Trigger Event Essentials For Sales

The Great Recession, triggered by Coronavirus in 2020, will create an accelerated push toward automation to reduce costs and create competitive advantage. Every business is looking for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency, while innovating how they can attract, retain and grow customers.

All apathy in boardrooms is dead. People are answering the phone and open to change like never before ... but only if you have a worthwhile point-of-view and can open with the right conversation

Trigger events and trusted relationships are the X-factor of sales because they open with context and a level of trust. Technology is the key to finding the trigger events needed to survive and thrive in tough times. Those who fail to embrace technology are destined to be replaced by it. Read that again. The following is from my new book being co-authored with Justin Michael: TQ - Superhuman Sales Skills.

"Everyone is drowning in the very data that can save them. Yet most don't even notice, let alone take advantage of what is available to them." - Tom Reilly, CEO Triggr.ai

A trigger event is something that creates buyer awareness concerning opportunity for change or the need for what we sell. Trigger events can occur in the client’s industry, within their company or department, or in their personal career. Trigger events can also occur in the marketplace and can include competitor activity, environment or economic changes, reputational issues, new regulatory requirements, and more. 

It is important to understand that an ‘attribute’ is not the same as a ‘trigger’. Within your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) you will have the attributes of organizations that represent an ideal fit for what you sell. This then informs you concerning what you should seek to monitor in terms of trigger events.

Here is an example. Imagine you’re a Salesforce rep selling CRM and you’ve identified ‘scale-up tech business’ as being in your ICP. You’ve also decided that ‘Hubspot software use’ is an attribute that matters because, as good as Hubspot is, you still have a strong track record of successfully displacing that product for companies with changing needs as they become larger and more complex. The Trigger event that provides you with the context for outreach and a conversation is ‘high growth’. Even though these smaller companies are not listed and therefore do not publish their financial results, you can identify the ‘growth’ trigger event by monitoring for 1) capital raising announced in the press or 2) hiring additional sales and marketing roles on recruiting websites or within Sales Navigator. The attribute is a particular ‘competitor product’ being used, and the trigger event is ‘growth’.

Here are other examples that show the difference between an ‘attribute’ and a ‘trigger’. Remember that attributes help define ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and triggers equip you to have conversations within the right context with people in those organizations because the trigger event contextualizes why you are reaching out to the potential buyer now.

Attribute / Trigger

• Has role of Chief Customer Officer / Hires new Chief Customer Officer
• Based in my city or territory / Open new office in my territory
• Uses a weak competitor product / Competitor supply contract expires
• Competitor is acquired or fails / Competitor rep or relationship leaves
• High growth business / Announces strong growth results
• Invests in staff training / Hires new head of people & culture
• High compliance environment / New compliance regulations
• High compliance environment / Major failure/breach announced

Trigger events are essential within our outreach narrative because they ‘warm-up’ the conversation with context. Referencing a trigger event shows them that we have done some research and that we have ‘relevance’.

Adding a referral from a common trusted relationship amplifies the effect by layering trust to the context and relevance created by a trigger event. Craig Elias writes about triggers in his book Shift! and says that the average CXO deploys 1MM in capital on new solutions in the first 90 days in their role. Now this number looks incredulous but I’d say for sure the assessment and intent to switch it up happens that quickly. This is because new senior people are hired to effect change.

Four types of trigger events relevant for sales:

1. Bad Experience with incumbent supplier: The decision-maker has a negative experience with a current provider’s product, service or people. Dissatisfaction makes them open to considering other options but the window of opportunity is usually small. Time is of the essence.

2. Role-based change: A senior decision-maker or influencer leaves our existing customer or someone new joins a target buying organization. We should follow our supporter to their new employer and also defend our existing account against our competitor doing the same to us with the new person coming in.

3. Change in results or strategy: The customer organization has a significant change in results or announces a change in their strategic direction impacting priorities and operations. There is an appetite for change and desire to explore options for improving results.

4. Operating Environment changes: The decision-maker becomes aware of the need to change for competitive, risk-avoidance, economic, social, legal or compliance reasons. There is an opportunity to provide insight and aspire to be a trusted advisor shaping their business case for change and influencing their requirements.

In business-to-business sales the most powerful trigger event is a decision-maker role change because executives hired into new roles are expected to drive improvement. The next most powerful trigger event is a change in results or strategy because it necessitates change. Competitor dissatisfaction can be alluring but we must ensure their pain or unhappiness is strong enough to sustain the perceived effort and risk of change; never underestimate the power of an incumbent. The weakest trigger events are within the ‘operating environment’ category because there is usually less urgency.

Role-based trigger events can be interrelated as the changes cascade through an organization and in the market. Here is an example.

1. Our support leaves and goes to another employer. We have a trusted relationship and congratulate the person on their move and ask how we can help them in their new role.
2. Our supporter is replaced by a new external person. We create elevated engagement with the new person saying that we were working closely with their predecessor and have some idea on how they can get some early wins by extracting move value for our existing relationship.
3. That person came from somewhere. As we build a trusted relationship and provide value for them in their new role, we ask about their previous employer and how we could potentially help them also (if not their competitor). This provides us with coaching and a referral.

In the above example we have identified two ‘new logo’ sales opportunities, managed an account risk (competitor follows new executive into our existing client) and created an up-sell or cross-sell opportunity in an existing account (elevating the level of engagement with the new person). Although tracking job changes is easy to do in Sales Navigator, it’s an underutilized feature. The most basic thing you can do to improve your TQ is to dive deep into Sales Navigator and build saved searches to leverage triggers.

Importantly, the key to working with Trigger events is the use of technology. Triggr.ai is an excellent example so check them out. This short video highlights the fact that we all need high IQ, EQ ... and now TQ if we are to succeed in an increasingly complex world.

We see what we look for. The very best sales professionals identify triggers and notice every opportunity for a referral to create 'warm' conversations. They then automate at scale to harness the power of technology in driving productivity and accelerated success. Look for the new book, TQ - Superhuman sales Skills being published by HarperCollins in late 2020.

Hat tip to Craig Elias who is a master of trigger events. Read his book, SHIFT! If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' button and also share via your social channels. I also encourage you to join the conversation or ask questions so feel free to add a comment.