The point at which you target a prospect could mean the difference between a closed deal or a standard ‘not interested at this time’ response.
In other words, sales is a time sensitive game. You have to target your decision maker at the right time – more specifically, at the time they are actively looking for a solution similar to yours.
Of course, without a world filled with magic, the only way to know this information is through sales triggers. Think of these as trigger events that can help you gauge if a prospect is ready to buy your service.
Tracking prospects and accounts through this strategy helps salespeople identify warm leads and start the conversation on the right note.
What Are Sales Triggers?
A sales trigger – often also referred to as a buying signal – is an event that showcases an opportunity for an SDR to connect with a prospect.
Common triggers include new hiring activity, a recently closed funding round, new investment, department restructuring, C-level hiring, employee layoffs, new office locations, recent mention on a publication and many more.
Typically, any type of change that can be seen on your decision makers profile or their company pages can be tracked and utilized as a sales trigger for social, cold email and cold call campaigns.
In fact, you can also enrich your existing database or CRM with this information. This helps you to find the right time to upsell or even go back to leads who were previously marked as lost.
Tracking Sales And Marketing Triggers Through Tools
While setting up and tracking different triggers can be time consuming, there are various tools in the market that help you set up alerts.
For instance, social listening tools like Talkwalker and Google Alerts help you track and receive alerts for brand mentions (yours and competitors) and keywords like ‘[company name] hiring’, etc. Such tools also monitor social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
With credible information gathered through these alerts, you can easily reach out to the right decision maker at the right time – with the right offer.
Here is a list of our favorite tools that help keep track of sales trigger events.
Tool 1 – LinkedIn Job Alerts
Besides hunting for jobs, LinkedIn’s Job Alerts feature can be used to monitor hiring activity for various companies. This is pretty useful as it often signals expansion, especially combined with other sales triggers like recent funding.
Since it can alert you to new positions opening up in a company, if the title is a decision maker you can reach out to the person who is eventually hired. Remember, new hires often want to bring in their own solutions and service providers.
Tool 2 – Crunchbase
Crunchbase is another great source of valuable information on companies such as funding, investment, etc. This helps sales teams gather information such as if a target account actually has the funds to invest in your product. A recent investment also signals that it’s a good time to pitch to the relevant decision makers.
The only drawback is that their alerts feature is only available to paying users. The good news is that it starts at $29 per user. With a pro account, you can easily monitor company news by setting up email alerts.
Tool 3 – Scoop.it
The best way to approach a prospect is with some solid information on their company. This is where content curation sites like Scoop.it come in.
With this type of tool, SDRs can subscribe to certain keywords, sources, etc. that helps them keep on top of industry news. Information gathered through these sources can also be included in outreach to grab a prospect’s attention.
Tool 4 – Glassdoor
This is another excellent site to track job related triggers – simply sign up for an account and set up personalized job recommendations based on your ideal customer profile.
When a company chooses to publish their name on Glassdoor (this is optional for posters), you can start following their page on LinkedIn to check new recruits with the same title.
Tool 5 – BuiltWith
BuiltWith is an excellent tool for identifying key market segment opportunities.
With BuiltWith Pro, you can get alerts on when new technologies are added or removed – this allows sales teams to easily identify competitors and build a list of prospects for cold outreach.
Tool 6 – Indeed/AngelList
Both AngelList and Indeed are job posting sites where you can easily set up alerts for specific jobs. Tracking this activity can help you identify companies that are growing, the technologies they are using, and the products or services they may require.
Tool 7 – Owler
Owler is essentially one of the best tools on this list. This solution aggregates, tracks and even crowdsources business insights including but not limited to news alerts, company blogs, press release, funding activity, executive changes, mergers and acquisitions, sponsorships, etc.
They have three specific plans; Owler Pro at $35 per month, Owler Max $50 per month and Owler Community which is free forever.
Tool 8 – Visual Ping
Visualping is a SaaS tool that helps you monitor websites for any changes. You can easily track and set up email alerts for price changes, upcoming events, new and upcoming promotions, new jobs, reviews etc.
While their pricing starts from $10 per month, they do have a freemium model that lets you monitor up to 5 pages per day.
List Of Sales Triggers To Help You Find Warm Leads
Now that we’ve covered quite a few tools that can help you build a steady pipeline of the right prospects, let’s move on to the main triggers you need to look out for.
Keep in mind though that certain sales triggers are generic (e.g. new job) while others can be more specific (e.g. addition in tech stack).
Sales Trigger 1 – Change In Management/Senior Executives
New hiring or change in management is a great signal for salespeople as newly appointed personnel often want to bring in their own vendors or tools.
This could also hint at other changes such as department expansion which are a great time to pitch your product if it helps solve a related problem/makes the process more efficient.
Tool(s) for the job: LinkedIn, Company website, Cloudlead
Sales Trigger 2 – Same Contact, New Role/Title
When a client you’ve worked with previously changes jobs, you have the perfect opportunity to grab another account. Remember, this person knows you and your company, they’ve worked with you in the past and are thus the best referral you could ask for.
Similarly, if the person is promoted to a new role, it’s a good time to upsell your product/package they were on or reach out to them for contract renewal.
Tool(s) for the job: LinkedIn, PR sites
Sales Trigger 3 – Recruitment Direction
If companies that fall within your target account seemingly change their recruitment direction (e.g. hiring for existing or new job roles), it could indicate internal changes like a new go-to market strategy, changes in product portfolio, etc.
This information can be used to analyze whether your product or service is a good fit for the company’s current situation.
Tool(s) for the job: LinkedIn, Glassdoor, AngelList, Indeed
Sales Trigger 4 – Recent Funding
This is one of the most common sales triggers that good salespeople use to track whether the target account is actively looking for solutions to specific problems – and if they have a budget to acquire said solutions.
In general, this is a good signal to reach out to previously lost deals, especially if budget was one of the reasons that the deal did not go through.
Tool(s) for the job: Crunchbase, Company Website, LinkedIn, Google Alerts
Sales Trigger 5 – Company Growth/Expansion
Like recent funding, expansion or merger is another way to gauge the opportunity to sell related solutions or even upsell your products on a higher plan.
Tool(s) for the job: Owler, LinkedIn, Cloudlead
Sales Trigger 6 – Performance In Fiscal Year
Good performance in the recent fiscal year could again potentially signal an increase in budget for certain departments.
The decision makers in such a case could be open to bringing in new tech/vendors to increase their productivity, work efficiency, etc.
Tool(s) for the job: Crunchbase, Financial Performance Report, Cloudlead
Sales Trigger 7 – New Products/Services
Introduction of new products and services is also a good sales trigger – especially if your product helps facilitate the company in this period or with the product specifically.
Tool(s) for the job: LinkedIn, Twitter, Company Website, Cloudlead
Sales Trigger 8 – Industry Updates
Industry wide updates such as new laws, trends or developments are great buying signals since they mean that companies need to adopt certain changes – great time to step in, especially if you have a related use case.
Sales Trigger 9 – Social Media Activity
Social media activity is one of the best possible sources of gaining insights into your target accounts. By following company pages and personal accounts, you can understand what your prospects are currently interested in, what they need or are looking for, problems they are facing, etc.
In fact, we’ve won a few major accounts at Cloudlead only by following decision makers on LinkedIn and commenting with helpful solutions/answers.
Remember, recent updates on your prospects’ accounts can easily be an indicator that they are looking for relevant solutions.
Tool(s) for the job; LinkedIn, Cloudlead
Sales Trigger 10 – Online And Offline Events
Both online and offline events like conferences, trade shows, online training and games like HYPCCCYCL, webinars, etc. are excellent sources for keeping on top of industry trends, and tracking and connecting with your prospects.
Not only do you have an opening to connect with the prospect when you’re attending the same event, but you can also understand where they are in the buying cycle based on the type of event it is.
Tool(s) for the job; LinkedIn, Cloudlead, Online Magazines
Final Word
Designing your sales and marketing campaigns around sales triggers allows salespeople to reach out to the right accounts and leads at the right time.
In other words, you can connect with more people who are actively in the buying cycle and have smarter conversations.
Do you want access to custom sales triggers that can help you find leads that are ready to buy? Talk to Cloudlead.
