Signal-based selling starts from the fact that, in a list of accounts that all match your market, only a few have a reason to talk to you this week. A hire, a new role, a post or a funding round can be that reason. The method is to spot those facts and, when they touch the problem you solve, write a message built on them.
How it works
The method runs in four steps.
- Define the accounts with an explicit ideal customer profile. A signal observed at an out-of-target account does not deserve a message.
- Choose the signals tied to the problem your offer solves. A company selling a prospecting-preparation tool watches sales hires; a payroll software vendor watches new country openings.
- Verify the signal: its date, its source, the person involved and its exact content. A job title is not enough; an ad or a post says more.
- Write from the signal, asking a question the prospect can answer in one sentence.
Where it fits in your method
Signal-based selling adds to targeting and the sequence: it decides the order in which you contact accounts and the content of the first message. For the rest, you still write on several channels and qualify the account in conversation once the prospect replies.
Example
A software company that sells a sales onboarding tool follows two hundred accounts; five of them publish an SDR job ad the same week. One of the ads specifies that the hire will have to “build their own prospecting method”, and only that account gets a message, addressed to the hiring manager, with a question about how they are preparing the new hire’s arrival.
Limits
A signal shows that a change is happening at the account, without proving that the prospect is looking for a solution. Your message should therefore test a hypothesis instead of assuming a project. An old signal also loses value, an effect called signal decay.
See also: Buying signal, Trigger event, Ideal customer profile (ICP), and Cold outreach.