What's up, it's Zayd

Your intent data has an expiration date.

It's a lot shorter than you think.

If someone visits your pricing page at 2pm on Monday and then you reach out Thursday morning with a "thoughtful, personalized message."

Congratulations.

You just sent a love letter to someone who's already married to your competitor.

You're showing up to a party three days after everyone went home.

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• Secrets to structure and present SaaS pricing (link)

The Milk Test

Go open your fridge right now. Look at that gallon of milk.

Fresh today? Perfect for your coffee.

Expires tomorrow? Still probably fine.

Expired three days ago? You're playing Russian roulette with your morning, but we’re in the business of risk, so fair play.

Expired a week ago? Biohazard (and your roommate, neighbor, and super probably hate you, also…you good?)

Intent signals work the same way.

Hour 1: Hot. Prospect is actively thinking about the problem.

Hour 24: Warm. They remember researching, but other priorities have emerged.

Day 3: Cold. They've talked to competitors, gotten distracted, moved on.

Week 1: Spoiled. You're now interrupting someone who's completely forgotten about you.

Despite empirically knowing this, I see companies treating week-old intent signals like they're still fresh and then wondering why nothing’s working every day.

"We saw you visited our website last Tuesday..."

Yeah, they also went grocery shopping, had four meetings, argued with their girlfriend about expired milk, swore that they were just going to go to the bar for “a quick one,” came home at 2am, and visited six of your competitors since then.

Your timing is rotten.

People Scientifically Forget You Instantly

I just listened to a fascinating podcast on this; human memory has three stages:

1. Sensory memory (lasts 0.5 seconds)

2. Short-term memory (lasts 15-30 seconds without rehearsal)

3. Long-term memory (can last forever, but only if properly encoded)

When someone visits your website, you enter their short-term memory. You have about 20-30 minutes before that memory either:

A) Gets encoded into long-term memory (because they took action, downloaded something, or had a strong emotional reaction)

B) Gets completely overwritten by the next 47 things they look at

Most B2B buyers never encode you into long-term memory. You're just one tab among 23 others they had open that afternoon.

If you don't reach them while they're still thinking about you, you're starting from 0.

Why?

Every company I talk to has the same broken workflow:

2:47 PM Monday: Charlotte visits your pricing page

2:48 PM Monday: Alert hits Slack: "Hot lead! Charlotte from [whatever] Corp viewed pricing"

2:49 PM Monday: Your SDR sees it, thinks "I'll reach out after I finish this other thing"

4:15 PM Monday: SDR remembers, but it's late in the day. "I'll craft something good tomorrow morning"

9:30 AM Tuesday: SDR has three meetings back-to-back

2:00 PM Tuesday: SDR finally starts researching Charlotte's company

3:30 PM Tuesday: Crafts a thoughtful, personalized message

3:45 PM Tuesday: Sends the message

Congratulations. You just spent 25 hours "being thoughtful" while Charlotte:

• Visited your three main competitors

• Had conversations with her team

• Got distracted by a customer emergency

• Completely forgot she was even researching solutions

Your personalized message arrives to someone who's mentally moved on. You’re essentially doing the “so sorry I missed this” dating app thing with someone who’s already on date 4 with someone else.

You. Don’t. Need. A. Perfect. Message.

The Trust Velocity Problem

Here's where it gets interesting, though. Speed does more than just beat out competitors, it also accelerates trust development. It’s your greatest moat.

Think about the last time you were researching something expensive. A car, or a house. You visit a website, browse around, then leave.

Scenario A: A week later, you get a generic email: "Hi, I see you were looking at houses in your area. Want to schedule a viewing?"

You probably feel creeped out. Maybe a little annoyed. Definitely not trusting this person.

Scenario B: Within 10 minutes of browsing, you get a text: "Hey! Saw you were checking out the house on Maple Street. I'm the listing agent. Happy to answer any quick questions if you have them. Here's my cell."

Now you probably feel impressed. Maybe a little surprised. Definitely more trusting because they were responsive.

Same person. Same house. Same basic message.

Timing changed the entire relationship dynamic.

Fast response = "This person is on top of things and cares about helping me"
Slow response = "This person is just following up on old leads from their CRM"

The Three Windows of Intent

Not all intent signals decay at the same rate. I think about them in three windows:

1. The Golden Window (0-60 minutes)

This is when the prospect is still in problem-solving mode. Their browser probably still has your tab open. They're actively comparing options.

What works:

• Simple, direct messages

• "Saw you checking us out - happy to answer any questions"

• Offering immediate value (quick call, specific answer)

• Phone calls actually work here (weird but true)

What doesn't work:

• Long, over-researched messages

• Waiting for the "perfect" time to reach out

• Trying to schedule for next week

2. The Silver Window (1-24 hours)

Prospect has moved on to other work, but still vaguely remembers researching. You're competing with their short-term memory, not just competitors.

What works:

• Specific references to what they viewed

• Adding new information they didn't see on the site

• Creating urgency (limited spots, pricing changes, etc.)

• Offering something they can consume quickly (2-min video, one-page PDF)

What doesn't work:

• Generic "just checking in" messages

• Assuming they remember you

• Complex information that requires deep focus

3. The Bronze Window (2-7 days)

Prospect has mostly forgotten you. You're now cold outreach with a slight advantage.

What works:

• Acknowledging the time gap: "You checked us out last week - curious what made you interested?"

• Offering something completely new (case study, invite to event, free audit)

• Much lower expectations on response rate

What doesn't work:

• Acting like they should remember you

• Following up on their specific page views from days ago

• Most things, honestly. This window mostly sucks.

Create a Speed Stack

Here's what we've built at Valley (and what you should build if you're not using us):

Layer 1: Real-Time Detection
The moment someone hits your site, engage your tracking instantly.

Layer 2: Automatic Qualification
Run basic qualification automatically:

• Do they match ICP?

• What did they view (pricing vs. blog)?

• How long did they stay?

• Is this their first visit?

Layer 3: Instant Enrichment
Pull their contact info, company data, recent news, LinkedIn profile automatically.

Layer 4: Smart Personalization
Generate a relevant message based on:

• What they viewed

• Their role

• Their company

• Recent company activity

Good enough is good enough here.

Layer 5: Optional Human Review —> Immediate Delivery
For high-value accounts, route to a human for quick review before sending, but make "approve and send" one click. Otherwise send it immediately.

Speed beats depth.

The Trust Acceleration Framework

Fast responses also fundamentally change the trust dynamic.

When someone responds to your outreach quickly, they're signaling:

• I'm organized

• I care about your time

• I'm probably competent at my job

• Working with me won't involve long delays

Every hour you wait is an hour where trust isn't building. Every day you wait is a day where they're building trust with your competitors instead.

Intent data is only valuable if you can act on it before it expires.

How can we work together 🏔️

1. See more of Valley’s messaging examples, feel free to roast them: https://coolmessagebro.com/

2. Generate more demos for your company using LinkedIn: https://meetings.hubspot.com/zayd-from-valley/tryvalley
   

3. Become a Valley partner and get 20% recurring commission for every user you bring in: https://withvalley.notion.site/valley-affiliate-partner-program