Let’s talk about just-in-time communication. It’s like just-in-time manufacturing, but for B2B marketing and sales. Just-in-time manufacturing, pioneered by Toyota in the 1970s, revolutionized production by delivering materials only as they were needed, minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency. For GTM, instead of blasting out a ton of emails, cold calls, and LinkedIn messages just because someone fits your ICP, you send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, on the right platform. Real-time signals like a job change, website visit, relevant tech adoption, job listing, etc are the triggers, and the result is less noise, more results. For example, at Tofu, some signals we might care about outside the obvious ones of people coming to our site or interacting with our content could be hiring for ABM or integrated marketing, shifting upmarket from a sales perspective, doing a regular cadence of webinars and events, or redoing their website or messaging. Once you identify the signals that matter most to your specific business, you can then tailor messaging for each signal and make your communication both timely and relevant. This approach respects both your prospects’ time and attention as well as your team’s effort, aligning resources with actual opportunities rather than arbitrary timelines and finding needles in haystacks.

Why Traditional Sequences Are Broken

Sequences were great in 2015. Tools like SalesLoft and Outreach gave sales teams the ability to automate outreach, saving hours of manual effort. At the time, this was novel. It allowed reps to scale their activity in ways that weren't really feasible before, replacing one-off emails and manual follow-ups with streamlined, systematic workflows. This was the era where sheer volume often determined success and it was relatively easy to land an email in someone's inbox. These tools were useful then. But now in 2025, they’ve turned into spam machines. The model was built for a different era of sales and marketing, and it’s showing its age. Here’s why:

• Fake Personalization: Sequences rely on templates that pretend to be personalized but often come off as robotic. Prospects are savvy enough to recognize when they’re being mass-targeted. Even worse, it pulls in bad information so the "personalization" is wildly off leaving a bad taste in your prospect's mouth.
• Admin Nightmares: Managing dozens of sequences for different triggers is overwhelming and inefficient. The more complex your workflows get, the more time you spend maintaining them instead of closing deals.
• Signal Blindness: What happens when someone matches multiple signals? Sequences force you to pick one, ignoring the broader context. This rigidity leaves insights on the table and diminishes your ability to act strategically.

A Smarter, AI-Driven Approach

Enter just-in-time communication. With LLMs and generative AI plust lots more 1st and 3rd party signals available, it's now possible to do something way more effective.

1. Detect Signals: Pay attention to moments that matter—someone visiting your website, adopting relevant tech, or switching roles. Every company will have their own set of signals that makes sense to track. Spend time thinking about these! Make your list and find ways to track these signals. Think of these as the cues to engage.
2. Build Context: Combine CRM data, analytics, and third-party insights to understand the full story. For instance, you might notice that a prospect’s company recently secured funding (third-party insight), their team has been actively engaging with your website’s product pages (analytics), and they’ve been flagged as a high-priority account in your CRM. Together, these data points can inform a highly targeted outreach strategy, helping you determine timing, intent, and interests.
3. Respond Dynamically: Use AI to craft a message that’s tailored to the individual and the situation. What’s their role? What does their company care about? Where are they in their buying journey? Think fewer templates, more relevance. Each interaction should feel like it was designed just for them... because it was.
4. Use Channels Wisely: Not everyone will respond to email. Not everyone will answer a call. Not everyone is on LinkedIn all the time. Understand who your prospects and customers are, which channels different segments tend to respond to and meet them where they are. That might mean multiple channels but be thoughtful and leverage the channels where they spend their time. ‍
5. Adapt in Real Time: Adjust based on new signals or engagement. Did someone else from the same company visit your site? Don't just dump them into a prescribed sequence, your communication should be "made to order" or "just-in-time" and constantly evolving with the actions your prospects take or the information that you learn.

Why This Matters

Shifting to just-in-time communication isn’t just a tech upgrade; it’s a mindset shift. Instead of thinking about volume, think about value and conversion. Instead of taking more arbitrary shots on goal, think about improving your scoring percentage by having a strategy that takes in context. Here’s what’s in it for you:

• Less Noise: Relevant, timely emails , calls, or LI messages mean prospects actually pay attention when you reach out. You’re no longer part of the spam problem, you're providing value.
• Better Results: Engaging at the right moment drives higher conversion rates. When you show up with the right message at the right time, you’re not interrupting—you’re helping.
• Less Work: AI does the heavy lifting, so your team can focus on high-value activities. Instead of building and maintaining sequences, they can spend time building relationships and closing deals.This also means less need to continue to throw humans at the problem as you scale.

What’s Next?

To pull this off, we need tools that go beyond sequences. Imagine a platform that:

• Pulls in real-time data from everywhere (CRM, analytics, third-party tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospect insights, Google Analytics for behavioral data, intent/signal providers, and Apollo/ZoomInfo for firmographic details).
• Uses generative AI to craft dynamic, context-rich messages across email, call scripts, and LI messages at the contact level.
• Adapts to new signals at both the account and contact level instantly, keeping your outreach relevant and helping to dynamically navigate an org as well.

This kind of platform doesn’t just send emails, it orchestrates signals and uses intelligence to automate just-in-time communication across channels, from email to LinkedIn to direct mail, based on what will resonate most with the prospect at that moment while also understanding any historical context with their account. The potential here isn’t just better sales... it’s a better experience for everyone involved.

Looking Ahead

Brendan Short from The Signal said it best: “Sequences will seem archaic in hindsight.” He’s right. Just-in-time communication is the natural evolution of go-to-market strategies. It’s about respecting your prospects’ time and attention while driving better outcomes for your team. This means moving beyond automated processes and generic messaging to create interactions that feel genuine, empathetic, and tailored to the individual. It’s about building trust by showing prospects and customers that you understand their challenges and are here to help solve them. Being human in B2B is recognizing the value of relationships over transactions, and leveraging technology not to replace the personal touch, but to enhance it.

I think the biggest question is when will this be the new normal and who's going to build the best solution to enable just-in-time communication? 

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