Welcome! BowTiedSystems is here to talk to you about Trigger Events in sales and how can they help you improve your performance. Remember, every sale is essentially a “Change”.. the prospect buys a solution to change from their current state to a future better state (an ideal outcome of using your solution). Trigger events (or event-based triggers) are often the cause of the prospect seeking this Change.
What are event-based triggers?
An event-based trigger is an event that occurs that indicates changes inside a company that would make them more or less willing to buy your solution.
By NOT using triggers you’re leaving easy deals on the table and not maximizing your time as a sales rep. Trigger events are the most efficient way to find hot leads with minimal effort.
Master list of event-based triggers
Positive event-based triggers
Financial triggers
A New Round of Funding
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
Positive 10k-reports
Technology triggers
Adopted A New Technology recently
Use A High Ticket Enterprise or Otherwise Expensive Technology
Use A Specific Technology
Using your competitor
Industry Triggers
New Industry Regulation
Events like going to a conference
Hiring or layoff triggers
New Decision Maker Hire
Hiring Plans
DM Open Position
Promotion
DM Lateral Move
DM Executive Move
Left Company
Working at XYZ past company that used your product
Starting / Hiring for a Specific Department
Laying off A Specific Department
Product Triggers
Product Launch
Product Development Announcement
Time-sensitive triggers
Facilities Expansion
Facilities Relocation
Visited your site
The competitor contract is up for renewal
Ongoing Projects
ZoomInfo Scoops (Internal Projects/Initiatives)
General Business trigger
Partnership
High Growth
Low Growth
Those are all positive event-based triggers.
Now in order for there to be positive triggers there must also be negative triggers.
Negative event-based triggers
Hiring or layoff triggers
Layoffs
New Decision-Maker hire
Left Company
Financial triggers
Haven’t closed funding in x months/years
Divestiture
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
Bad 10k-report
Technology triggers
Added your competitor's technology recently
Using your competitor
Dropped a technology that compliments yours
General business triggers
Low growth
Facilities Relocation
Closing Facilities/branches
Negative ZoomInfo Scoops (completed projects/initiatives)
There are also Neutral trigger events. Neutral trigger events are triggers that can help you craft more relevant / compelling messaging in your outreach.
Neutral event-based triggers
Awards
Worked at XYZ past company
Went to XYZ collage
Was on XYZ podcast
Linkedin posts
Articles they wrote or were featured on
Essentially anything you can find online about the decision maker, company, or prospect that gives you context/info about who you’re reaching out to.
What does each trigger mean?
Important note: Just because it’s a negative trigger doesn’t mean it’s not useful. On the contrary, sometimes negative triggers can be incredibly useful. Positive and negative triggers can have some overlap too.
Breakdown
What makes a trigger positive?
A positive trigger means the company/prospect is more likely to buy/use your product.
Financial triggers
A New Round of Funding
When a company gets a new round of funding it means they have an influx of new cash they MUST spend to grow. No company gets funding to shrink. Not only that, but they HAVE to grow to get a return for their investors. This is an amazing trigger that’s tried and true. They have money and need to put it to work.
Always reach out to these companies and have your notifications set so you get alerted the instant a company gets an injection of capital.
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
A company IPO’ing is similar to a funding round in the sense that they have an influx of cash. And they are bound by law to do their best to provide the shareholders with a return. These are great companies to reach out to.
Positive 10k-reports
This applies to public companies that have already IPO’d. 10k-reports are “The State of The Union Address” for businesses.
They outline what their year looked like, what their future plans for growth are, and the current problems they’re struggling with as well as their earnings. It’s essentially a comprehensive report to understand what a company is going through.
It’s a highly valuable resource for breaking into enterprise/public companies.
If it reads positive it indicates they have money to expand and are looking to spend it.
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) can also be a positive trigger for a company. When a company merges with or acquires another company, it often means they are expanding their reach and capabilities. This expansion can lead to new opportunities for growth and increased revenue. As a result, it can be a good time to reach out to these companies as they may be more open to new partnerships and collaborations.
Technology triggers
Adopted A New Technology recently
If they’ve adopted a new technology it can indicate several things:
They’re willing to spend money on new solutions
They’re willing to make changes in their organization
If it is recent it can indicate they’re *most likely* in the process of digitally transforming their business
Use A High Ticket Enterprise or Otherwise Expensive Technology
This doesn’t mean it’s recent.. it just means they use expensive software. If they’re using an expensive high-ticket technology it indicates several important things:
They’re willing to spend money on expensive software AND have the budget to do so. So if you sell expensive or enterprise software this is a great indicator they’re willing to spend money. - This doesn’t mean they have the budget for your specific software/service. It just means they can find the money it if the need is there.
If it’s enterprise or a long sales cycle software that they’ve bought, it means they take their time evaluating software before they purchase. This helps you set the right expectations from the beginning.
If they’ve done this recently then it indicates they’re *most likely* in the process of digitally transforming their business
Use A Specific Technology
This trigger applies to sales reps selling software that compliments another software. Like a Salesforce application or AWS server application.
But it could also mean they use a technology that you integrate with.
For example: Say you sell software like Zoominfo. Zoominfo has Salesforce and Hubspot CRM integrations.
So when you’re building lead lists you’d want to exclude companies that aren’t using Salesforce or Hubspot so you only target companies that can really benefit from Zoominfo Vs selling to companies that don’t use either.
This way it won’t be as hard to close them since they won’t have objections about not being able to integrate with their CRM.
Using your competitor
This is a tricky one. So if they use your competitor that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. It could actually be a good thing if you’re better than the competitor.
You can also use this for the trigger event:
“Competitor contract is up for renewal” since you know when they started using your competitor then you can calculate when their contract is up for renewal based on the avg contract length.
You can also stack Zoominfo intent signals to see what they’re researching around the renewal time.
Industry Triggers
New Industry Regulation
This is a big one if you sell to a regulated industry like cyber security, health, banks etc.
For example: Cyber Security
If a new regulation comes out that companies must store their data in a specific way or face fines then that can be a big opportunity to help them since they need to comply with the regulations.
This trigger event is very useful outside the software space as well. If you sell services they could need to purchase your service to be compliant.
Events like going to a conference
This is useful if you have an in-person aspect to your sales cycle. You can research the event with a tool like Zoominfo “Events” to get a list of companies going to an event and then outline a plan of action for speaking with these people at the event OR using it in your outreach message even if you don’t go in person.
This also indicates what the company is currently focused on or will be in the near future. Say for example they go to a Sales intelligence conference. This could tell you they’re focused on improving their sales process or considering a new sales intelligence tool.
Hiring or layoff triggers
New Decision Maker Hire
When a company hires a new decision maker it means they have a new budget to spend. And they will likely spend it quick.
This is Industry agnostic. No matter the industry you sell to this is a powerful trigger event.
Hiring Plans
If a company announces hiring plans it means they’re looking to grow. And when companies grow, they have new problems of scale to solve. This is a great opportunity to present your product/service. Especially if your product fixes problems of scaling.
DM Open Position
This is an amazing trigger if your product is designed to help that specific role out and reduce their workload or replace them.
But you can also just keep an eye on that role so when it does get filled you’re the first to reach out to them.
DM Promotion
This means there’s a void left in the role they got promoted from. Set your notifications to alert you when the role is eventually filled and reach out ASAP.
DM Lateral Move
This is a good one to keep an eye on. This could mean the same thing as a new hire in the sense they have a new budget to spend.
DM Executive Move
This means your DM left the company. Now if you sold to them in the past or the company used your product/service, you’ll want to reach out to them in their new role ASAP since they’re already familiar with your product/service. This makes for an easier sale.
Left Company
This is similar to the open role trigger and DM executive move in terms of a positive trigger. This can also be a negative trigger.
Working at XYZ past company that used your product
This means they’re already familiar with your product/service. This makes it easier to close them at their new company.
Starting/Hiring A Specific Department
This is a “Hiring Plans” trigger that’s specific to the exact department your product/service works with/helps.
Laying off A Specific Department
In a positive context, this could mean they’re looking to cut costs and if you work with/help that specific department, then it’s a great time to reach out since they need your tool now more than ever. This is *highly* context dependent.
Product Triggers
Product Launch
If they launch a new product this could mean a variety of things. For example:
If you sell a tech product/service this is a good indicator that they might need additional support to maintain the product
This could mean a previously unqualified company is now qualified depending on what the new product does. Like a Brick and mortar company announcing they’re adding an online product. Well, now you can sell to them if you work with those types of products.
They could potentially be entering new markets.
Product Development Announcement
This is the same as above. But lets you plan your outreach according to the launch date. This also indicates what the company will be focused on in the current/near future.
Time-sensitive triggers
Facilities Expansion
If they expand facilities it means they’re growing. And growth is a major opportunity for selling. If they’re expanding a specific facility like a sales office for example this also lets you know what that short/long-term focus is for the company.
Facilities Relocation
Facilities Relocation can indicate a few things. They could be moving to a bigger facility to support growth, moving to a cheaper facility to cut costs or moving to a new region that your product/service is well suited for.
Visited your site
If they visited your site it means they are more familiar with your product/service and are interested in learning more. This is an amazing time to reach out to them and set up a meeting.
The competitor contract is up for renewal
The competitor contract is up for renewal can be a very powerful trigger. You can calculate when their contract is up for renewal based on the avg contract length and stack ZoomInfo intent signals to see what they’re researching around the renewal time. This is a great time to reach out and offer a better deal or show them how your product/service is superior to their current one.
Ongoing Projects
Ongoing Projects can help you understand what the company is currently focused on or will be in the near future. This can be useful in crafting your messaging to the company.
ZoomInfo Scoops (Internal Projects/Initiatives)
ZoomInfo Scoops (Internal Projects/Initiatives) can help you understand what the company is working on internally. This can be useful in crafting your messaging to the company.
General Business trigger
Partnership
Partnership trigger refers to a collaboration between two companies or organizations. This trigger can indicate that the company is expanding its offerings or looking for new solutions to add to their current offerings.
High-Growth
High-growth trigger means that the company is experiencing rapid growth in terms of revenue, customer base, or other metrics. This is a great opportunity to reach out and offer solutions that can support their growth.
Low-Growth
Low-growth trigger means that the company is experiencing slow or stagnant growth. This could be an opportunity to offer solutions that can help them overcome obstacles and jumpstart their growth.
Coming up in Part 2
In part 2, I’ll breakdown negative and neutral event-based triggers. These are just as useful for crafting your outreach strategy as it tells you who not to reach out to. Part 1 is enough to get you started.
Follow my SubstackBowTiedSystemsfor Part 2
And if you want to learn how to find all the triggers listed above inside Zoominfo check out my Ultimate Zoominfo Course here
It's over 2+ hours long & 30+ lessons