How to find buying signals (without it becoming a part-time job)

Cold outreach has a timing problem. You can have the right company, the right job title and a decent email, and still hear nothing, because you wrote on a Tuesday when they needed you in March.

A buying signal is a public sign that a company's situation just changed in a way that might make your product relevant. It isn't proof they'll buy. It's a reason to write that isn't "I hope this finds you well".

What counts as a buying signal

Something changed, and you can point at it. If you can't link to it, it's a hunch.

Good signals are specific, dated and public. "They seem like a good fit" is not a signal. "They announced a funding round last week" is.

Six public signals worth watching

1. A funding announcement. New money usually means new plans. It's the easiest signal to find and the easiest to waste with a lazy opener.
2. A job ad. Hiring for the role you sell to, or the team you'd support, tells you what they're investing in.
3. A leadership change. A new head of sales, marketing or engineering often reviews the tools and the processes they inherit.
4. A filing. In the UK, Companies House shows new directors and share issues. In the US, SEC filings show certain raises. Few people read them, which is the point.
5. A product launch or expansion. A new market, a new product or a new office can create needs the old setup didn't have.
6. A public statement of the problem. A founder writing about the exact thing you fix. Rare, valuable, and easy to get creepy about.

Where to look

All of the above is public. You can check it yourself:

• The company's own newsroom and blog
• Funding and startup news sites
• Job boards and company careers pages
• Companies House (UK) and SEC filings (US)

The catch is the schedule. Checking every source every morning works for about a week, then something urgent turns up and the routine slips. Signals are perishable, so a routine that slips is the same as no routine.

Fit first, timing second

A great signal at the wrong company is still a wasted email. Write down your ideal customer profile (ICP) before you look for signals: who you sell to, how big they are, where they are, and who buys. Then only chase signals from companies that pass.

Short version: fit decides who, signals decide when.

Turn the signal into a "why now" line

The signal is the reason. The "why now" line is how you say it in one sentence:

[Company] announced [the thing] on [date]. That usually means [the problem it creates]. Is [that problem] on your list?

Three rules:

• Name the source. Date it and link it if you can. It proves you read something.
• Say what it means for them, not for you. "Congratulations" is a greeting. A question about their next problem is a conversation.
• Keep it to one signal. Stacking five facts reads like surveillance.

How much of this to automate

Finding and sorting signals is boring, repetitive and good for software. Writing the email is the part that has to sound like a person, because the reader will decide in half a second whether it does.

That's the split we built Outrun around: we do the boring research, you do the human bit. Every weekday at 7am you get a digest of leads, each a company plus the contacts we could find, with the reason to write and a link to the source behind it.

What to do this week

1. Write your ICP in three sentences.
2. Choose two signal types you can act on fast (we'd start with funding and job ads) and put a 15-minute slot in your calendar for them.
3. Write one why-now line per company, then one email. Don't send ten.
4. Note which signals get replies. Do more of those.

Or skip the morning routine and let a digest do the looking: start your 7-day free trial (card required).

• buying signals
• outbound