B2B buying signals: 6 company events that come right before a purchase
Most cold emails fail on timing, not on copy. The same message that gets ignored in March can book a meeting in June, because in June the company has a new VP, a fresh budget or a team that just doubled. Buying signals are the public events that tell you when that window opens.
Below are the six signals we see work most consistently for B2B sellers, where to find each one, how long it stays useful, and how to bring it up in an email.
1. Hiring for a role your product supports
A company posting jobs is spending money on a problem right now. The trick is to match the role to what you sell: SDR and account executive postings for sales tools and data, operations managers for ops software, a first security engineer for compliance products, customer success managers for support and retention tools.
Where to find it: LinkedIn Jobs, company career pages, and the public job boards behind them (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby).
Window: from the day the role is posted until a few weeks after the hire starts. New people want quick wins and are open to tools that help them get one.
How to mention it: “Saw you're hiring two SDRs. New reps ramp faster when they start with a list of accounts that are already in motion.” State the fact, connect it to one problem, stop.
2. A new funding round
Fresh capital comes with a plan to spend it: more hires, new markets, new tooling. The months right after a round are when companies are most willing to buy and least price sensitive.
Where to find it: funding announcements on company blogs and press releases, startup news sites and funding databases.
Window: roughly the first quarter after the announcement. After that, budgets get allocated and the company is busy executing.
How to mention it: congratulate in half a sentence, then move to the growth problem the money creates. Nobody needs a paragraph about their own Series A.
3. A new leader in the department you sell to
A new VP of Sales, Head of Marketing or COO usually reviews the existing stack in their first months and replaces what they don't like. They also bring tools they used at their last company, which is why a new leader can be a warm lead if you sold to their old team.
Where to find it: LinkedIn job-change updates, company announcements, press releases.
Window: the first 90 days are the most open. After that, decisions are made and new vendors face a harder sell.
4. Expansion: new locations, markets or product lines
Opening a third restaurant, entering a new country or launching a new product all create work that didn't exist last month. Multi-location operators need systems that scale; companies entering a new market need local partners, data and people.
Where to find it: local news, company press pages, job postings in new cities, LinkedIn announcements.
Window: from the announcement until shortly after launch. Reach out before the new location opens, not after the problems have already been solved some other way.
5. A switch or gap in their tools
Companies that just adopted a CRM, moved to a new e-commerce platform or started using a tool that integrates with yours are in setup mode. Companies whose job posts mention a competitor's product tell you exactly what they use today.
Where to find it: technology lookup tools, job descriptions (“experience with HubSpot required”), integration partner directories.
Window: a migration usually runs a few months. Complementary tools are easiest to sell during it.
6. Public engagement with your problem
Someone at the company comments on a post about the exact problem you solve, attends a webinar on it, or asks about it in a community. This is the weakest signal on its own because it shows interest, not budget, but it is strong when combined with any of the five above.
Signals work better together
One signal says a company might be ready. Two at the same time is a much stronger bet: a company that raised money and posted three SDR roles in the same month is almost certainly buying sales tools soon. When you score accounts, add points for each signal and extra points when it happened in the last few weeks.
How not to use them
- Don't stack every signal into one email. Pick the most relevant one.
- Don't pretend you noticed by accident. “That's how I found you” is honest and works better than vague flattery.
- Don't use personal information. Job posts, funding and company news are public business facts; someone's vacation photos are not.
- Don't wait. A signal from three months ago is a history lesson, not a reason to write today.
We publish a weekly report of US companies hiring sales roles, built from these exact signals. You can see the latest one on the blog.