Lead Generation
Sales
Marketing
Leveraging Trigger Events to Skyrocket Your Conversion Rates
Trigger events are the perfect opening for new sales conversations. We explain how to recognize and act on these timely cues.
Trigger events are the perfect opening for new sales conversations. We explain how to recognize and act on these timely cues.
Your prospects probably receive a lot of generic sales emails daily. Breaking through that noise with a cold template pitch is difficult, no matter how catchy your subject line is.
So, how can you spark interest and start meaningful conversations amidst inbox overload? The solution is leveraging timely trigger events. Trigger events give you a compelling reason to contact prospects by tapping into something they genuinely care about.
In this blog, we’ll discuss trigger events, why they matter, and some examples you can use to cut through the clutter and significantly boost outreach conversion rates.
A trigger event is a significant organizational or personal change that gives you a timely and relevant reason to reach out to a prospect. Trigger events tap into something your prospect genuinely cares about or needs to address due to changing circumstances.
Examples of potential trigger events include:
Trigger events are so effective because they provide an anchor for your outreach. You aren't just another sales rep in the inbox — you're giving value specific to what they're focused on right now.
Outreach tied to a trigger demonstrates you’re tuned into their needs and goals. The event gives you a credible, personalized reason to start a conversation and offer help. This results in much higher open and response rates compared to generic outreach.
Trigger events can fall into two main categories — organizational and personal. Let's explore what each type is and why it matters:
Organizational triggers revolve around significant events, milestones, or changes happening at the company level. Tracking these events shows that you closely follow their company news and developments.
You can use these events to make your messaging relevant to major initiatives they focus on. Doing so demonstrates you understand their organizational goals and can provide strategic value. Then, you can start timely conversations about partnerships, solutions, and support.
Examples of organizational triggers include:
Personal triggers tap into individual activity, accomplishments, and changes with a specific contact. Identifying these events lets you build authentic relationships by being thoughtful and recognizing your prospects’ wins.
You can reach out more naturally with emails personalized to each lead’s interests and goals. Plus, these events give you clues about the solutions they’re looking for right now.
Personal trigger event examples include:
While triggers provide timely, relevant conversation starters tailored to each prospect, it takes upfront work. You first need to track triggers and incorporate them into your messaging.
Let’s talk about how to use this strategy for your outreach:
First, you need to proactively monitor and uncover potential trigger events for your prospect accounts and individual contacts. It sounds like a lot of work, especially because so many situations can be trigger events.
However, you can stay updated about these events while cutting your research time by being strategic. Here are a few tips:
Google alerts are a simple way to monitor content and news on the web using keywords. You should set up alerts for
Then, Google will notify you whenever there’s news related to these keywords.
For example, setting an alert for "XYZ Corporation" will email you whenever they’re mentioned, letting you quickly identify triggers like the company announcing a new $10 million Series B funding round.
LinkedIn alerts allow you to get notifications whenever targeted prospects make updates or changes to their LinkedIn profiles.
It helps you identify personal trigger events like new jobs, promotions, published articles, and more.
For example, setting an alert for when a prospect changes jobs will notify you when they start a new role. You can then congratulate them and offer helpful resources for their new position.
Stay up to date on your industry by subscribing to relevant newsletters. These can reveal a treasure trove of organizational trigger events like new partnerships, product launches, fundraising, etc.
Then, leverage any announcements in your outreach, like complimenting a partnership or offering support around a new product.
Earnings calls are quarterly public phone meetings where companies share detailed financial performance results and discuss critical organizational initiatives.
While these calls are for investors, they’re easily accessible to everyone. You can dial into public earnings calls or view transcripts/recordings on company IR websites.
Listening to earnings calls for your dream accounts is a goldmine for identifying potential triggers. You'll hear key announcements around new products, restructuring plans, partnership strategies, leadership changes, and more.
Closely follow industry hashtags like #SaaS, #ecommerce, etc., and monitor prospect company handles for any announcements, news, or events you could leverage as a trigger.
Staying on top of trigger events takes research, but it pays off. Over time, you'll accumulate a list of timely reasons to contact someone.
With triggers identified, incorporate them into customized outreach templates and sequences. Here are some examples of critical trigger events and how to message prospects when they occur:
New funding announcements indicate a company has secured investment to accelerate growth. It's a great chance to connect because they’re more open to using some of that new cash for partnerships, services, and tools that can help them scale faster and more efficiently.
Trigger Event Type: Organizational
Possible approach: Congratulate them on the funding round and offer guidance on how to scale sustainably.
Example message: "Wanted to reach out and congratulate your team on closing your $15M Series B round! That's amazing progress. Let me know if you'd like to discuss how we've helped other funded startups optimize spending."
Mergers are an excellent opportunity to approach a prospect, especially if one of the companies is already your valued customer.
Trigger Event Type: Organizational
Possible approach: Reach out to contacts at both companies to offer support during the transition and see if the product usage will expand to the new merged entity.
Example message: "With ABC and XYZ merging into one organization, I wanted to touch base about the potential need to scale up your current licenses/usage of our platform across the larger entity. I'm here to help ensure a smooth transition on the software side."
Companies offering a new product need support as they enter this unexplored territory. It’s an opportunity to let them know how you can help.
Trigger Event Type: Organizational
Possible approach: Compliment the new product and offer support.
Example message: “Wanted to congratulate your team on launching [Product]! It looks beneficial for your customers. Let me know if you need help with the best market strategies."
Office expansions indicate business growth and new needs — a golden opportunity to upsell or introduce your supplies or services.
Trigger Event Type: Organizational
Possible approach: Offer resources and tips for a successful expansion.
Example message: "I saw you're expanding into a new Toronto location — congrats on the growth! Let's connect to discuss how we've helped other companies smoothly launch new offices."
A new executive means a fresh set of ideas. They might be looking for new tools and services to improve old processes. Take this opportunity to tell them how you can help them provide more value to the company.
Trigger Event Type: Organizational
Possible approach: Welcome the new executive and offer best practices.
Example message: "Wanted to welcome you as the new VP of Sales at Company ABC! I'd love to take 30 minutes to share strategies for ramping up the pipeline."
A loyal customer taking on a new role at a different company means changing their goals and needs. Use this moment to tell them how bringing your product/service along can help them prove their value.
Trigger Event Type: Personal
Possible approach: Congratulate them and offer resources to help in the new role.
Example message: "Congratulations on your new role as CMO at ABC Company! Since you successfully used our platform in your last position, I thought I'd share some of our best new resources for ramping up marketing campaigns.”
When a customer publishes a new article, whitepaper, presentation, etc, it shows they have deep knowledge or insights around a specific topic.
Starting a conversation about their expertise is an excellent opportunity to establish rapport and discuss how your product's capabilities match or could enhance their mastery.
Trigger Event Type: Personal
Possible approach: Share their content and start a discussion.
Example message: "Just came across your insightful presentation on digital transformation trends. Great analysis! I’m curious about your thoughts on how AI-driven tools could amplify a few of the opportunities you outlined, especially around personalization and optimizing the customer journey."
Did your prospect attend an industry event, conference, or tradeshow? It signals they’re actively investing time and budget to stay on top of the latest trends and innovations.
Following up post-event to continue the conversation is a prime chance to provide value.
Trigger Event Type: Personal
Possible approach: Follow up to connect event insights to your offerings.
Example message: "I hope you had a great time at last week's Retail Innovation Summit! Per our conversation on analytics, I wanted to share a few case studies showing the tangible impact our platform drove for other companies. Do you have time for a quick call tomorrow to discuss this?"
There’s no better time to connect than when your prospect thinks about you. Specifically, right after they download your gated assets, watch your webinars, interact on social channels, or consume other digital content you created.
Don’t miss this chance to ask them about their goals and needs.
Trigger Event Type: Personal
Possible approach: Contact them, referencing the content they accessed and asking thoughtful questions about what issues they’re trying to solve.
Example message: "I see you recently downloaded our guide to maximizing sales funnels. Let's discuss some of the frameworks and how you can apply them to your team."
People post their interests on social media. Follow your prospects and see what they're posting. If their interests match what you’re selling, take advantage.
Trigger Event Type: Personal
Possible approach: Comment or react to their post, then follow up to continue the dialogue through a more substantial channel like email. Offer your unique perspective tied to their specific interests or challenges mentioned.
Example message: "I enjoyed your LinkedIn post on using personalized video to boost customer retention. We've successfully partnered with several retailers to implement targeted video campaigns. Have time to discuss the video CMS platform we custom-built to scale this personalization?”
Leveraging timely trigger events can have a transformational impact on your outreach strategy and prospect conversations.
You demonstrate credibility, understanding, and strategic value by tapping into significant changes and developments prospects genuinely care about. Through event-based triggers, outreach becomes relevant and personalized instead of disruptive and transactional.
As you explore ways to uncover, track, and act on triggers for your ideal customers, conversion rates and pipeline will steadily improve.
The more you understand organizational priorities and personal goals, the more receptive audiences will be to engage in meaningful dialogues.