In B2B sales, timing beats everything. The right message at the wrong time gets ignored. The average message at the perfect time closes deals.
But how do you know when a company is ready to buy?
The answer: buying signals—behavioral indicators that reveal a company's purchase intent before they ever fill out a demo form.
Here's exactly what to track, why it matters, and how to spot each signal type.
1. Financial Signals: Money in Motion = Buying Intent
Why It Matters
Companies don't spend money randomly. When they raise funding, get acquired, or report strong earnings, they're actively investing in growth—which means buying new tools.
How to Spot It
- Funding announcements on Crunchbase, TechCrunch, or company blogs
- Acquisition news (both buyer and seller create opportunities)
- IPO filings or earnings reports (public companies)
- Partnership announcements with financial implications
What to Do
When you spot a financial signal, move fast. Companies have 60-90 day buying windows after major financial events before budgets lock in.
Example outreach:
"Congrats on the Series B! Companies scaling from 50→200 employees often hit [specific pain point]. Here's how we helped [similar company] avoid that..."
Real Example
When Databricks raised their $500M Series I, they immediately started hiring sales engineers across 3 regions. Sales enablement and training platforms had a 90-day window to get in before the new hires were onboarded.
2. Text Signals: Reading Between the Lines
Why It Matters
Companies broadcast their priorities through public content. Blog posts, case studies, and job descriptions aren't just marketing—they're roadmaps to their challenges.
How to Spot It
- Company blogs (search for "scaling," "challenge," "building," "migrating")
- Job descriptions (required skills = current gaps)
- Press releases (product launches, partnerships)
- Executive posts on LinkedIn (CEO/CTO sharing challenges)
- Customer case studies (problems they're solving for others)
What to Do
Use their exact language in your outreach. If they published "How We're Scaling Our Infrastructure," lead with infrastructure challenges—not generic benefits.
Example outreach:
"Read your blog on scaling infrastructure to 10M+ requests/day. We helped [similar company] solve the exact caching issue you mentioned in paragraph 3..."
Real Example
When Stripe published "Scaling Our Payment Infrastructure for Global Growth," it signaled massive investment in backend systems. Observability, database, and infrastructure vendors had a clear hook.
3. Event Signals: Change = Opportunity
Why It Matters
Organizational change disrupts the status quo. New leaders bring new priorities (and new budgets). Rapid hiring creates gaps. Launches require tooling.
How to Spot It
- Leadership changes (track on LinkedIn, company announcements)
- Hiring surges (5+ roles in one department in 30 days)
- Office expansions or new locations
- Product launches (requires supporting infrastructure)
- Rebranding or website redesigns
What to Do
New executives have 90-day windows to make their mark. Reach out in weeks 3-8 after they start—early enough to influence decisions, late enough that they understand priorities.
Example outreach:
"Congrats on joining as VP of Sales! In your first 90 days, you'll likely need to [specific challenge]. Here's how we helped the last 3 VPs we worked with ramp faster..."
Real Example
When Notion hired their first VP of Enterprise Sales (previously a consumer product), it signaled a major B2B pivot. CRM, sales enablement, and enterprise security vendors had an 8-week window before tool decisions were finalized.
4. Tech Stack Signals: Adjacent Tools = Warm Introductions
Why It Matters
Your best prospects are already using tools adjacent to yours. If they adopt Salesforce, they'll need email tools. If they use AWS, they'll need monitoring.
How to Spot It
- Job postings ("Experience with Salesforce required")
- About/Careers pages (tech stack mentions)
- Engineering blogs (tools they use/built)
- Integration announcements
- BuiltWith or similar tools (public tech stack data)
What to Do
Reference their existing stack in outreach. "We integrate seamlessly with [tool they use]" is 5x more effective than generic benefits.
Example outreach:
"Noticed you're using Salesforce + Outreach. Teams with that stack usually struggle with [specific sync issue]. Here's a 2-minute fix..."
Real Example
When Figma announced their Notion integration, it revealed both companies valued collaborative workflows. Project management tools like Asana and ClickUp had a perfect introduction angle about workflow consolidation.
The Power of Signal Stacking
Here's the secret: signals compound.
1 signal
2 signals
3+ signals
Conversion rates by signal count
The best accounts show multiple signals simultaneously. When you see:
- Funding round (Financial) + New VP hire (Event) + Blog about scaling (Text)
...you're looking at a hot account with 10x higher close rates.
Start Tracking Today
Pick your top 20 target accounts and set up:
- Google Alerts for company name + "funding," "acquisition," "hire"
- LinkedIn follows for C-suite executives
- RSS feeds for company blogs
- Weekly job posting checks
Or let SignalIQ do it automatically across 100+ accounts.
We're Building SignalIQ to Track All Four Signal Types Automatically
Stop manually tracking signals and start finding companies that are actually ready to buy. SignalIQ automatically monitors financial, text, event, and tech stack signals—and tells you exactly when to reach out.
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