Sales triggers: 12 trigger events and the opener for each

Companies don’t buy at random. They buy because something has changed: they have raised money, acquired a competitor, opened a site, changed director. These changes are called trigger events, or sales triggers, and most of them are public.

The problem is that they are public for everyone. This article lists 12 trigger events that are useful in B2B prospecting, explains what sets them apart from weak signals, and shows how to write an opener that doesn’t look like the ten other messages received the same day.

What is a trigger event in sales prospecting?

A trigger event is a public, dated fact that changes a company’s situation enough to create new needs or put its current suppliers in question.

Three criteria help you recognise one:

1. It is public. It has been announced on LinkedIn, in the press, on the company’s website or in an official filing.
2. It is dated. You know when it happened, so you know whether your message arrives at the right time.
3. It has a buying consequence. It forces the company to buy, hire, change or reorganise something.

An event that doesn’t meet the third criterion is news, not a trigger. That is the most common trap: contacting a company because something happened, with no link to what you sell.

Trigger event or weak signal: what is the difference?

Both help you find the right moment, but they are not spotted or written about in the same way.

	Trigger event	Weak signal
Nature	A fact announced by the company	A trace left by a person
Examples	Funding round, acquisition, new site, appointment	A like on a post about your topic, a question in a comment, a founder mentioning an obstacle on a podcast
Visibility	High: your competitors see it too	Low: few players spot it
What it tells you	The situation is changing	This topic is on this person’s mind
In the message	Mention the fact, briefly	Talk about the topic, never the trace

The strongest option is often a combination of the two. A company opens a new site, and the following week its operations director comments on a post about how hard it is to hire technicians. The event says the need exists. The weak signal says who owns it, and from which angle to write to them.

Which 12 trigger events should you watch?

Here are the events that come up most often at B2B companies, with what they point to and who they are useful for. The examples are illustrative.

#	Event	What it points to	Useful for
1	Funding round	Hiring, structuring, new tools	Recruitment, insurance, agencies, office space
2	Acquisition or merger	Aligning tools, payroll, suppliers	IT consulting, accountants, lawyers
3	New site or new plant	Equipment, energy, maintenance, local hiring	Industry, energy, security, temp staffing
4	New leader	Review of suppliers and priorities	Consulting, challenger suppliers
5	Hiring for a key role	A project approved by management	Any supplier linked to the role
6	Entering a new market	First international purchases	Transport, translation, export advice
7	Large contract or tender won	Fast ramp-up	Recruitment, fleets, logistics property
8	New range or product launch	Marketing, distribution and training needs	Agencies, distributors, events
9	Certification targeted or obtained	Processes to set up, then maintain	Training, audit, quality and CSR consulting
10	New partnership or reseller network	A sales organisation to build	Sales agents, logistics providers, software vendors
11	Public incident (cyberattack, product recall)	Urgent need to secure and reassure	Cybersecurity, insurance, crisis communications
12	Office move or site consolidation	Fit-out, IT, relocation	Commercial property, furniture, telecoms

Not all of these events concern you. A good habit: look at your last five signed clients and find out what had happened at their company in the months before. The two or three events that keep coming up are your triggers.

How do you turn an event into an opener?

A public event attracts messages that all look alike: congratulations, a company introduction, a request for a slot. To stand out, the opener has to draw a concrete consequence from the event, one that only someone in the trade would have seen.

Illustrative example. Event: a family-owned wholesale group acquires a regional competitor and announces the integration of the two teams.

Opener that falls flat: “Congratulations on the acquisition! Our firm supports companies through external growth operations. Would you be available to discuss it?”

Opener that gets a reply: “After an acquisition, the first thing that usually lands on the finance director’s desk is two payrolls and two ERP systems running side by side. Have you already decided which one to keep, or is that still open?”

Illustrative example. Event: a haulier announces it has won a multi-year contract with a national retailer.

Opener that falls flat: “Well done on this great contract! We specialise in transport and logistics recruitment.”

Opener that gets a reply: “A contract this size often means finding drivers before the first lorry even rolls. In your area, candidates get snapped up quickly by the bigger players. Are you planning to hire directly, or get some help for the launch?”

The same principle applies to a weak signal. You don’t quote the trace, you pick up the topic.

Illustrative example. Weak signal: the head of an engineering subcontractor explains on a regional podcast that two machine setter roles have been vacant for six months.

Opener that falls flat: “I listened to your podcast. We are a recruitment firm specialising in manufacturing.”

Opener that gets a reply: “On your point about machine setters being impossible to find: it’s a profile we mostly see leaving for large groups, and rarely answering job ads. What have you already tried on your side?”

Who should you contact after a trigger event?

The event concerns the company, but a person makes the decision. The right contact depends on the consequence you have identified, not on the event itself.

1. The person who owns the consequence. After an acquisition, for payroll: the finance director or the HR manager, not the CEO who signed the deal.
2. The person who announced the event, if they are at the right level. A site director who posts about the opening of their plant is a good contact for anything to do with the site.
3. The newcomer, in the case of an appointment. They arrive with their own priorities and often review suppliers. This case has its own article: a job change as a buying signal.

If you are torn between two people, choose the one who feels the problem day to day. They reply more readily than the one who sees it on a dashboard.

How do you get from the event to a meeting?

Spotting the event is only a third of the work. The rest happens in three stages.

Check before you write. Is the event recent, confirmed, linked to your offer? A plant announcement can come months before the first purchases. A job posting may already be filled. A message based on an outdated fact ruins your credibility from the first line. To sort them, see how to qualify a signal before reaching out.

Open a conversation, don’t sell. The opener asks a question about the person’s situation. If they reply, you discuss the substance. That is the moment, and not before, when suggesting a meeting becomes natural.

Follow up with a new angle. If the person doesn’t reply, the follow-up brings something new: another side of the consequence, an example from a comparable company. Repeating “just following up” brings nothing.

On LinkedIn, many of these events are announced by the company or its leaders themselves: hires, appointments, new sites, projects. MeetMagnet’s signal-based prospecting AI spots them every day, along with interactions on your topic, and writes an opener from each one. Press and company websites are tracked with the multi-source option of the Assisted plan, and you can see what we spot in the news. For the full list of signals, with an opener for each group, read our guide to B2B buying signals.