Why a hierarchy matters

B2B buying is messy and buyer-driven. Journeys aren’t straight lines, and they often involve six to ten people, each doing their own research. That makes the timing and relevance of your outreach more important than ever.

Most of your market isn’t buying today—about 95% of potential buyers are out of market at any given time. That means mass cold emailing usually falls flat. A signal-based approach helps you focus on the smaller group that is actually moving toward a decision.

The Signal Pyramid (overview)

Not all signals are equal. You can group them into three levels:

• Contextual signals (weak hints): Fit and background information that suggest a company could be a potential customer.
• Behavioral signals (medium strength): Recent actions that show active exploration.
• Transactional signals (strong/now): Clear signs that a company is close to buying.

Using this pyramid helps you prioritize accounts, tailor your messaging, and decide how quickly to respond.

Level 1: Contextual signals (weak hints)

These are broad indicators that a company might benefit from your solution.

Examples: industry and company size, funding news, leadership changes, or early research into your category.
Outreach goal: Build awareness and start a light conversation.
Approach: Share a pattern you’ve seen, a quick proof point, or a simple resource. Keep the cadence light and multithread across several people in the account.

Level 2: Behavioral signals (medium strength)

These signals come from specific recent actions that suggest interest.

Examples: multiple visits to your pricing page, downloading a checklist, returning within days to explore your docs, or comparing tools on a review site.
Outreach goal: Turn momentum into a concrete conversation.
Approach: Reference the behavior directly, provide a relevant asset, and suggest a short meeting. Move faster than with contextual signals, and consider combining email with a quick call.

Level 3: Transactional signals (strong/now)

These are the clearest signs of near-term buying intent.

Examples: repeated pricing checks, detailed comparisons of you vs. competitors, activated product trials, demo requests, or RFPs.
Outreach goal: Book the meeting quickly.
Approach: Reference what they’re evaluating, offer a direct booking link, and propose a couple of time slots. Move fast—research shows responding within an hour makes you many times more likely to qualify the lead than waiting a day.

Putting it to work

• Scoring: Assign more weight to stronger signals and decay points over time.
• Why-now library: Keep ready-made openers tied to common signals (pricing, comparisons, integrations).
• Activation: Stream signals into your sales tools and trigger alerts so your team can respond fast.
• Measurement: Track pipeline impact by signal tier, not just opens or replies.
• Guardrails: Avoid “personalization theater,” don’t overreact to weak hints, multithread the buying group, and watch deliverability.

Bottom line

The signal pyramid turns scattered data into a clear system: weak hints guide education, behavioral signals trigger outreach, and transactional signals tell you it’s time to book the meeting. In a buyer-driven world, this approach helps you stop guessing and start showing up when it actually matters.

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