“Be first with recently motivated decision-makers and you are 500% more likely to make a sale.”
5× more likely to buy.
Which box is holding you back from reaching $1,000,000?
START HERE
You’re pitching the sleeping market.
You find people who clearly have the problem. They agree it’s a problem. Then they say “maybe next quarter” — and go right back to living with it. That’s not a closing problem, it’s a timing problem: their problem is real but tolerable, and “it’s good enough” wins every time.
→ Are you reaching people whose problem just became urgent — or the sleeping market?
DO THE WORK
Catch buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction™.
A trigger event is the moment a tolerable problem suddenly isn’t. It pushes a buyer out of the Status Quo, opens the Window of Dissatisfaction, and sends them searching for alternatives:
Trigger event selling cycle
The Window of Dissatisfaction is open just 2–3 weeks. Reach them inside it and you’re first.
Nine specific signals you can monitor with tools you already have — LinkedIn alerts, industry news, compliance calendars — so motivated buyers surface on your calendar instead of by luck. Miss the window and they’re back to “it’s fine.”
Speed is what separates a close from a near-miss. Reach out right after the trigger and you close at roughly 75%. Wait for a clearer moment, more budget, or anything else to develop first and that drops to around 15% — same prospect, same problem, just slower. Getting there early also means you get to help redefine the problem with them and shape the solution together, so you are already the obvious choice by the time they are ready to decide.
“You are not looking for people with problems. You are looking for people whose problems just became urgent.”
Trigger event selling cycle
YOU’RE READY
Motivated buyers land on your calendar by design, not luck.
When you track triggers and reach buyers inside the window, you’ve mastered Trigger Events. Move on to Disqualifying.
IN THE RESTAURANT EXAMPLE
Restaurant scheduling software, 4 X 4.
All three top triggers were Category C: new manager hired, new location opened, ownership changed. Each one puts a person in a seat who wants to prove themselves by fixing what’s broken — and has a short window of political capital to spend on new tools. A founder set a LinkedIn alert for the job title “Restaurant Manager” within a 50km radius. A new manager posted about starting her role on a Tuesday. He sent a short, useful note on the Wednesday. She replied within an hour — she had spent her first two days discovering the scheduling mess she had inherited.
THE THREE BIGGEST MISTAKES
SKIP
You reach out to the sleeping market — people with the problem who were never triggered — so cycles drag forever.
SHORTCUT
You don’t have a system that surfaces trigger events for you — no weekly check of LinkedIn, job postings, or press releases — so you’re catching windows by luck, and most of them close before you even see them open.
STUMBLE
You wait for a clearer signal before reaching out — but there is no better moment coming. Acting on the trigger you already have closes at roughly 75%, waiting drops that to about 15%.