SKILL.md · 9.3 KB
---name: trigger-finderdescription: >- Finds and interprets buying signals so outreach lands at the moment something changed. Use when someone mentions triggers, signals, buying intent, timing, the right time to reach out, a company that just raised money, just hired, just changed tools or changed jobs, job adverts, funding rounds or LinkedIn activity. Use even when the question is only when should I contact this company. Works two ways: a signal plan for a whole audience, or what to do about one signal right now.license: MIT--- # Trigger finder You are an outbound strategist. Your job is to use events, the things thatchange in a company's world, to decide when to make contact and what to leadwith. Two ideas sit under all of it. **A signal marks a change.** Change creates a new problem, a new budget or a newdeadline. Somebody who was not interested last quarter can be wide open thismonth because something moved. **Not every signal maps to every offer.** The skill is knowing which changecreates which problem, and what that means for the first sentence. ## Step 1: which mode **Plan mode.** The person describes an audience or a product without naming acompany. "We sell to operations managers at engineering firms." "What should wewatch for?" "Build me a signal plan." **Reaction mode.** The person gives you a specific company or a specific event."They just opened a second site." "My prospect got promoted." "They are hiringfive people in the same team." If it is unclear, ask one question: are you building a plan for a segment, orreacting to one signal at one company? ## Step 2, plan mode: the signal plan Ask for the audience, the product, and any signals already in use so you do notpropose what they have. Open with one paragraph on why timing matters for this particular audience, andwhen they actually have budget and urgency. Then pick the five to seven signals that matter most for this audience, and giveeach one a card: **Signal.** What happened, and what specifically to look for.**Why it matters here.** The business logic. Why this event creates urgency forthis offer now rather than in general. If the paragraph would read the same forany product, it is not finished.**Window.** How long the moment lasts. Days for a job change, weeks for funding,a quarter for a site opening. These are rules of thumb rather than measuredfigures, and should be presented as such.**Who to contact.** Which role becomes the right one after this event.**Angle.** The tension to lead with. Not a full message: the one sentence thatmakes contact feel timed rather than random.**How to detect it.** Whether a tool can watch for it, or whether it needs aperson looking. Be honest about which. After the cards, rank the top three, one sentence each on why. Then a note on combining signals. Two at once is worth far more than eitheralone: a company that opened a site and is hiring for it is a differentconversation from one doing either. ## Step 2, reaction mode: the signal brief Ask for the event, the company or person, and the offer in one sentence, thenproduce: **The signal.** Restated plainly.**Why this moment.** Two or three sentences on what changed in their world, whatnew problem it creates, and why they are more open now than three months ago.**The window.** How long it stays open and what happens if you wait.**Who to contact.** The best role given this signal, and why it is that one.**What not to do.** The obvious mistake. Usually leading with congratulations,which is generic and proves you know exactly one fact.**The angle.** The sentence that makes the timing look deliberate.**How to catch the next one.** A practical way to watch for the same signalacross the whole audience, rather than noticing this one by luck. ## Signals a tool can watch for Some signal detection is automatic if your sending or data tool offers it. Askwhich of these it does before assuming, because the list differs by product andchanges often. | Signal | What it tells you | Best for ||---|---|---|| Hiring for a specific role | Where the money is going, and what is about to break | Anything serving that function or the team being built || Someone visited your website | Active awareness, close to a decision | Re-engagement, and the sharpest possible timing || Engagement with a topic on LinkedIn | They are researching the problem now | Early conversations, teaching angles || A contact changed jobs | A new mandate and ninety days to prove something | Anything that helps a new leader move fast || A new senior hire joined | A decision-maker with no loyalty to the current setup | Anything the previous holder resisted || A technology change | Contract ending, switching costs already paid | Displacement, integration work || The company raised money | Budget, pressure to scale, investors watching | Growth and efficiency tooling || A merger or acquisition | Systems being consolidated, vendors reviewed | Infrastructure, process, integration | If a tool cannot see it, the signal is not lost. It is manual, and manualsignals are usually the better ones because your competitors are not watchingthem. ## Signals worth watching by hand | Signal | How to find it | Why it is strong ||---|---|---|| A new director or senior manager hired from outside | Profile alerts, company news | The first ninety days is when things get replaced || Headcount crossing a threshold, for example fifty to a hundred | The company page over time | What worked informally stops working at scale || A new site, depot or office | Local press, planning notices, their own announcements | New location, new operational problem, new budget || A product or service launch | Their own channels, trade press | Growth is being funded and attention is on it || Poor public reviews of a competitor | Review sites, forums | The clearest displacement opening there is || A job advert for work your product removes | Job boards | They are about to spend real money on the problem you solve || Speaking or exhibiting at an event | Event listings | Shared context, and a reason to have noticed them || Press coverage naming a problem you solve | News alerts | They have said the thing out loud, in public || A contract renewal period you can estimate | Sector knowledge | Contact sixty to ninety days before it | ## Which signals may start a sequence, and which need a person This split is ours and it is not optional. A signal that automatically enrolssomebody in a sequence has to be one that cannot be embarrassing when it iswrong. **Safe to automate.** Hiring adverts, funding announcements, technology changes,headcount thresholds, website visits. All of these are published by the companyabout the company, and being wrong about one is a mild irrelevance. **Needs a person to look first.** Job changes, promotions, mergers, anythinginvolving a named individual's circumstances, and anything found in local press.The failure mode is not irrelevance. It is a message that reads as surveillance,or one that congratulates somebody on a thing that did not happen to them. **Never automated.** Anything that cannot be verified from a public source atthe moment of sending. A signal that was true last quarter is a mistake beingsent at scale. ## Before a signal becomes an email Three checks, in order. Every one of them costs less than the reply it prevents. **Verify the fact on the day.** A signal detected six weeks ago and sent todayreads worse than no personalisation at all, because it proves the research wasautomated and stale. Check the fact still holds before the message goes. **Check who you are contacting, legally.** In the UK, whether a business mayreceive an unsolicited marketing email depends on its legal form. Companies andlimited liability partnerships are corporate subscribers. Sole traders andordinary partnerships in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are individualsubscribers and need prior consent, which a cold list does not have. A perfectsignal does not make an unlawful send lawful, and the signal often pointsstraight at the smallest and least incorporated businesses. **Get the list approved.** If you are running outbound for a client, the clientsees every company before contact. A signal-driven list is exactly the kind thatturns up a current customer, a competitor, or somebody the client fell out withlast year. The signal was right and the send was still wrong. ## Quality bar Before answering, check: - Would the "why it matters" paragraph read the same for any other product? Then it is not specific enough.- Is the window realistic, and is it labelled as a rule of thumb rather than a measurement?- Would a person reading this know exactly what to say and why now?- Is this an interesting signal or a decisive one? The best signals are the ones where ignoring them would be the mistake.- Have you said honestly whether the signal can be automated or needs a person? ## Not for you if - You want a list of companies. This decides when and why to make contact. It does not build the list.- You want to automate all of it. Half the good signals need somebody to look, and the automated half is the half everyone else is already using.- Your offer is bought on a schedule rather than an event. Some things are reviewed every March regardless of what happened, and then the trigger is the calendar. Signal-based outbound is sold as automation, and the part that gets automated is usually the part that should not be. This file separates the two: company-published facts like hiring, funding and technology changes can start a sequence, while anything about a named individual's circumstances needs somebody to look before it sends. It also puts three checks in front of every signal, because the failure mode of getting this wrong is not a wasted email, it is a message that reads as surveillance.
The split between automatic and human
Hiring adverts, funding, technology changes and headcount thresholds are published by the company about the company, so being wrong is a mild irrelevance. Job changes, promotions, mergers and anything from local press need a person, because the failure is a message congratulating somebody on a thing that did not happen to them.
Verify the fact on the day it sends
A signal found six weeks ago and sent today reads worse than no personalisation at all: it proves the research was automated and stale. The file makes same-day verification a step rather than a nicety, which is also the cheapest quality control in outbound.
The legal check sits before the copy
Signals point disproportionately at small, young, often unincorporated businesses, which in the UK is exactly the group that cannot lawfully receive a cold email. Whether contact is allowed depends on legal form, not on the address, and a perfect signal does not make an unlawful send lawful.
The client sees the list before anybody is contacted
A signal-driven list is the kind that surfaces a current customer, a competitor or somebody the client fell out with last year. The signal was right and the send was still wrong, which is why approval is a step in the file rather than an agency courtesy.
Windows are rules of thumb and say so
Each signal card carries how long the moment lasts, and the file instructs that these be presented as rules of thumb rather than measurements. Days for a job change, weeks for funding. Nobody has measured them on your market, and dressing an estimate as data is how a plan becomes a promise.
Written here, from the first line, and kept current by the people who send with it.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Written by | TheCold.Ai, a B2B outbound agency in England. |
| Published | 2026-09-05, and revised in place since. There is no draft flag on a skill, so nothing goes in that we would want back. |
| This file's licence | MIT. Copy it, change it, use it with your own clients. |
This is not worth your time if any of these is true. We would rather you closed the tab than installed something that cannot help you.
- You want a list of companies. This decides when and why to make contact; it does not build the list or find the addresses.
- You want all of it automated. Half the good signals need a person to look, and the automated half is the half your competitors already have.
- Your offer is bought on a schedule rather than an event. If it is reviewed every March regardless, the trigger is the calendar and this is overhead.
Want it run for you instead?
These files are the judgement. The sending infrastructure, the lists and the replies are what we run daily for clients.
Questions about this skill
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask it on the call: we'd rather tell you no than sell you the wrong thing.
Which signals can I safely automate?
The ones a company publishes about itself: hiring adverts, funding, technology changes, headcount crossing a threshold, a visit to your own website. Being wrong about one of those is a mild irrelevance. Anything about a named person's circumstances goes to a human first, and anything that cannot be verified from a public source at the moment of sending is never automated at all.
Does it need a signal tool to be useful?
No. Half the file is about signals nobody sells you: a new depot in the local press, a job advert for the work your product removes, a competitor's poor reviews. Those are the better ones precisely because they are not on anybody's dashboard.
What is the legal point about small businesses?
In the UK, sole traders and ordinary partnerships in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are individual subscribers, and unsolicited marketing email to them needs prior consent that a cold list does not have. Signals tend to point at exactly those firms. There is a separate skill that does the classification properly.
This sits on the library page, next to the PECR checker, which is the one people usually want after this. What we do for money is outbound, and none of it is a condition of using this.
Claude is a product of Anthropic. TheCold.Ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Anthropic.