In the last couple of weeks, we talked A LOT about selling in The Council. Beyond our guest sessions, we spoke of what gets our prospects to buy. So, naturally, we got to talking about triggers.

Buying triggers always fascinated me because, while it’s easy to know the what, knowing the when gets very tricky.

A while ago, I said that trust explains attention. It gets you read, remembered, and considered.

But it doesn’t explain timing.

Two people can trust you equally. One buys today, the other lurks for 11 months and then shows up in your inbox with “I’ve been following you for a while.”

Same trust. Different moment.

We’ll talk about timing in a moment, after a message from today’s partner. The assessment below will tell you if you’re ready to consider triggers and their timing, OR if you still need to work on how you are perceived i.e. if your audience sees you as an authority.

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What actually makes people buy

Ideally, everyone buys when you present them with a great offer. This is why we all spend so much time tweaking landing pages, messaging, positioning, and more.

However, we cannot control what people need and WHEN they need it. That’s the internal vs external urgency problem and no amount of award-winning copywriting will get people to buy when we want them to IF the need is not there. (In most cases, not always.)

In decision science, purchases tend to happen when a trigger collides with an existing need.

Something changes in the buyer’s world, which means that the cost of staying the same spikes. The solution suddenly becomes relevant now, not someday.

Take copywriting, for instance. You may know that your website needs better landing and sales pages — if you know it, you’ve probably known it for a while.

But that need didn’t become pressing until you had an important launch coming up or until a prospect told you the sales page didn’t convince them. That’s when an ache you learned to live with becomes a throbbing pain.

There’s a body of research around this, which, interestingly, points to the fact that, along with a change in context, buyers’ cognitive biases and traits weigh a lot.

For instance, someone with a scarcity mindset is more prone to buying something that’s limited edition. Similarly, someone with a strong need to fit in is more likely to buy something recommended by influencers.

You may very well know all this, but how the heck do you identify the trigger when it happens?

People don’t go around posting that they need validation on social media. Or that they are going through profound personal changes.

Why buying triggers are usually hidden from sellers

You rarely see it happen in real time. And even if you could, acting on it can feel invasive. We were just talking about this with the coaches in The Council: even if someone complains about something in a raw, emotional social media post, you can’t DM them with “I see you’re overwhelmed and questioning your life choices. Want help?”

So the game isn’t “detect every emotional shift.” That’s unrealistic and very creepy.

The game is spotting observable proxies for those shifts:

Signals that something changed
Signals that someone entered a new phase
Signals that tend to correlate with a need for what you do.

The trigger-identifying tactic that blew my mind

One of the Council members, Renita Kalhorn (I highly recommend you subscribe to her newsletter, BTW!) is an EQ coach for deep tech founders. Like most coaches in the group, she can’t call out behaviors.

But she can look for proxies that point out the people who might need her help. She recently shared with our group that her best-performing tactic is both simple and free.

She set up Google Alerts for funding announcements. When a startup raises capital, she reaches out to congratulate the founder.

This is genius because the moment a startup gets funding is loaded:

New expectations from investors
Pressure to grow
Hiring decisions

For Renita, this approach sometimes turns into a client. Sometimes it turns into a strong connection. Either way, it’s a win.

This simple action helps her show up at the moment that matters, precisely when the trigger happened.

Your turn: can you use Google Alerts to identify a proxy behavior for when someone might need your help? Take a moment and think about it.

Other ways to identify triggers

If you work with startup founders, the Google alert tactic is genius. If you don’t, let’s look at other types of triggers.

1. Hiring patterns as a proxy for internal chaos

When a company suddenly starts hiring for roles adjacent to your expertise, something is shifting internally.

A few examples:

A founder starts hiring their first marketer
A SaaS company hires a Head of RevOps
A creator looks for a community manager

Each of these signals a gap and gaps come with urgency.

You can track this through job boards, LinkedIn job posts, or tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Reach out with context:

“I saw you’re hiring your first X. That transition tends to come with [specific challenge]. Happy to share what I’ve seen work if it helps.”

Your goal here is NOT to pitch in the first message. It’s just to enter a conversation at the exact moment the problem becomes real.

2. Product launches as stress multipliers

Whenever someone launches something new, their system gets tested: funnels break; messaging cracks; conversion rates reveal uncomfortable truths.

You can track launches through:

Email lists/newsletters (yes, actually read them)
Product Hunt
Twitter/LinkedIn announcements

Reach out after the launch because that’s when the data is in and the emotions are fresh.

“Congrats on the launch. Curious how it performed compared to expectations?” That question alone opens doors.

3. Tech stack changes as signals of dissatisfaction

People switch tools when something isn’t working.

If someone moves from Mailchimp to Kit (aff), or from Notion to something more structured, there’s friction behind that decision.

You can spot this through:

Public conversations (“we just migrated to…”)
Case studies
Integration announcements

Think about it this way: they’re already in motion, so your offer has context IF your work is somehow adjacent to the tool they just switched to.

4. Lifecycle events (that no one talks about enough)

These are everywhere, and they’re underused.

Promotions
Role changes
Company pivots
Partnerships
Geographic moves

Each comes with new constraints and new expectations.

If someone just stepped into a bigger role, their tolerance for inefficiency drops fast. That’s your opening. Better yet, it’s something that works both in B2B and in B2C.

Again, just don’t be creepy. Do NOT message someone with “I just saw you got promoted. If you feel like you’re about to crumble under the pressure, I can help.”

5. Regulation and market changes

When a new regulation hits an industry, entire segments scramble. GDPR did this a few years ago. Now, it’s AI regulations’ turn to upend entire industries.

If your work touches compliance, data, marketing, or operations, these shifts create massive buying triggers.

What do you do when you can’t see the buying trigger?

You won’t catch all of them. No one does. Which brings us to the part most people skip.

In the absence of a visible trigger, your job is to stay relevant across the entire buyer journey.

Top-of-mind wins when the trigger eventually hits.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with people who bought something from me months or even years after they first subscribed to my newsletter.

That’s how much it took for their trigger to happen and for the need to become pressing. The fact that I showed up in their inbox every week kept me top of mind.

Ask your clients

You don’t have to guess the buying triggers that send people your way. You can simply ask for them.

One important note, though: timing matters A LOT here. Ask as close to the purchase moment as possible: “What made you decide to buy now?”

Not last year and not in a testimonial three months later. Right after the decision.

You’ll hear things like:

“I felt overwhelmed and needed clarity”.
“We just hired our first X and didn’t know what we were doing”.
“Our last launch didn’t go as planned”.

These are gold because they’re specific, emotional, and real.

Now you can reflect them back into your content.

If multiple clients mention overwhelm, “Feel overwhelmed?” stops being a generic hook and becomes a mirror.

Your move

That’s the TL;DR of identifying buying triggers: paying attention. That means that, especially during 1:1 conversations, you need to spend more time listening and less time speaking.

The signals are there. You just need to listen for them (directly or through tools like Google Alerts) and act upon them.

My advice is to start small: pick 2–3 trigger types that are relevant to your audience and set up a way to monitor them.

Reach out with context. Then build content that reflects what you learn.

Yes, this is slower than blasting offers into the void. It’s also far more aligned with how people actually buy.

P.S.: I’m trying something new, something bolder with YouTube. In case you missed it, here’s my latest video — it’s on how B2B influencers duped us. It would mean the world to me if you subscribed and told me what you think of it. TIA!