Why most B2B signals are useless

Hey there,

Kevin here from Astris Partners.

Last week, we talked about how sophisticated tools are making outbound worse. This week, I need to address the biggest culprit: signal-chasing.

Most B2B companies are obsessing over the wrong signals, creating mountains of busy work that lead to zero qualified conversations.

Here's what's happening: you're getting alerts about funding rounds, new hires, and intent data spikes. You think these are buying signals. They're not.

The Intent Data Mirage

Intent platforms promise to show you exactly who's ready to buy. They track keywords, website visits, and digital breadcrumbs that supposedly indicate purchase intent.

But here's what actually happens: intent data shows you who's researching your category, not who needs your specific solution for their specific situation.

A company might show high intent for "sales automation" because their marketing team is researching how to fix a broken CRM integration. Meanwhile, you're reaching out trying to sell them lead generation software.

You're both talking about sales automation, but you're solving completely different problems. The conversation goes nowhere because there was never a real connection to begin with.

The bigger problem: Everyone gets the same intent alerts. When a company shows intent, they don't get one email. They get 50 emails from vendors who all "noticed their interest in sales automation."

Your perfectly timed, intent-based outreach is just noise in their inbox.

The Funding Announcement Chaos

"Congratulations on your Series B! Now let me tell you about our solution..."

Sound familiar? Every funding announcement triggers thousands of identical outreach attempts from vendors who think money equals immediate buying intent.

Here's the reality: companies that just raised money are usually focused internally. They're hiring, building, scaling operations. The last thing they want is a parade of vendors interrupting their execution.

Plus, everyone has the same idea. The CEO who just announced their $10M Series B isn't impressed that you "noticed" their funding round. Fifty other vendors noticed it too.

The Generic Hiring Signal Trap

"I saw you hired a new VP of Sales. This seems like perfect timing for our sales enablement platform."

This logic seems sound: new leader + relevant role should equal immediate need for your solution. But correlation isn't causation.

Maybe they hired the VP because their current sales process is working great and they need someone to scale it. Maybe the new VP has their own preferred tools and processes. Maybe they're focused on team building, not tool buying.

The real issue: You're making assumptions about need based on surface-level data points. A hiring announcement tells you nothing about their actual challenges, priorities, or readiness to change.

The Cost of Chasing Noise

When you chase false signals, several things happen:

Your team burns out on low-quality leads. They spend time researching and reaching out to companies that have no real need, getting discouraged by poor response rates.

You train prospects to ignore you. When your outreach is based on obvious, surface-level triggers, prospects immediately recognize it as mass outreach and tune out.

You miss real opportunities. While you're chasing funding announcements and intent spikes, companies with genuine, urgent needs are being ignored because they don't fit your "signal" criteria.

You compete with everyone else. When you're all watching the same signals, you're all reaching out to the same companies at the same time with similar messages.

The Recognition Problem

Here's what happens when prospects receive signal-based outreach:

"This person clearly doesn't understand what we do, what problems we're facing, or why we would need their solution. They just saw a data point and assumed it meant something."

Your prospects aren't sitting there impressed by your ability to find their funding announcement or track their hiring. They're asking one simple question: "Does this person understand my actual situation?"

Most signal-driven outreach fails this test completely.

The Real Issue

The more companies rely on the same signals, the more those signals become worthless. When everyone is watching funding announcements, hiring alerts, and intent data, these become table stakes, not differentiators.

You're not being strategic. You're being predictable.

The Bottom Line

Real buying signals aren't the obvious ones everyone is tracking. They're the specific, urgent situations that create immediate need for your solution.

The companies winning at outbound aren't chasing the same signals as everyone else. They're identifying different triggers that actually predict buying readiness.

Next week, I'll share the only signals that actually matter and how to identify them before your competition does.

Talk soon,

Kevin

P.S. If you're tired of chasing signals that lead nowhere, let's talk.