LinkedIn outreach and buying-signal glossary

Terms

Buying signal

Something a person or their company does that says now is a good time to reach out: viewing your profile, commenting on a competitor's post, starting a new role, hiring for the team you sell to or raising a round. A signal has a date, and older signals count for less. LinkedIn buying signals, ranked.

Intent data

Records of what people or companies are doing that hint they're in the market. First-party intent comes from your own channels (your site, your posts, your profile); third-party intent is bought from vendors who watch activity elsewhere. LinkedIn engagement sits between the two: it's public, and it's tied to a named person.

Signal-based selling

Choosing who to contact, and when, from buying signals instead of working down a static list. The first message refers to the moment that triggered it, so it reads as timely rather than random. How to find leads showing buying signals.

Ideal customer profile (ICP)

A description of the companies and people most likely to buy from you: industry, company size, location, roles and seniority, plus anything that rules someone out. Every lead score starts from how well someone matches it.

Fit score

How closely a person matches your ideal customer, from 0 to 1. Fit says whether they're the kind of person you sell to; it says nothing about timing. How to score leads by fit and intent.

Intent score

How strong and recent a person's buying signals are, from 0 to 1. Several signals add up, each extra one adding less than the one before.

Lead score

One number that ranks who to contact first. Bingle multiplies the two parts: score = 100 × fit × (0.3 + 0.7 × intent), so a perfect fit with no signal scores 30 and a weak fit can't be rescued by a loud signal. The scoring maths, worked through.

Signal decay (half-life)

How fast a signal stops counting. With a half-life of 7 days, a profile view counts half as much after a week and a quarter after two. Bingle's half-lives run from about a week for a profile view to about four months for a new role. Strength and fade time of each signal.

Competitor engagers

People who like, comment on or share posts by a competitor or its staff. They're showing interest in the problem you solve this week, which makes them a strong reason to reach out if they also fit your ideal customer. Reaching competitor engagers.

Job change signal

Someone starting a new role, especially at a company that fits. New leaders review their tools and suppliers in their first months, and a past customer who moves takes their good experience with them. Outreach after a job change.

Hiring signal

A company advertising roles for the team you sell to, such as its first sales hires. It says the team is growing and has budget. Outreach to companies that are hiring.

Funding signal

A company announcing a raise. Fresh money usually comes with hiring plans and new tools, so the weeks after an announcement are a common time to reach out. Outreach after a funding round.

Profile visitor

Someone who viewed your LinkedIn profile. It's one of the strongest signals because they came to you, but it fades fast, so it's worth acting on within days. How to message someone who viewed your profile.

Connection request limit

LinkedIn caps how many invitations each member can send and doesn't publish the number. Its help centre says the cap applies to free and Premium members alike and a restriction usually lasts about a week; most tools plan around 100 to 200 a week. LinkedIn connection request limit, explained.

1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree connections

1st-degree people are already connected to you, 2nd-degree people are connected to someone you know, and 3rd-degree people are one step further out. Cold outreach usually goes to 2nd and 3rd-degree people through a connection request.

InMail

A LinkedIn message to someone you aren't connected with. It needs a paid plan or credits, unless the person has an open profile.

Sequence (cadence)

A planned set of outreach steps with waits between them, for example a profile visit, a connection request, then a first message after they accept and one follow-up. A reply stops the sequence for that person.

Message approval (human in the loop)

Each AI-written message waits for a person to approve, edit or rewrite it before it goes. It's slower than full autopilot and catches the messages that would embarrass you. LinkedIn tools that let you approve each message.

Lead magnet post

A post offering something useful, like a template or a guide, to anyone who comments. Commenters have raised their hand for that topic, which makes them a signal worth reading.

Social selling

Building relationships with buyers on social networks, mostly LinkedIn, through posting, commenting and direct messages, before and alongside a sales conversation.

AI SDR

Software that does the work of a sales development rep: finds prospects, researches them and writes or sends outreach. Products differ mostly in where they find people, how much they send on their own and whether a person approves each message. AI LinkedIn outreach tools compared.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

The open standard Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps use to connect to outside tools. A sales tool with an MCP server can be used by asking your AI chat in plain words. Using Bingle from Claude or ChatGPT.

Sources

1. LinkedIn Help: Invitation limit reached. read 24 October 2026
2. Model Context Protocol. read 24 October 2026