Short answer: five signals on LinkedIn are worth stopping for: a job change, a hiring push, a funding round, a post about a topic close to what you sell, and above all several of these on the same account. None of them proves a need. Each one gives you a reason to write now rather than in six months. Contact the prospects who combine a recent signal with a strong fit first, mention the signal in your opening line, ask one question, and let the rest of your list wait.
Why does timing matter more than the message?
Most of your prospects are not buying right now. Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute made the point for LinkedIn's B2B Institute: if companies switch providers about once every five years, only around 20% of them are "in the market" over a year, and something like 5% in any given quarter (LinkedIn B2B Institute, accessed October 3, 2026). Dawes is clear that the figure is a rule of thumb, not a precise law.
The practical consequence is blunt. A great message sent to someone with no reason to change anything gets ignored. The same message, sent to someone who started a new job last month, lands while that person is reviewing tools and suppliers. A signal does not replace good targeting. It tells you in which order to work through a list you have already built well.
We have already covered the broad families of purchase intent signals. This article is the hands-on version: which signals to check, where to find them without paying for a tool, what to write, and who goes first.
What are the five LinkedIn buying signals to watch?
| Signal | What it suggests | How long it stays useful (our guideline) | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job change | A new leader reviews tools and suppliers | The first three months | Experience section of the profile, notifications from your network |
| Hiring | A team is growing and its processes will strain | As long as the roles are open | Jobs tab of the company page |
| Funding round | Budget, plus growth targets to hit | About six months | Company and founder posts, press |
| Post on a related topic | The person is talking in public about the problem you solve | Two to three weeks | Activity tab of the profile |
| Several signals at once | An account in transition | The shortest of the signals involved | Your notes, or a monitoring tool |
The durations in the third column are our own guidelines, not LinkedIn figures. Only one has data behind it: LinkedIn found that people who started a job at a new company within the past 90 days are 62% more likely to accept a Sales Navigator InMail than everyone else (LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog, January 2024, accessed October 3, 2026). Ninety days is also the window used by the "Changed jobs" filter in Sales Navigator.
1. Job change
This is the most reliable signal because it is public and has a date. The person arrives with a mandate, looks at what works and what doesn't, and has no loyalty yet to the vendors their predecessor picked. The same LinkedIn post reports that decision-makers (director level and above) are 55% more likely to start a new role in January than in other months. January deserves a closer watch.
The most valuable case is a former customer moving to a new company. They already know your work. We wrote a full guide on this signal: how to reach out to someone who just changed jobs.
2. Hiring
A company hiring four sales reps at once will have to train them, equip them and feed them leads. A company hiring its first marketing lead is about to rethink its website, content and tools. The signal is strong when the open roles sit in the team you serve. It is weak when the company is hiring an accountant and you sell a sales tool.
3. Funding round
Fresh funding means budget and pressure to grow fast. It is a good signal for anything that speeds growth up: recruiting, lead generation, tooling, consulting. It has two limits. Companies that just raised get flooded with pitches in the days after the announcement. And the money does not go everywhere at once: hiring usually comes first, so a round often announces signal number 2.
4. A post on a related topic
When a sales director posts about how hard it is to keep her team prospecting every week, she has named the problem herself. This is the strongest signal and the rarest one. It also fades fastest: a post from last week is a good reason to write, a post from three months ago is not.
5. Several signals at once
A new VP of Sales, hired two months after a funding round, with three open sales roles: this account is moving. One signal on its own can be noise. Two or three consistent signals on the same company rarely are. Work this group first.
How do you spot these signals by hand?
A free LinkedIn account is enough if you block a fixed slot each week. Plan an hour for a list of 50 accounts.
- Job changes. Open the profile and check the start date of the current role in the Experience section. Your first-degree connections may also show up in your notifications when they change jobs, but only if they chose to share the update: LinkedIn makes it optional, and the announcement can take up to two hours to go out (LinkedIn Help, accessed October 3, 2026). Someone who announced nothing will not appear anywhere, which is why checking the profiles themselves matters.
- Hiring. Open the company page and go to the Jobs tab. Note how many roles are open and in which teams. The "Actively hiring" filter in people search is a Premium feature, and it is based on members' "Open to" settings, not on posted jobs (LinkedIn Help, accessed October 3, 2026).
- Funding rounds. Search posts for "raised", "seed round" or "Series A", using the Posts filter and the date filter. Founders nearly always announce it themselves.
- Posts. Open the Activity tab of the profile. If the person has not posted in months, this signal will not come from them.
- Log everything in one place: a spreadsheet with the name, the signal, its date and where you saw it is enough.
With Sales Navigator, the first two signals become filters. LinkedIn documents a filter for leads who changed jobs in the last 90 days, another for leads who posted in the last 30 days, and, on the account side, filters for open jobs posted on LinkedIn and for department headcount growth over 12 months (Sales Navigator Help, accessed October 3, 2026).
The manual method has one real flaw: it does not last. Checking 50 profiles once is easy. Rechecking them every week for six months is where most people give up, usually around week three.
How do you write a first message that mentions the signal?
Three rules. Mention one signal, in the first sentence. Connect it to a problem you know well. End with a question that can be answered in one line. The examples use Sales Farmer's variables; {{role|your role}} shows the person's job title, or "your role" when it cannot be read from the profile.
Job change
Hi {{firstname}}, I saw you took the {{role|new}} role at {{company|your new company}}. In the first few months, a lot of people in your seat take stock of the tools they inherited. Have you done that already, or is it still ahead of you?
Hiring
Hi {{firstname}}, you're hiring three sales reps right now. How are you planning to give them a first list of prospects in week one?
Funding round
Hi {{firstname}}, congrats on the round you announced last week. The hard part after a raise is often hiring fast enough. Where are you on that?
Related post
Hi {{firstname}}, your post about follow-ups eating your whole afternoon struck a chord. Is the problem the time it takes, or knowing who to chase?
Several signals
Hi {{firstname}}, new role, and three reps to hire already: busy first quarter ahead. What comes first for you?
In the last case, two signals at most. Listing the round, the hiring, the post and the new job makes people feel watched, and the message reads like a surveillance report. For the rest of the conversation, our follow-up templates work as they are.
A note on invitations. A free account can only add a note to a few invitations a month: three according to one LinkedIn Help page, five according to another, with a 200-character limit (both accessed October 3, 2026). Save the signal for your first message after the invitation is accepted, not for the note.
How should you prioritize your prospects?
Ask two questions: does the prospect fit your target, and do they have a recent signal? If you have not defined your target yet, start by defining your ICP. A signal on an account outside your target is worth nothing.
| Priority | Fit with your target | Signal | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strong | Several signals, or a post on your topic, less than two weeks old | Hand-written message, today |
| 2 | Strong | One recent signal (job change under 90 days, open roles) | Campaign with a signal-specific message, this week |
| 3 | Partial | One recent signal | Generic campaign, or wait for a second signal |
| 4 | Strong | No signal | Keep on the watch list, send nothing |
| 5 | Weak | Any | Remove from the list |
Row 4 is the hardest to stick to. A great account without a signal makes you want to write anyway. Don't: you get one first message per person, and the one that arrives at the right time is the one that counts. LinkedIn also lists invitations that are ignored or left pending among the reasons it restricts accounts (LinkedIn Help, accessed October 3, 2026). Fewer, better-chosen invitations protect your account too.
Then measure by signal. After a month, compare reply rates for prospects contacted after a job change, after hiring, after a post. Keep the two signals that work for your offer and drop the rest. Our guide to acceptance and reply rates explains how to calculate them.
What signals can't tell you
A signal says nothing about real budget or about who signs. A funding round may already be earmarked for a vendor. A new director may keep everything they found. A post may be a visibility exercise with no project behind it. Signals raise your odds. A cold prospect with a signal is still a cold prospect.
They also create a tone risk. The more precise you are, the more attentive you look, up to the point where you look intrusive. Stick to public, professional facts, and mention only one.
How Sales Farmer handles the watching
The tedious part is the weekly recheck. ICP Spy, in Sales Farmer, watches the profiles you give it and flags funding rounds, hiring, new posts and job changes, detected when a person's headline or company changes between two checks. The day's signals land in a "To contact today" list, each with a first message that mentions the signal, ready for you to review before it goes out. The Starter plan watches 10 profiles; the Growth plan has no profile limit and adds automatic rules.
The message is still your job. The tool tells you who to contact today, and why.
FAQ
What is the most reliable buying signal on LinkedIn?
A job change, because it is public and dated. LinkedIn found that people who joined a new company less than 90 days ago are 62% more likely to accept a Sales Navigator InMail. A post on your exact topic is even stronger, but much rarer.
How long does a buying signal stay valid?
Roughly three months for a job change, a few weeks for a post, a few months for a funding round, and as long as the roles are open for hiring. These are guidelines: a six-month-old signal is no longer a reason to write.
Do I need Sales Navigator to find buying signals?
No. A free account lets you check the start date of a role, a company's open jobs and a profile's activity. Sales Navigator lets you filter directly on job changes in the last 90 days and posts in the last 30 days.
Should I mention the signal in the connection note?
You don't need to. A free account only gets a few notes a month. Send the invitation without a note or with a short one, and keep the signal for your first message once the invitation is accepted.
Is it creepy to mention a signal?
Not if it is public, professional and on its own. It becomes creepy when you stack several or quote a personal detail.
Keep reading
- Purchase intent signals: reach prospects at the right time
- How to reach out to someone who just changed jobs
- Define your ICP and build a LinkedIn prospect list
- LinkedIn follow-up message templates
Write at the right time without watching everything yourself
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