140: The Signals We Actually Use in Outbound

Welcome back to the Practical Prospecting Newsletter!

I’ve been hating on “signal-based outbound” recently (see here if you missed it).

So in today’s newsletter, I wanted to share the signals we actually use to get the best results.

By the end, you’ll see why real outbound relevance comes from building your own signals, not using the ones that everyone else does.

Agenda

• Why Commodity Signals Stopped Working

• What is a Custom Signal? (3 Examples)

• How to Think About Building Your Own Signals

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Why Commodity Signals Stopped Working

Everyone is talking about signal-based outbound right now. Just look at this post from HubSpot’s CEO.

Job changes. Hiring. Funding. Tech stack installs. Intent data.

And while those signals are not useless, they are no longer an advantage. Most teams are pulling from the same handful of data providers, using the same filters, and ending up with the same lists.

If your competitors can buy the exact same signal you are using, then you have no advantage.

What actually moves the needle is not “better data.” It is custom signals. Signals that are built around the specific problem you solve, tied to real-world events inside the prospect’s business.

In other words, legitimate reasons to reach out.

Custom signals answer the most important question in outbound: Why does reaching out make sense right now?

That distinction matters.

A job posting tells you a company is growing.
A funding round tells you they may have budget.
A tech install tells you what tools they use.

None of those explain why your email should land today.

When signals fail, it is usually because they sound good on a dashboard but do not reflect something the buyer actually cares about in their day-to-day work.

Here’s how we approach it…

What is a Custom Signal? (3 Examples)

A custom signal has two characteristics:

1. It ties directly to the problem your product solves.

2. It’s not a filter that everyone else has in their database.

The easiest way to think about this is:

What event would make a reasonable buyer say, “Yeah, that makes sense that they reached out”?

Below are three real examples from outbound programs we have run.

Example 1: Failed Inspections

One client sells software to fleet-based companies.

Most outbound in this space targets fleet size, vehicle count, or generic compliance keywords. That approach tells you who the buyer is, but not whether they are feeling pain.

Instead, we built a prompt that checked the FMCSA database (the federal registry for companies that operate commercial vehicles) to see whether a company had failed a recent inspection.

The output was simple: yes or no, plus the type of failure.

A failed inspection is not an abstract signal. It comes with fines, audits, internal pressure, and leadership attention. It is a moment when teams actively look for solutions.

The signal worked because it was verifiable and tied directly to consequences the buyer actually cared about.

Example 2: Recent Breaches

Another client sells cybersecurity services.

Most outbound in cybersecurity relies on generic fear messaging. Breach statistics. Industry-wide risk. Vague warnings about exposure. Buyers are numb to this.

So we built a workflow that monitored public breach disclosures and checked whether a company’s peers or direct competitors had been breached recently.

If a nearby company had an incident, the account was flagged.

A breach across the industry is background noise.

But a breach at a peer company triggers internal conversations and board questions.

Meaning the outreach didn’t try to “manufacture” urgency. It just surfaced a conversation that was likely already happening internally.

Example 3: Expansion Signals

Another client sells hardware to retailers.

We built a prompt that monitored press releases, filings, and local news for expansion announcements and remodeling plans.

As soon as expansion was announced, the account was flagged.

Expansion is one of the few moments when budgets are unlocked, systems are reconsidered, and vendors are evaluated before decisions are finalized.

But by the time expansion shows up in a traditional database, the window is usually closed.

How to Think About Building Your Own Signals

A simple framework we use internally looks like this:

Start by listing the reasons customers come to you.

Then ask yourself what was happening inside the organization that made them decide to reach out in the first place.

If you’re not sure, ask internally or talk to your customers directly.

Once you have a few hypotheses, ask the next question: where would evidence of this actually show up?

If you sell into regulated industries, there are often public databases you can access or scrape. In other cases, the signal might show up in company news, job postings, or regulatory filings.

Finally, build a prompt that can research these signals in bulk. We usually do this with OpenAI inside of Clay.

Once you start thinking this way, the question stops being, “What signal-based tools should I buy?”

It becomes, “What observable condition should I be monitoring for?”

Final takeaway

If your signals come from the same vendors as everyone else, you’ll always be at risk of your competition getting to the deal before you.

Custom signals create an edge because they are harder to copy, tied to real impact, and grounded in the buyer’s reality.

Thanks for reading,

Jed

P.S. If you’d like to see how we can help you with outbound, book time here.

P.P.S Join my exclusive community here where I share more behind-the-scenes insights on what’s actually working for us.