In this article
What is a buying signal?
We use the word for a public, dated event that gives a company a reason to need what you sell: a problem or a change it has made visible, a date that makes it current, and a link to your offer. A generic line about a company's size or industry is not a signal. A post that names a problem, a hiring push in a relevant function or a funding round is.
Keyword matching picks up sellers. Of the 1,565 posts that run dropped, 497 came from a seller offering the same work as the firm, about one in three. Their words match the offer exactly, because they sell what the firm sells. Reading that as demand is a mistake. The full count is in one real lead search.
What did the 70 kept signals look like?
All 70 kept leads were events. The figure shows the split. The most common keeper was several dated engineering roles from one company in a short window, none through recruiters. What goes out is the roles, their dates and links, and one honest question.
Direct requests are gold and rare, 6 of the 70.
Where did they come from?
The loudest source was the worst, with 861 judged posts and one keeper from the broad social feed. Professional network posts gave 276 judged, 17 kept and 14 ready to contact. The table has all five sources. A funding keeper is a raise announced in any source's post, sorted by its kind, which is why there is no funding row.
| Source | Judged | Kept | Ready to contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad social feed | 861 | 1 | 1 |
| Job listings | 425 | 28 | 4 |
| Professional network posts | 276 | 17 | 14 |
| Targeted web search | 67 | 23 | 1 |
| Tenders | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| All sources | 1,635 | 70 | 21 |
Overall, 70 of 1,635 judged posts were kept, about 4%, and 21 were ready to contact, about 1.3%.
Why does the date matter?
By the time a buyer talks to a seller, much of the decision is made. In a 2025 study of nearly 4,000 buyers, 6sense found that first contact came when the buyer was already 61% through the buying process. [1] That figure reaches us second-hand through a CustomerThink summary. And the decision involves many people: Forrester's 2026 survey of nearly 18,000 buyers reports 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants on an average purchase. [2]
A dated, public event gives you something specific to quote that fits where the buyer already is. Hiring is a useful example, with a limit. A Philadelphia Fed study of 5.2 million job ads from 1940 to 2000 found that ads with newer job titles reflect innovative technologies and production methods. [3] That supports reading hiring as a sign of what a firm is investing in. It does not show that a hiring burst means a purchase.
What we cannot claim yet
We cannot yet say that outreach built on a signal gets more replies than outreach without one. The leads in this run are new, and replies need real weeks. People had recorded only 5 keep-or-drop decisions on this run's grades, too few to mean anything. We will publish both when the counts can stand up. Earlier drafts of this post quoted a pass-rate gap and a cost that our records do not support, so we removed them.
Write the signal before you write the message
Before you write to anyone, write the signal in one sentence: what happened, when, and why it matters for what you sell. If you cannot, you have a target and no signal.
Check the date, and keep the proof: the post or page, with its link. After a campaign, look at which kinds of signal produced replies and which produced none.
Common questions
What is a buying signal?
A public, dated event that gives a company a reason to need what you sell: a problem or change it has made visible, a date that makes it current, and a link to your offer. A hiring burst, a funding round or a new sales leader can be one. A keyword that matches your offer is not.
What kinds of buying signal turned up in a real search?
In one run on 19 October 2026, the 70 leads kept were 27 hiring bursts, 23 new funding rounds, 9 new sales or growth leaders, 6 direct requests, 2 requests for proposals, 1 tender, 1 product launch and 1 job ad.
How many posts become leads?
In that run, 70 of 1,635 judged posts were kept, about 4%, and 21 were ready to contact, about 1.3%. Your rates will differ with your market and your bar.
Do job postings show that a company will buy?
Not on their own. A Philadelphia Fed study links new job titles to innovation [3], but we found no independent study showing that hiring predicts a purchase.
Does signal-based outreach get more replies?
We do not know yet. The leads in this run are new and we have no reply counts to publish. We will publish them when the counts can stand up.
Sources and further reading
- Research Round-Up: 6sense Study Provides Critical Insights on B2B Buyer BehaviorCustomerThinkBack to text
- The State of Business Buying: Risk-Averse Buyers Demand Proof, Not PromisesForresterBack to text
- Measuring Technology Adoption: What Can Job Ads Tell Us?Federal Reserve Bank of PhiladelphiaBack to text
