Find the accounts that are already moving: the 4 buying signals we track
Most sales teams start the quarter with a list of accounts that fit their ideal customer profile and a rep assigned to work through it. The list is accurate. Every company on it could buy. Only some of them are doing anything about the problem this quarter, and the list doesn’t say which ones.
Companies research a problem long before they talk to a vendor. They read about it, compare options, post about what’s breaking, and hire people to fix it. Each of those actions leaves a trace. A team that watches for those traces can reach an account while it’s still deciding, before a shortlist exists.
At Magnifi², signal intelligence is the first step of client acquisition. We track 4 kinds of buying signals and score them into 1 list, so your team spends its time on the accounts that are moving while the buying window is open.
What counts as a buying signal
A buying signal is an observable action or change that makes a company more likely to buy what you sell in the near term. Fit tells you a company could buy. A signal tells you something changed that put budget or urgency behind the problem. The useful ones are specific to your offer and recent enough to act on within weeks.
1. Research intent: what they’re researching
Before a company contacts a vendor, its people spend weeks reading. We see which accounts are reading up on the topics and competitors tied to your offer. We watch for:
Rising research on your category keywords
Reading on competitors and alternatives
Comparison, pricing, and implementation topics
Visits to your own site, identified by company
The topic tells you how far along an account is. General category reading means a company is learning about the problem. Pricing and implementation research means it has decided the problem is worth solving and is working out how.
2. LinkedIn social listening: what they’re saying
Buyers describe their problems in public. A VP of operations posts about a rollout that stalled. A founder comments on a thread about hiring SDRs. We track what your ICP posts and engages with:
Posts and comments about the problem you solve
Engagement with competitor and category content
Engagement with your company’s and your leaders’ posts
Past champions who move to new companies
This category does the most for the message. Every reader of a cold email asks 2 questions before anything else: who is this, and does it apply to me? When outreach opens with something the buyer said, both answers arrive in the first line.
Past champions deserve their own attention. Someone who already chose you once, and just started at a new company, knows what you do and why it worked.
3. Standard signals: what changed at the company
Certain company events reliably open a buying window. We monitor the changes that put budget and urgency on the table:
Job postings for roles tied to your offer
New funding rounds
New executive hires in your buyer’s seat
Headcount growth and tech stack changes
A job posting for a role tied to your offer shows the company is paying to solve the problem, and it tells you which team owns it. A new executive in the seat you sell to tends to review vendors and processes early in the role. Funding puts money behind a growth plan that someone now has to deliver.
Most teams already know these signals exist. They do their best work stacked with the other 3, since a funding round by itself tells you a company has money and very little about what it plans to spend it on.
4. Custom signals: what only your market knows
Every market has triggers that no off-the-shelf tool watches. A company selling to contractors may care most about who just pulled a permit. A company selling to banks may care about a regulatory change that takes effect next year. We find what your best clients had in common before they bought, then track it:
Permits, licenses, and certifications
Regulatory filings and rule changes in your industry
Contract awards, RFPs, and vendor reviews
Specific language inside job descriptions
The work starts with your closed deals. We look at what each company was doing in the months before the first conversation, find what they share, and turn that into something we can monitor across your market. These signals are the hardest for a competitor to copy, because they come from your own customer history.
How the signals come together
Every signal gets scored against your ICP and stacked into 1 prioritized list. One signal is a reason to look at an account. Several signals in the same account are a reason to reach out this week. An account researching your category, hiring a new VP of sales, and posting about the problem moves to the top.
Scoring against your ICP also keeps the list honest in the other direction. A company showing heavy research activity that you can’t serve stays low on the list, so a rep doesn’t spend a week on it.
The signals shape the message
What the signals say then shapes the message your team sends. A message built on research intent can speak to the comparison the buyer is already making. A message built on a new hire can speak to the first months in the seat. Either way, the reader can tell why they got the email and whether it applies to them, and that is most of the effort a cold message asks of anyone.
This is why signal intelligence sits first in our system. What step 1 finds decides what step 2 says.
Questions we get
What is signal intelligence in B2B sales? Signal intelligence is the practice of tracking actions and changes that show a company is likely to buy soon, scoring them against your ideal customer profile, and using them to decide which accounts to contact and what to say.
How is intent data different from buying signals? Intent data is one kind of buying signal. It covers what a company is researching. Buying signals also include what people at the company say in public, what changed at the company, and triggers specific to your market.
Where should a team start? Start with your own closed deals. Write down what each company was doing in the months before your first call. The overlap is your first custom signal.
Tell us your signal
Know a signal that tells you an account is ready to buy? Tell us at magnifi2.com, and we’ll scope how to track it.
Magnifi². Client acquisition, compounded.
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