Event-Driven Outreach: Why Most Sales Automation Fails

Most sales automation is broken by design. It's built on a "linear sequence" model:

1. Send email A.
2. Wait 2 days.
3. Send email B.
4. Wait 3 days.
5. Send LinkedIn message.

This model ignores the most important variable in sales: Timing.

The Problem with Linear Sequences

When you send a generic follow-up every 3 days, you aren't being "persistent." You're being noisy. If a buyer is busy, or if their priorities have shifted, your automated sequence becomes a nuisance that destroys your domain reputation and your brand equity.

In the Intent Labs philosophy, we treat silence as information.

The Solution: Event-Driven Intelligence

Instead of pre-defined schedules, we build systems that wait for signals. These signals might include:

• A lead visiting a specific pricing page.
• A change in their company's job postings on LinkedIn.
• Their company announcing a new funding round.
• A "middle-of-the-night" email open (indicating high intensity).

How it looks in code

Here is a simple example of how we model an event-driven scoring engine:

function calculateIntentScore(events: Event[]): number {
  return events.reduce((score, event) => {
    switch (event.type) {
      case 'PAGE_VIEW_PRICING':
        return score + 25;
      case 'EMAIL_OPEN_INTENSE':
        return score + 15;
      case 'JOB_POSTING_RELEVANT':
        return score + 40;
      default:
        return score;
    }
  }, 0);
}

By the time you actually reach out, the "intent" is validated, verified, and ready for a high-human-touch interaction.

What's Next?

In our next deep dive, we'll explore the architecture for building an autonomous signal processor that feeds this engine.

Stay tuned to the lab.