This came out of a conversation with Matt Hall about signals: the indicators that tell you someone is actually a good fit to work with you. It stuck with me, because when I thought about it in the context of my own business, I realized this is exactly what I do for my clients every day.
Every B2B and manufacturing company talks about ideal customer profiles and buyer personas. That’s not wrong, but it’s often where things stall out. Teams spend a lot of time trying to perfect those profiles, build them out, add more detail, and validate every assumption. Meanwhile, the business is sitting on a wealth of real-world insight that never gets used.
You don’t need perfect data to make good decisions. You need consistent signals.
Signals are the observable patterns that show you who is a fit, who is moving toward a decision, and who is unlikely to go anywhere. They are not hypothetical. They are based on behavior, engagement, and context. They show up in how someone interacts with your business, what they ask, what they care about, and what is happening inside their organization at that moment. You can track this information through a CRM.
The difference between personas and signals is important. Personas are static. They describe who you think you are targeting. Signals are dynamic. They show you what is actually happening in real time. A persona might tell you that you are targeting operations leaders at mid-sized manufacturers. A signal tells you that someone has been on your capabilities page multiple times, downloaded a spec sheet, and is asking detailed questions about lead times and tolerances. One is a description. The other is a trigger.
If you want to drive growth, triggers matter more.
When you start looking at your business through this lens, signals tend to fall into a few clear categories.
- There are behavioral signals, which show up in what someone does: how often they visit your site, what pages they spend time on, whether they are reviewing technical content or just skimming.
- There are engagement signals, which show how they interact with your content and your team: are they downloading resources tied to specific problems, are they engaging with case studies that match their application, are they coming back more than once.
- There are firmographic signals, which tell you whether the company itself aligns with your capabilities: size, industry, geography, and complexity.
- And then there are timing signals, which are often the most telling: what is happening in their business right now that is creating urgency.
For manufacturers and B2B companies, these signals are usually not subtle. They show up in very practical ways. You see repeated visits to your capabilities or certifications pages. You see time spent on technical specifications, materials, or compliance requirements. You see downloads of CAD files, drawings, or engineering resources. You see prospects asking detailed operational questions, involving engineering or quality early in the conversation, and providing real information about volumes, timelines, or constraints.
You also start to notice patterns tied to timing. A company is dealing with supplier disruption. They are launching a new product. They are under pressure from regulatory changes. They are growing faster than their current vendors can support. Those are not abstract signals. Those are clear indicators of need.
The mistake most companies make is assuming they need more data before they can act. In reality, they already have what they need. The signals are sitting in their CRM, buried in sales notes, visible in website analytics, and scattered across conversations. The issue is not a lack of information. It is a lack of consistency in recognizing and using it. If you don’t have a CRM, you are missing these signals. Often, one of the first things I do with a client is stand up a CRM.
When you take the time to look at your best customers (not just the ones who closed, but the ones who are profitable, aligned, and long-term), you will start to see patterns. You will notice the questions they asked early on. You will see what pages they visited, what content they engaged with, and what was happening in their business when they reached out. Those patterns are your signals.
Once you have that, the path forward becomes much clearer. You can prioritize leads that match those signals instead of treating every inquiry the same. You can build content that attracts and reinforces those signals. You can help your sales team recognize them earlier and respond in a more informed way.
At that point, you are no longer chasing volume for the sake of activity. You are focusing on alignment. And that is where better growth comes from: not more leads, but the right ones.