Signals: How Contact Behavior Triggers SI
Real-time behavioral events that give SI context-aware urgency
What It Is
A signal is a behavioral event — something a contact *does* — that tells SI something meaningful about their intent, interest, or state of mind. Signals are the highest-priority triggers in SI's decision-making hierarchy.
When a contact fills out a form, books an appointment, attends a webinar, replies to an email, responds to an SMS, visits your pricing page, or watches a video — each of these events is captured as a signal in the system. SI processes signals with higher urgency than scheduled outreach because they represent *real-time intent*. A contact who just visited your pricing page is in a different state of mind than one who last engaged two weeks ago.
Signals carry a payload — structured data about what happened, when, and in what context. A form submission signal includes what the contact filled in. A webinar signal includes whether they attended, how long they watched, and whether they gave feedback. An email reply signal includes the reply content and sentiment.
Why It Matters
Without signals, SI operates on a schedule — scanning contacts periodically and deciding whether proactive outreach makes sense. That works well for steady-state nurturing. But it misses the moments that matter most: when a contact takes an action that signals intent.
The difference between responding to a form submission within 15 minutes and responding within 3 days is often the difference between winning and losing the opportunity. SI processes signals with priority specifically because timing matters. A contact who just booked a meeting is in buying mode *right now*. A contact who just watched 80% of your demo video is curious *right now*. SI responds to these moments with urgency and context that scheduled processing cannot match.
Signals also give SI better context for its decisions. When SI knows that a contact just submitted a form asking about pricing, it does not send a generic nurture email — it responds to the pricing interest specifically, pulling relevant Objection responses and Talking Points from the RK.
How It Works
SI processes work in a priority hierarchy. Signals occupy the second-highest priority, after explicit human requests:
Priority 1: Explicit Requests — A team member or system created an SI request: "Follow up with this contact before the demo," "Keep them warm until the proposal is ready." These are manually queued actions that SI executes first.
Priority 2: Engagement Signals — The contact did something: booked a meeting, filled a form, attended a webinar, visited the website, replied to a message, watched a video. SI processes these next.
Priority 3: Behavioral Patterns — SI detects that the contact is silent (opens emails but never clicks or replies) or unresponsive (does not even open). These are inferred from absence of engagement rather than presence of action.
Priority 4: Proactive Outreach — Nothing specific is pending. SI creates its own reason to reach out — selecting a Conversation Starter, sharing a piece of content, or initiating a micro-conversation based on what it thinks will resonate.
When a signal arrives, SI evaluates it in the context of everything else it knows about the contact — their engagement score, their pipeline stage, their communication preferences, their history — and decides the best response. The signal adds urgency, but the full context shapes the action.
Examples
A prospect fills out a pricing inquiry form at 10 PM
The form submission creates a signal: form_filled with the contact's answers as payload. SI processes this signal during its next scan, sees the pricing intent, and composes a personalized email acknowledging the inquiry, referencing the specific plan or feature the contact asked about, and suggesting a call to discuss details. The email goes through QC and lands in the contact's inbox — all before your team sees the notification the next morning.
A contact attends a webinar and watches 90% of it
Two signals fire: webinar_registration and attendee_attended. SI sees the high watch percentage in the payload and interprets it as strong interest. On the next cycle, SI sends a follow-up that references the webinar topic specifically — not a generic thank-you, but a message that builds on the subject matter with a relevant Talking Point and suggests a next step.
A dormant contact suddenly visits 5 pages on your website in one session
Website activity signals fire through the Webby analytics pixel. SI detects the burst of activity after weeks of silence and interprets it as renewed interest. It changes its approach from the dormant re-engagement strategy to an active nurture strategy — sending a Conversation Starter that references the type of content the contact was browsing.
