Trigger events, for people who sell things you can drop on your foot.
Sales teams are told to watch for trigger events. Most of the advice is about software buyers. Equipment buyers leave better triggers, if you know where they are.
What a trigger event is
A trigger event is something that happens to a company and makes a purchase more likely soon. The usual examples are a new senior hire, a funding round, a new office. They are useful for selling software, because software is bought when people and budgets change.
Equipment is bought when capacity changes. More vehicles, more throughput, a new site, a tighter limit, a connection date. Those changes usually need permission, and permission is public. That makes equipment triggers more reliable than hiring news, not less.
Five triggers that come before an equipment order
A fleet applies to run more vehicles. Vehicles, trailers, finance, tyres, tracking, drivers and workshop space follow.
A site is permitted to process more, or to take a new material. Treatment, handling and processing plant follow, often with monitoring and fire safety.
A site takes on a new duty to measure. Laboratories, sampling and monitoring equipment follow, usually within weeks.
An energy project fixes its connection date. Transformers, switchgear and HV work follow, on a timetable set backwards from that date.
A company registers new finance against its assets. Something large has been bought or is about to be, and the lender has taken security over it.
The first week
Speed matters less than relevance. A call that opens with the figure — you are going from twenty-four vehicles to forty-two — is a different call from one that opens with who you are.
Size before you call. The record gives you the change in capacity. The company's accounts tell you whether it can pay cash, will lease, or will want terms. Its charges tell you whether a lender already has a say.
Find the real buyer. A project company or a subsidiary often holds the permission while the parent does the buying. Calling the right one is half the work.
Why most teams miss them
The records exist, but they are scattered across many registers, published in different formats, and mostly irrelevant. Reading them every week, matching each one to a company and throwing away the ninety per cent that mean nothing is a job in itself.
That job is what this engine does, and Stanfell is where the result is written up for each trade.
Signals like these, written up for your trade