A signal is evidence with a half-life. Readiness decays fast, awareness slowly. Old evidence is not current intent.
The decay rule states that a signal is evidence with a half-life. A buying signal is not a permanent fact; its value fades with time. Scored once and counted forever, yesterday's signals quietly turn your hot list into last year's.
It fixes a silent failure of lead scoring: a score that never forgets. Without decay, a stale funding round or an old pricing visit keeps an account flagged hot long after the window has closed, and the reps stop trusting the list.
Every signal is weighted by recency. Readiness decays fast, this week's pricing visit is urgent, seven months ago is noise, while awareness decays more slowly, because recognition lingers longer than urgency. The score sums typed signals, applies decay, and caps the total.
Apply the decay rule any time you score accounts on intent. It is what keeps the Market Map honest and current instead of a graveyard of old evidence.
A funding round announced fourteen months ago should not still flag an account as hot. Decay drops its weight to near zero, while the same round announced last month is a live trigger.
The decay rule is what makes the Demand Compass trustworthy over time. It governs both axes, and it is why a Sales-Ready verdict reflects what is true now, not what was true last year.
From The Demand Compass: The Signal-Based GTM Framework for B2B Marketing Leaders in Complex Sales, by David Moreira and Marcos Stubrin (automate rev.ops.).
ISBN 979-8-9969092-1-6 (paperback). Get the book →