An intent signal is something a company does in public that suggests it might be about to buy. Alsona watches 31 of them across nine categories. You decide which ones matter for what you sell, and the agent goes looking for companies doing those things.

This is the setting that most changes what an agent finds, and it is the one people spend the least time on.

Open an agent, go to Settings, then Signal sources. Each source has a short description and a toggle, and a counter at the bottom tells you how many of the 31 you have switched on.

The Customize dropdown only appears once a source is switched on. Until then you see a toggle and a sentence, so it looks as though a source is a single yes or no choice. It is not. Most sources have a Track control underneath that narrows what they look for, and that control is where the precision lives.

Switch on Hiring & Headcount Momentum, for example, and a Customize dropdown appears offering current headcount, six-month growth, or twelve-month growth. Those find very different companies. Review sources can be narrowed to negative reviews only, which is a completely different prospect from a company collecting praise. Ad activity can be narrowed to currently running rather than any time in the last 90 days.

One source will do nothing until you configure it. LinkedIn Audience Engagement shows a warning icon next to its name until you add keywords, because it only tracks engagement on posts matching them. Switching it on and walking away produces silence.

The useful question is not "which signals sound interesting". It is this: what does a company do in the weeks before it buys from us?

Answer that from your own closed deals rather than from theory. If your last ten customers had all just raised money, funding activity is your signal. If they had all just lost a person in the function you replace, hiring signals are. If they were all complaining about an incumbent, review velocity is.

The most reliable category for anything sold to a growing team.

Function Growth Momentum is underrated. It tells you where a company is growing, not just that it is, which matters when you sell to one department.

LinkedIn Competitor Engagement is the highest-intent source on the whole list for most businesses, because someone commenting on a competitor's post is already thinking about the category. Use Custom Competitors if you know exactly who you displace.

Four sources, one for each of Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and Apple. Each detects recent advertising activity, and each offers the same Customize options: currently active, active in the last 30 days, or active in the last 90 days.

A company spending on ads is investing in growth and has budget moving. Choose currently active if your pitch depends on them being mid-campaign.

G2, Trustpilot, Capterra, and Google Maps, each detecting an unusual increase in review volume, and each filterable to all reviews, positive reviews, or negative reviews.

The filter changes the prospect completely. A spike in negative reviews on a competitor is a displacement opportunity. A spike in positive reviews on a prospect is a company doing well and likely to invest. Decide which conversation you are having before you choose.

Relevant News Activity picks up expansions, investments, partnerships, leadership changes, launches, and strategic initiatives from local news and industry publications. Broad, and a good source to run alongside a narrow one.

The podcast source is the one people are most surprised by. If your buyer talks publicly about their problems, this finds them saying so in their own words, which is the best possible opening.

If you displace a specific tool, set Technology Stack Changes to Replaced and Technology Fit to Custom Technology naming that tool. That pairing is about as targeted as this product gets.

SEC filings only cover public companies, so switch it off if you sell to private ones. Funding Activity is the opposite and one of the most widely useful sources on the list.

Foot Traffic Spike detects an unusual increase in visits to a company location. Relevant if you sell to businesses with physical premises and nearly useless otherwise.

Open the agent and go to the Intent Signals tab. Below the funnel, Breakdown by signal source shows detected, contacted, reply rate, and positive replies for each of the nine categories.

This is the most useful table in the product, because nobody can tell you in advance which signals turn into conversations for your particular offer. After a few weeks it will tell you plainly. Switch off the categories producing volume and no replies, and add more sources in the categories that are working.