Manual prospecting died looking for your customers
The 7 signals that a company is about to buy, the prompt that watches them for you every morning, and how to get in when they fire. A complete system, not theory.
Signal 01 · The website visit
Most people use AI to write their posts and still look for customers by hand. 7 signals that tell you which company is about to buy, the full prompt that checks them for you every morning, and how to get in when they fire.
A company lands on your website, looks at what you sell and leaves without a word. That's not traffic. That's a signal.
Nobody visits a vendor's website for fun. If someone is looking at your catalog, your case studies or your contact page, they're evaluating. Compared to a cold list, that company has already raised its hand, it just didn't tell you.
You catch it with a website visitor identification tool, which matches the visitor's IP to their company. It won't give you a name or an email: it gives you the company and which pages they viewed. That's enough to write with context.
- No:
By hand You check Analytics on Friday, see more visits and have no idea who they are. By Monday it doesn't matter anymore.
- Sí:
The first 24 hours You check which pages they viewed, find who runs that area on LinkedIn, and write to them about that problem.
The 7 signals and what to do with each one
| The signal | Where you see it | What to write when it happens |
|---|---|---|
| 01 · They visit your website | Visitor identification tool. Gives you the company and the pages they viewed. | The problem that page solves, framed for their industry. |
| 02 · Industry news | Trade press, industry association newsletters, keyword alerts. | What that news changes in their day-to-day, and what you usually see others do about it. |
| 03 · They expand or invest | Press release, company registry filings, the company's LinkedIn. | What usually breaks in their specific area when you grow all at once. |
| 04 · They win an award | Their LinkedIn, their website, local press. | Congratulate them without asking for anything, and come back ten days later with something useful. |
| 05 · Your contact changes jobs | LinkedIn. It only notifies you if you follow them. | The one who leaves, at their new company. The one who arrives, about what they inherited. |
| 06 · They engage with you | LinkedIn notifications. Comments first, then likes. | Continue that conversation, don't open a new sales one. |
| 07 · They're going to a trade show | Exhibitor list, published weeks in advance. | Before the show, not after. Everyone writes after. |
01 · They visit your website
- Where you see it
- Visitor identification tool. Gives you the company and the pages they viewed.
- What to write when it happens
- The problem that page solves, framed for their industry.
02 · Industry news
- Where you see it
- Trade press, industry association newsletters, keyword alerts.
- What to write when it happens
- What that news changes in their day-to-day, and what you usually see others do about it.
03 · They expand or invest
- Where you see it
- Press release, company registry filings, the company's LinkedIn.
- What to write when it happens
- What usually breaks in their specific area when you grow all at once.
04 · They win an award
- Where you see it
- Their LinkedIn, their website, local press.
- What to write when it happens
- Congratulate them without asking for anything, and come back ten days later with something useful.
05 · Your contact changes jobs
- Where you see it
- LinkedIn. It only notifies you if you follow them.
- What to write when it happens
- The one who leaves, at their new company. The one who arrives, about what they inherited.
06 · They engage with you
- Where you see it
- LinkedIn notifications. Comments first, then likes.
- What to write when it happens
- Continue that conversation, don't open a new sales one.
07 · They're going to a trade show
- Where you see it
- Exhibitor list, published weeks in advance.
- What to write when it happens
- Before the show, not after. Everyone writes after.
01 · The 7 signals that a company is about to buy
A signal is an observable event that changes the odds that someone replies to you today. It's not segmentation data. Industry and size tell you whether a company could buy from you someday. The signal tells you something moved this week.
- 01
They visit your website and look at what you sell
Nobody visits a vendor's website for fun. If someone browses your catalog or your contact page, they're evaluating. It's the only signal that happens on your own turf, which is exactly why it's the easiest to lose: if you don't capture it, it doesn't exist. By hand: checking Analytics doesn't work, because it gives you pages, not companies.
- 02
Industry news hits that changes their numbers
A new regulation, a jump in material costs, a big customer of theirs shutting down. Anything that shakes the ground under them opens a window where they're willing to hear alternatives they've been putting off for two years. By hand: half an hour of trade press a day, which almost nobody keeps up.
- 03
They expand a plant or land an investment
Growth breaks things. The process that held up at half the volume stops holding up, and there's freshly approved budget to fix it. It's the signal with the longest window of the 7, because construction takes time. By hand: going through press releases and registry filings company by company.
- 04
They win an award and announce it
The most underrated and the cheapest to use. An award is the one moment a company wants people to talk to them about themselves. It's not the time to sell, it's the time to get on their radar and come back once the noise dies down. By hand: finding out in time, which is exactly what doesn't happen.
- 05
Your contact changes jobs
This signal counts double and almost nobody uses it fully. The one who leaves lands at a new company where they have to show good judgment fast, and they already know you. The one who arrives inherits decisions they didn't make and is reviewing all of them. By hand: you only find out if you follow that person and see the notification that day.
- 06
They engage with something of yours on LinkedIn
A comment carries far more weight than a like, because it takes more effort and it's public. They've given you permission to write to them without being a stranger. The window is short: a few days later they won't remember what they commented. By hand: it gets lost as soon as you have more than two live posts at once.
- 07
They're going to a trade show you're also attending
The exhibitor list goes out weeks in advance, and there you have a whole bunch of companies that have publicly said where they'll be and on what day. The play is to write before, while their calendar still has gaps. By hand: it gets done the week of the show, when there's no calendar left.
02 · The prompt that watches them for you
Here's the full prompt. Paste it into Claude or ChatGPT with web search turned on. Swap out what's in brackets and it works. It returns a short list of companies with the signal they triggered and a draft first line for each one.
The 2 signals missing from the prompt are the ones that don't live outside: your visitor identification tool gives you the website visits, and your own notifications give you the LinkedIn engagement. You check those two yourself, and it takes less than five minutes.
Context I sell [what you sell] to [who you sell it to]. My territory is [geographic area]. These are my target companies: [paste 20 to 60 names here]. Task Check what has happened with these companies in the last 7 days and tell me which ones have triggered any of these signals: 1. Industry news that directly affects them 2. Plant expansion, new construction or announced investment 3. Published award, certification or recognition 4. Job change in management, purchasing, production or quality 5. Confirmed presence at a trade show in the next 2 months Output format A table with these columns and nothing else: Company | Signal | Date | Source (link) | Suggested first line Rules - Only facts with a linkable source and a date. If you can't find one, leave it out. - 10 companies max. Sort by how recent the signal is. - The suggested first line should be in plain, conversational English, no adjectives, and without mentioning that you saw the news. 2 lines max. - If there's nothing in a given week, say so. Don't pad.
What you need to give itWithout the company list, the prompt gives you back generic noise.
The only thing you need to prepare is that list of 20 to 60 names, and you only prepare it once. It comes from your current customers, the ones you lost last year and the exhibitor list from the last trade show you went to. Run it Monday mornings, before you open your email.
03 · How to reach the decision-maker, not the info@ inbox
A signal without a recipient is useless. The title that decides changes with company size, and getting it wrong is what keeps a good message from ever being read.
Under 50 people
The general manager or a partner decides. There's no filter in between, and the answer comes the same day or not at all.
50 to 250
The department head decides and management signs off. Write to the department, never above it, or they'll send you back down.
Over 250
Purchasing shows up and the process gets longer. The department head is still your way in, but someone else signs.
To verify the contact before writing, three checks that take a minute:
Their LinkedIn has activity from this year, the title matches the signal (don't write to quality about a plant expansion), and the company hasn't changed its name or owners.
04 · The message with context that people actually answer
The difference isn't the copy. It's that one interrupts a stranger and the other steps into a conversation that had already started without you. The signal is what gives you that conversation.
The structure, in 4 lines
Hi, we're [company], leaders in [industry]. We work with more than X customers. Do you have 15 minutes this week?
Saw the news about the new plant in Amorebieta. When you double capacity, what usually gets stuck is incoming material. Is that already happening for you, or not yet?
What makes it work
- Line 1
The fact
Something public and verifiable that happened to them. Not an assumption about their business.
- Line 2
The consequence
What usually breaks when that happens. This is where you show you know the problem, not the product.
- Line 3
The question
Closed, easy to answer in one word: "Is that already happening for you, or not yet?" and not "do you have 15 minutes?".
What doesn't belong
Your catalog, your number of customers, the word solution, and any sentence that starts with "at [company] we've been".
One message per signal.
If you send the same one for all 7 types of signal, you're back to a template.
05 · How to get it all set up in one afternoon
None of the above is worth anything if it depends on you remembering. This is what you set up once and what you do every week.
The setup afternoon
- One hour
The list of 20 to 60 target companies
Pulled from current customers, lost opportunities and exhibitors at your last trade show.
- Half an hour
Install the visitor identification tool on your website and check that it's tracking
Whoever runs your website does it.
- Half an hour
Follow the contacts at those companies on LinkedIn
So job changes come to you on their own.
- Ten minutes
Save the prompt and block a recurring slot on your calendar
The Monday half hour
You run the prompt and the table comes out. You check the week's website visits and your LinkedIn notifications. You're left with a handful of companies where something actually happened. You write to those and close your laptop.
If nothing comes up on a Monday, that's fine.
Writing without a signal is going back to square one.
06 · All together, on one case
Fictional example, with the 5 steps chained together just as they play out in a normal week.
The prompt returns six companies. One, a component manufacturer in Amorebieta, announced a facility expansion on Thursday with a start date.
Public fact, with a source and a date. The window is long because the construction takes months to finish.
The company has about 120 people. On LinkedIn there's a production manager with recent activity and three years in the role.
50 to 250: the department decides and management signs off. The title matches the signal, which is about capacity, not quality.
Saw the news about the new facility. When capacity expands, the first thing that usually gets stuck is incoming material. Are you seeing that already, or hasn't it hit yet?
Fact, consequence and a closed question. No catalog, no pitch. It can be answered in two words.
They reply not yet, but it will be in September. A call goes on the calendar for the first week of September.
No sale yet, but a slot on the calendar. That's the most a signal can give you, and it's enough.
All of this works. The problem is you have to do it every Monday.
The prompt tells you something moved, but it doesn't know your criteria: it doesn't know why a 120-person company in Amorebieta fits you and a 400-person one in Valencia doesn't, or who decides inside. That's what Neety does: it puts in front of you the companies that truly fit what you sell and who calls the shots at each one. Your sales rep validates and the system learns.
Who wrote this
Iker Galarza · Founder · Neety · AI-powered B2B outboundThese 7 signals come from watching teams call in alphabetical order while the company that actually needed them was on their website.
If you're prospecting blind and want to get in at the right moment, let's talk. Follow Iker on LinkedIn
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