Trigger Sales Alerts from Competitive or Category Research

Vector Team

Some prospects don't fill out forms—but they still leave digital breadcrumbs. If someone is repeatedly researching competitors or your category, they may be evaluating now.

This play helps you catch those signals early and trigger a real-time sales alert before your rep misses their window.

The Vector way:

Most sales teams hear about evaluations too late.

Vector flips that.

With contact-based marketing, you don’t have to wait for a demo request to act. Instead, use contact-level research signals like 5+ pageviews on competitive or category content to alert sales at the first sign of an active evaluation.

When to use this play:

Use when:

A contact is showing early intent (problem aware or competitor researching)
They’ve visited competitive/category content multiple times in a short window
You want to prioritize timely outreach before they go dark or commit to someone else

Goal

Alert sales when a high-fit contact shows repeated competitive or category research behavior, so they can engage during active evaluation.

Objectives

Identify in-the-moment buying signals that often go unnoticed
Reduce lag between prospect evaluation and sales engagement
Improve connect rates and win rates by reaching out earlier

Use case

Your contact is still “unengaged” in CRM terms, but they’ve viewed your competitor comparison page or an account-based marketing blog 5+ times in the last 24 hours. You want to surface this spike in activity and send an automatic sales alert.

Play Type: Mid-Funnel Activation | Sales Enablement | Real-Time Trigger Estimated Time to Execute: 30 mins setup + ongoing alerts

How it works:

Step 1: Trigger on repeated category or competitor research

In Vector, use Funnel Vision to detect contacts who are:

In the Problem Aware or Competitor Researching intent stages
Visiting category or competitor-related content (e.g., “account-based marketing,” “6sense,” “Demandbase”) 5+ times in the past 24 hours

This spike in behavior suggests active evaluation especially when it involves multiple related topics.

Pro Tip: Set your trigger to fire when someone qualifies for two or more stacked intent topics, such as:

Topic 1: Your category or pain point
Topic 2: A key competitor or brand keyword

This combination is a strong indicator that the buyer is moving deeper into the funnel and comparing options.

Step 2: Run an audience estimate

Before activating the alert, use Vector’s Audience Estimate feature to:
- Confirm there’s a meaningful volume of contacts meeting this condition
- Avoid triggering too many or too few alerts for sales
- Fine-tune your thresholds (e.g., frequency or timeframe) if needed

This ensures your sales team gets actionable signals—not noise.

Step 3: Push a sales alert via webhook

Use a webhook action to send qualified contacts directly into:
- Slack (with a custom alert format)
- HubSpot or Salesforce (as a task, lead score, or activity)

Suggested alert copy:

[First Last] at [Company] viewed 6sense/ABM content 5+ times today. Looks like they’re evaluating—reach out ASAP.

Wrap Up: Win the Deal Before the Competition

Don’t let quiet evaluators slip through the cracks. By tapping into contact-level research behavior, this play ensures your team gets ahead of the curve alerting sales at the first sign of active evaluation. It’s a faster, smarter way to engage the right people at the right time before your competitors do.

‍

Example H2