.png)
Business-relevant events pave the way to winning and converting high-quality customer contacts. Whoever overlooks them gives away enormous potential. We present the six most important sales triggers and show how to take your lead generation to a new level with them.
Every lead counts
«Thanks, no need. We already have a supplier» is an answer that comes up all too often in everyday business. The reason for the frequent rejection lies in the special, close bond between buyer and seller in B2B. Business customers traditionally stay loyal to their suppliers for many years.
A potential customer is either already served by the competition or still untouched. The latter is clearly better for you.
To win the race for the most valuable B2B leads, you do not necessarily have to be the best. It often helps just to be first.
Wouldn't it be useful to recognise customers' needs early and serve them without delay? Certain business events, so-called sales triggers, make this possible. They provide the perfect setting for first customer contacts and rekindle existing leads that have gone cold.
What is a sales trigger?
A trigger is an incentive, a cause or an impulse. In B2B sales, the term describes all events that create a need. A gap opens, so to speak, that the company tries to fill with suitable suppliers.
Sales triggers arise from internal and external changes. These can be structural, personnel-related or regulatory.
Track these events proactively to generate profitable B2B leads and stay one step ahead of your competitors. Not least, company-specific detail makes it easier to convert the contacts.
These are the six most important events that open doors in lead generation:
- Management changes
- Company expansion
- Job postings and job changes
- New tools
- Changes in regulations and laws
- Interests
In practice, these have proven particularly relevant. They occur frequently, across industries and regardless of company size.
6 sales triggers and the opportunities they offer
Sales trigger 1: management changes
A newcomer at management level faces a close-knit team of long-standing employees. At the top of a new manager's to-do list there is therefore often one thing: introducing change and bringing a fresh breeze.
A change of personnel in management often brings structural changes too. Departments are merged, dissolved or enlarged with additional staff. The responsible contact changes, so a previously uninterested customer is suddenly open to talking.
With this sales trigger, personal information about the new contact is worth its weight in gold.
- Did the change happen in executive management, among the buyers, or in marketing or sales leadership?
- What is the candidate's professional background?
Answering these questions systematically helps you assess the scope of the strategic change at the potential customer.
Sales trigger 2: company expansion
There is one goal every company pursues: growth. The end point is the same, the routes to it differ. An expansion can, for example,
- take the form of a merger with another market player, the takeover of a competitor or the expansion of existing departments.
- The launch of new products or
- entry into a vertical market
are also signs of expansion.
The expansion trigger gives you many opportunities to win and convert the prospect with tailored outreach. In the growth phase, money tends to be looser, which increases the chances of a positive buying decision.
To generate qualified B2B leads from this event, look at the type of expansion. In some companies the need already exists during the expansion phase; in others it only arises once it is complete. Determine the best time to make contact in advance so your offer finds a receptive audience.
Sales trigger 3: job postings and job changes
The type and volume of a company's job postings are telling indicators of internal developments. Perhaps a new department with experienced specialists is being set up to conquer further market segments. Or a general restructuring of the company is coming.
As a sales trigger, the prospect's intensified recruiting tells you that internal changes are imminent. If your existing contacts change position, that is valuable information for you too. The same applies if they move to another company.
In both cases, avoid one of the biggest mistakes in B2B lead handling: dropping contacts that seem to have become useless.
Even if these people are no longer involved in the actual buying decision, they still act as advocates for you as a supplier. Never underestimate the reach of word of mouth in the corridor.
Sales trigger 4: new tools
As soon as one of your prospects is looking into a new tool or has already invested in one, get ready. When to start making contact depends on your product or service.
If your offer is the ideal solution to the existing problem, meet the prospect during the information-gathering phase. If you offer supporting software, the ideal time is directly after the potential customer has started using the main tool.
For this sales trigger, specialist forums are a reliable source of information for generating qualified B2B leads. The questions asked there tell you more about the background of the purchase. Tools such as BuiltWith, WhatRuns or Wappalyzer also help you find out which technologies a company already uses on its website.
Sales trigger 5: changes in laws, standards, rules and guidelines
Combing through endless legal texts and integrating them into internal processes? A task hardly anyone cheers about. Use that to approach potential customers with the right solution at the right moment.
Most recently, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) showed how strong the effect of this sales trigger is.
New regulations are the ideal moment to generate profitable B2B leads. Make sure your expertise is up to date and your offer can be adapted flexibly to future changes.
On the legal side, trust is the key to success. Demonstrate your expertise by presenting carefully compiled marketing material on the topic to your prospect or by placing relevant testimonials on your website.
Sales trigger 6: interests
The digital age, in the form of social media, gives you deep insight into your leads' wishes and requirements. Use this knowledge to position yourself as a supplier.
To identify this sales trigger, watch which services and products your prospects discuss in social networks or specialist forums.
Displeasure, praise, questions: every kind of information helps you refine your lead generation strategy.
Identifying and evaluating signals
Besides generating leads, converting them is what matters most for profitable B2B sales. The task is to recognise sales triggers early and interpret them accurately. Possible sources of information include
- social media,
- newsletters,
- trade journals,
- press releases
- and industry-specific platforms.
Ideally, all these snippets of knowledge come together in one central system, so that a complete, in-depth and meaningful picture of every lead is available at any time, continuously updated. How to build such a system for lead research is covered in a separate article.
Conclusion: sales triggers help you never miss a hot lead again
Sales triggers signal that a prospect has recently developed a new need or will do so in the foreseeable future. Use as wide a range of information sources as possible to recognise the six most important business events before your competitors. That lets you make qualified leads the right offer at the right time, a first important step towards an organically growing, profitable and loyal customer base. How to approach these leads in writing is shown in our strategies for the first outreach email.
