It’s a Path
Your ICP should shape which triggers you actually care about.
Let’s say you sell an AI-powered tool for fast-scaling customer success teams. A company adding a VP of CS, hiring multiple CSMs, and launching a Net Promoter Score (NPS) program? Those are your gold-tier triggers.
But if you’re reaching out to a 5-person team that just hired their first support rep, you’re too early, or just not a fit. Triggers are only powerful when they’re connected to a clear go-to-market motion.
In short: follow behavior in context of your ICP – not in a vacuum.
Trigger Relevance ≠ Trigger Reactivity
Even with great data, timing matters. A strong signal doesn’t always mean “email them now.”
For example, if someone just changed jobs yesterday, they may still be onboarding. Give it a few weeks, or lead with a softer, congratulatory touch. Send them a LinkedIn connection instead, if you’d like to be top of mind for them and get them curious. Conversely, if they posted about a vendor problem 10 minutes ago (and they’re certainly not new to the job), that’s your window.
Track. Prioritize. Personalize. Act.
Good Triggered Outbound isn’t just fast. It’s informed. It often feels like showing up with the solution before the buyer even asks for one – anticipating their needs and goals, which the best vendors truly do.
The Takeaway: Focused Attention Wins More Deals – With More Value
You don’t need to track *everything*.
That would eventually become too similar to cold outreach, and the goal is to diversify your lead gen efforts by tapping into more nuanced avenues.
Much like cold email will always have a place in your stack if you know how to use it, Triggered Outbound needs the same amount of skill and strategy to work. You need to track what matters – and react when it counts.
Just like you wouldn’t walk up to someone just because they coughed in your general direction at a crowded conference on their way to the bathroom, you don’t need to blast every prospect who shows a sliver of activity. Relevance matters. Timing matters. And aligning your triggers with your actual sales goals wins more deals than chasing every shiny notification.
At the end of the day:
Cold email can start a conversation. Triggered Outbound starts it at the right time.
Allocate your attention wisely – your best buyers already do.
Our Revenue Director, Chrisley Ceme, is leading the Triggered Outbound program.Chrisley’s gone deep on this strategy and can walk you through:
- How Triggered Outbound fits with your outbound goals
- What triggers are available (and what’s possible within our platform)
- Pricing, onboarding, and getting started
