The Problem with Traditional Outbound
Traditional outbound is a numbers game: spray enough emails at a big enough list, and some will stick. But this approach is increasingly broken:
- Buyers are overwhelmed - The average B2B buyer receives 120+ sales touches per month
- Response rates are plummeting - Down 40% over the past three years
- Reputation risk is real - Aggressive outbound damages brand perception
- It's inefficient - 95%+ of your outreach goes to people who aren't ready to buy
Signal-based selling flips the model: instead of reaching out to everyone, you reach out to the right people at the right time.
What Are Buying Signals?
Buying signals are observable indicators that a company or individual might be in-market for your solution. They fall into several categories:
Intent Signals
- Searching for relevant keywords
- Visiting competitor websites
- Reading comparison content
- Engaging with industry analysts
Trigger Events
- New funding round
- Executive hire (especially your champion profile)
- Company acquisition
- Geographic expansion
- Product launch
Engagement Signals
- Visiting your website
- Downloading content
- Attending webinars
- Engaging with social posts
Technology Signals
- Adopting complementary tools
- Removing competitor solutions
- Infrastructure changes
Organizational Signals
- Rapid hiring in relevant departments
- Org restructuring
- Budget cycle timing
Building a Signal Capture System
Step 1: Define Your Signal Library
Map signals to buying stages:
| Stage | Signals |
|---|---|
| Problem Aware | Job posts, thought leadership engagement |
| Solution Aware | Competitor research, G2/Capterra visits |
| Evaluation | Pricing page visits, demo requests |
| Decision | Security reviews, procurement engagement |
Step 2: Set Up Signal Sources
Layer multiple data sources:
- Intent data providers: Bombora, 6sense, G2
- News monitoring: Google Alerts, Feedly, custom scrapers
- Job board tracking: LinkedIn, Indeed, Greenhouse
- Tech detection: BuiltWith, Wappalyzer, HG Insights
- Social listening: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Twitter
- Website analytics: First-party visitor identification
Step 3: Score and Prioritize
Not all signals are equal. Weight them based on:
- Recency: Recent signals > old signals
- Strength: Active evaluation > passive research
- Relevance: Specific to your use case > general interest
- Combination: Multiple signals > single signal
Step 4: Automate Response
Connect signals to action:
- Hot signals → Immediate SDR outreach
- Warm signals → Prioritized sequence enrollment
- Nurture signals → Automated content delivery
Signal-Based Messaging
Once you capture a signal, reference it naturally:
Bad (obvious):
"I noticed you were researching project management tools..."
Good (contextual):
"Congrats on the Series B—with 30 new engineering hires planned, I imagine [specific challenge] is becoming more complex. Here's how [similar company] approached it..."
The best signal-based messages don't reveal how you found them. They demonstrate understanding of their situation.
Measuring Signal Effectiveness
Track these metrics for each signal type:
- Volume: How many signals per week?
- Conversion: What % convert to meetings?
- Velocity: How quickly do signal-sourced deals close?
- Value: What's the average deal size?
Use this data to continuously refine your signal library and prioritization.
The Competitive Advantage
Here's the thing: your competitors are also receiving these signals. Speed matters.
The companies winning with signal-based selling:
- Capture signals within hours, not days
- Have pre-built response playbooks
- Automate the operational work
- Free up SDRs for high-value conversations
The window for signal-based outreach is shrinking. A funding announcement is stale after 48 hours. A job post is old news after a week.
Move fast, or someone else will.
Ready to implement signal-based selling? Book a demo to see how GTM Growth System captures and acts on signals automatically.