Post-mortem: Saad Khan on modern sales, signal stacking, and more [video]

We recently talked to Saad Khan—Director of Sales and Business Development at Aligned—about his post on signal-led outbound.

How do you drive success with signal stacking? Read on to find out (or watch the full conversation above).

Identification: Signal-led GTM drives results

Signal-led outbound is a hot topic in go-to-market circles. And like any hot topic, it’s attracted its share of naysayers.

In Saad’s opinion, much of the negativity can be attributed to sales leaders who previously saw success with more traditional approaches but are no longer on the front lines.

“Can we start listening to the actual operators that are trying to build this thing and let that voice be relevant versus, respectfully, somebody that scaled a hundred million dollar org?” Saad said. “Those processes are not going to work anymore. Let's be very, very, very real about it.”

Times have changed.

Buyers are more rep-averse. Digital transformation has made incognito window-shopping easier. And sales teams are under more pressure to generate pipeline even as it becomes harder to do so.

In Saad’s opinion, buying signals are the cheat code.

Some people refer to signal-led strategy as “inbound-led outbound,” but Saad disagrees that a signal like someone signing up for a free trial of your product is the same as someone raising their hand for a demo.

There’s intent there, but it’s not as explicit. Which is why it’s not enough to build your strategy around a solitary signal.

According to Saad, you have to “stack them together and triage them to get your best strike zone.”

Playbook

Identify and action on signal-heavy accounts

Prioritize accounts based on buying signals and take action fast.

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Examination: Signal stacking is a form of qualification

Identifying signals is step one. Layering them on top of each other to separate browsers from buyers is step two.

Take a standard product-led growth motion, for example. Product sign-ups are a solid signal. But by combining them with another signal, you can zero in on prospects showing higher intent.

“First we check all the sign-ups,” Saad said. “Then we'll go into Common Room [ …] and see, ‘Okay, this person signed up. But from the sign-ups, which ones are actively on the website?’ So you see, we're consistently just stacking.”

In this way, signal stacking is like its own version of lead qualification. It goes beyond ideal customer profile and ideal persona to help GTM teams focus on the prospects who are most primed to buy.

It’s also very manual without the right tools.

“All this orchestration that we did manually [...] there's tools that exist to do that now [...] which is why I've been so intent on working with Common Room,” Saad said.

Once you settle on an initial set of signals, the goal is to streamline the process to make it as easy as possible for reps to find the right prospects and follow up fast.

Then you can start building out other signal-based plays.

Playbook

Put signal-based prospecting on autopilot

Identify and action on new prospects automatically.

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Findings: Reach out with relevance based on signals

The best part of uncovering multiple buying signals? It makes it easier to craft relevant messaging.

It’s not about fluffy personalization—it’s about uncovering a real business need and speaking directly to it.

“I don't care about whether you went to the University of Utah, but I do want to be able to tell a CFO or a CEO or a VP of Sales that, ‘Hey, if A, then B. If B, then C,’” Saad said. “I'm trying to earn trust by letting you know I understand your business.”

It’s one thing for someone at a high-fit account to sign up for a free trial of your product. It’s another thing to know that they’re currently looking to fill multiple roles that will be end users of your product.

That opens the door to conversations about current challenges, goals, and business priorities.

Playbook

Uncover outbound opportunities using job listings

Pinpoint prospects based on hiring trends.

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These are just some of the takeaways from our conversation with Saad Khan. Check out the full conversation to get the whole story.

And stay tuned for the next edition of Post-mortem. Got a post or topic you’d like us to tackle? Let us know.

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