# Buying signals glossary: the terms, in plain English. The vocabulary of signal-based outbound, defined in a sentence or two each. Where a term has a full page, the definition links to it. **The short answer:** **A buying signal** is any action by a prospect or their company that makes them more likely to buy now than they were last month. Signals are usually grouped as first-party (they interacted with you), borrowed (they interacted with a competitor or creator) and trigger events (something changed at their company, such as a new leader, hiring or funding). ## Signals and signal types, A to I. **Abandoned signup** Someone who started creating an account or filling in a demo form and stopped. The strongest signal there is; it goes cold in hours. **Account-level signal** A signal about a company rather than a person, such as a funding round, a job ad or a company-level website visit. Useful for choosing accounts; you still have to pick the right person. **Borrowed signal** Interest shown in someone like you rather than you: engaging with a competitor's posts, following a competitor, or engaging with a creator in your category. See [competitor engagers](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/competitor-engagers/). **Buying signal** Any action that makes a prospect more likely to buy now than last month. The full ranking is on [the signals page](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/buying-signals/). **Buying window** The period in which a company is actively choosing a solution. Trigger events open one; it closes when the decision is made. **Champion** A person inside a customer or prospect who wants your product to win and argues for it internally. **Champion job change** A past champion moving to a new company. The warmest trigger event in B2B, because they already trust you. See [job changes](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/job-changes/). **Cold outbound** Messaging people who match your ideal customer profile without any sign that they are interested right now. Typically gets around 1-3% replies. See [signal-based vs cold](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/vs-cold-outbound/). **Competitor engager** A person who liked, commented on or reposted a competitor's content. A medium-high signal that goes cold in two to four days. **Competitor follower** A person who follows a competitor's company page. A medium signal best used as a pool to watch for a second signal. **Decay window** How long a signal stays worth acting on before it goes cold. Hours for an abandoned signup, roughly 90 days for a new leader. See [signal decay](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signal-decay/). **First-party signal** A signal from someone interacting with you directly: viewing your profile, engaging with your posts, following you or visiting your website. The strongest group of signals. **Hiring signal** An open job ad at a target company for a role connected to the problem you solve. Public, so you can mention it. See [hiring signals](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/hiring/). **ICP (ideal customer profile)** A written description of the companies and people you sell to best: industry, size, region, role and what they sell. Every signal is checked against it. **Intent data** Usually third-party data estimating which companies are researching a topic across websites you do not own. Account-level and inferred. See [vs intent data](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/vs-intent-data/). **Interested-reply rate** The share of people messaged who reply with real interest, not just any reply. A better measure of outbound quality than reply rate alone. ## Methods and metrics, N to W. **New in role** A relevant leader who recently started at a target account. As a rule of thumb, new leaders review their tools in roughly their first 90 days. **Person-level signal** A signal tied to a named individual, such as a profile view or a comment. Stronger than an account-level signal because a specific human is paying attention. **Post engager** Someone who liked, commented on or reposted your post. A high signal that also tells you which topic is on their mind. See [post engagers](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/post-engagers/). **Profile viewer** Someone who viewed your LinkedIn profile. A high signal that goes cold in one to three days. See [profile viewers](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/profile-viewers/). **Qualification** Checking each person who showed a signal against your ICP and dropping those who do not fit. For a high-ticket offer, keeping roughly 10-30% is normal. **Reply rate** Replies divided by people messaged. Always ask what it is a rate of: people, messages, or accepted connections. **Response window** The time you have to act on a signal before it decays. Within a day for most first-party signals. **Signal-based outbound** B2B prospecting where you only message people after they show a buying signal, and time the message to it. See [the definition](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/). **Signal-based selling** Using buying signals across the whole sales cycle: prioritizing accounts, steering deals and spotting expansion. See [signal-based selling](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signal-based-selling/). **Signal stacking** Combining several different signals on the same person or account, such as a new leader plus hiring plus a post engagement, to separate real opportunities from noise. **Surveillance narration** Mentioning private behaviour in a message, as in "I saw you viewed my profile". It makes prospects feel watched and lowers replies. Public events about them are fine to mention. **Trigger event** A change at a company that makes buying more likely, such as a new leader, a hiring push or a funding round. Slower to decay than first-party signals. **Website visitor identification** Software that matches anonymous website traffic to companies or people. Person-level identification raises real privacy questions, especially under GDPR. See [website visitors](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/signals/website-visitors/). **Warm outbound** Outreach to people who already know you, such as your profile viewers, post engagers and followers. A subset of signal-based outbound. More at [warmoutbound.site](https://warmoutbound.site/). ## Terms people mix up, side by side. Most confusion in this space comes from vendors using the same word for different things. These four pairs cause the most of it. | These two | The difference | | --- | --- | | Signal vs intent data | A signal is a specific, dated action you can see. Intent data is an inferred trend at account level. | | Signal-based vs warm outbound | Warm covers people who know you. Signal-based adds borrowed signals and trigger events. | | Signal-based outbound vs selling | Outbound is the first touch. Selling is the whole cycle. | | Reply rate vs interested-reply rate | Any reply counts in the first. Only real interest counts in the second. | Next: [the buying signals ranking](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/buying-signals/), or [worked examples](https://signalbasedoutbound.com/examples/). --- Source: https://signalbasedoutbound.com/glossary/ Written by Zayd Ali, Founder & CEO of Valley (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zayd-syed-ali-4201101a9/). Published by Valley (https://joinvalley.co/?utm_source=signalbasedoutbound). Last updated 2026-10-27.