---
name: signal-intelligence
description: >-
  Signal-based outbound, end to end. Use when you need to find, score, route, or
  write outreach from buying signals. Covers what a buying signal is, the
  first/second/third-party taxonomy, how to pick the right signals for a specific
  business, a catalogue of 200+ signals across new business, ABM, expansion,
  upsell and churn, how to track each one (Trigify, Exa, GTM Grid, Smuggler,
  Fireflies and more), scoring and routing logic, and a Signal → Pain → Bridge →
  Ask outreach framework with 15 worked examples.
---

# Signal Intelligence | Agent Guide

## What This Skill Covers

- What a buying signal actually is
- The first / second / third-party signal taxonomy
- How to identify the right signals for *your* specific business
- A master catalogue of 200+ signals organized by use case
- How to track each signal — which tools, what to monitor, and how
- Tool-specific playbooks: Trigify, Exa, GTM Grid, and others
- How to combine signals for maximum conversion

---

## Part 1: What Is a Signal?

A buying signal is any observable event that suggests a person or company is
entering a buying window, has a problem you solve, or is likely to be receptive
to outreach. The signal creates the *why now* — the reason you're reaching out
today rather than yesterday.

**Anatomy of a good signal:**

- **Observable:** you can detect it publicly or from data you own
- **Timely:** it indicates something changed recently, creating urgency
- **Relevant:** it connects to a problem your product solves
- **Actionable:** it tells you what to do next (who to contact, what to say)

---

## Part 2: First, Second, and Third-Party Signals

### First-Party Signals (Your Data)

Data you own. Lives in your CRM, product analytics, billing system, support
tickets, email, calendar, website analytics. Zero latency — you see it the moment
it happens.

**Examples:** product usage spike/drop, support ticket surge, billing downgrade,
contract renewal date approaching, NPS score change, feature adoption, login
frequency change, email engagement drop, meeting no-shows, deal stage stall.

**How to track:** Your own systems. CRM reports, product analytics
(PostHog / Mixpanel / Amplitude), billing (Stripe / Chargebee), support
(Intercom / Zendesk / Featurebase), calendar / email. Trigify can ingest these
via webhooks and CRM sync as part of the GTM Intelligence layer.

### Second-Party Signals (Their Public Social / Professional Activity)

What your prospects and their employees do publicly — on LinkedIn, X / Twitter,
Reddit, professional communities. These are person-level, public, and proprietary
to the platform they live on. This is Trigify's core domain.

**Examples:** job change, company hiring, posting about relevant topics, engaging
with competitor content, buying-intent posts, role changes, company expansion
posts, leadership changes.

**How to track:** Trigify Social Signals (15 signal types, see Part 5), Trigify
social listening searches, LinkedIn profile monitoring, X / Twitter monitoring.

### Third-Party Signals (News, Data, Events Outside)

Publicly available information from the web — news articles, press releases,
funding databases, job boards, regulatory filings, review sites, analyst reports.
These are company-level, publicly accessible, and discoverable via web search.

**Examples:** funding rounds, acquisitions, layoffs, product launches, lawsuits,
regulatory changes, office openings/closings, executive hires, award wins,
earnings reports, new legislation, industry reports.

**How to track:** Exa (web search — news, blogs, press), Google Alerts,
Crunchbase, LinkedIn company pages, job boards, SEC filings, Glassdoor,
G2/Capterra, industry publications.

---

## Part 3: How to Identify the Right Signals for YOUR Business

Don't start with a signal catalogue. Start with your business model.

### Step 1: Define Your Buying Motion

| Motion | Signal Focus | Example ICP |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound SDR (high volume) | Second-party social signals showing active shopping or change | B2B SaaS selling to RevOps/GTM buyers |
| ABM / Account-Based (named accounts) | Company-level third-party + second-party signals on a watchlist | Enterprise selling to Fortune 500 |
| PLG / Product-Led (self-serve → expand) | First-party usage signals in your own product | Developer tools, freemium SaaS |
| Expansion / Upsell (existing customers) | First-party usage + second-party hiring/growth signals | Customer Success at B2B SaaS |
| Churn Prevention | First-party usage decline + second-party job changes | Customer Success at any SaaS |
| Channel / Partner | Third-party market expansion signals | Reseller/VAR ecosystems |

### Step 2: Map Your ICP to Signals

Ask these five questions:

1. **What triggers a purchase?** New role? Funding? Competitor dissatisfaction? Compliance deadline? Growth milestone?
2. **Who experiences the pain?** What job titles? What does their day look like? Where do they complain?
3. **What does the buying committee look like?** Champion (user), economic buyer (VP/C-suite), technical evaluator. Signals for each differ.
4. **What's the typical timeline?** Impulse (SDR tools, under $500/mo), considered (2–6 weeks), enterprise (3–12 months). Short timelines need immediate signals; long timelines need early indicators.
5. **What would make someone switch from their current solution?** This is the most powerful signal category.

### Step 3: Prioritize by Signal Strength

Not all signals are equal. Rank yours:

| Tier | Signal Strength | Examples | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — Pull the trigger | Direct evidence of active buying or immediate need | "Looking for a new CRM," competitor dissatisfaction, champion just got budget authority, funding round closed | Reach out within 24 hours with specific context |
| Tier 2 — Nurture | Suggests a window may be opening | New role, company hiring for relevant function, conference attendance, relevant blog post | Add to nurture sequence, engage on social |
| Tier 3 — Accumulate | Weak individually, strong in combination | Liked your content, visited pricing page, following competitors, growing team | Monitor and surface when accumulation crosses threshold |

### Step 4: Build Your Signal Stack

Start with 5–8 signals that map to your top 3 buying triggers. Add more as you
validate conversion. The most common mistake is enabling 50 signals and drowning
in noise. **Precision > volume.**

---

## Part 4: The Master Signal Catalogue

Organized by business use case: New Business, ABM/Targeted Account, Account
Expansion, Customer Success/Upsell, and Churn Prevention. Each entry: signal
name, how to track it, and recommended tools.

### Section A: New Business (Net-New Prospects)

These signal that a company or person you haven't spoken to before may be
entering a buying window.

#### A1: People Signals (person-level)

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| New Job / Role Change | Monitor LinkedIn profiles of ICP titles for job changes | Trigify `changed_role`, LinkedIn alerts, Sales Navigator |
| New to Company | Person moved to a new company — fresh stack evaluation window | Trigify `changed_company` |
| Promotion | More budget, more authority, new priorities | Trigify `changed_role` (title upgrade subset), LinkedIn monitoring |
| Posted About Relevant Topic | Publicly writing about a problem you solve | Trigify `posted_about_tracked_topic`, keyword searches |
| Posted About Buying / Evaluating | "Looking for recommendations for X" or "Evaluating X vs Y" | Trigify `buying_window`, social listening with buying-intent keywords |
| Engaged With Competitor Content | Liked, commented on, or shared a competitor's post | Trigify `liked_competitor_content`, `competitor_engagement` |
| Engaged With Your Content | Interacted with your company's LinkedIn posts | Trigify `liked_tracked_company_content`, engagement monitoring |
| Asked a Question in a Community | Posted in Slack/Discord/Reddit about a problem | Trigify Reddit/community monitoring, manual Slack scanning |
| Commented on Tracked Content | Left comments on specific posts you're watching | Trigify `commented_on_tracked_content` |
| Became Hiring | Posted a job ad themselves (founder/hiring manager) | Trigify `became_hiring` |
| Published Thought Leadership | Wrote an article, newsletter, or thread on a relevant topic | Trigify `influence`, `posted_about_tracked_topic`, Substack monitoring |
| Followed Your Company Page | Just followed your LinkedIn page | LinkedIn page analytics, Trigify profile monitoring |
| Attended a Webinar / Event | Registered for or attended your event | Zoom/WebinarJam registration lists, event platforms |
| Downloaded a Lead Magnet | Downloaded a whitepaper, template, guide, or tool | Your website analytics, form submissions, CRM |
| Visited Pricing Page | Multiple visits to pricing or demo pages | Website analytics (GA/PostHog), Clearbit Reveal, RB2B |
| Visited Competitor Comparison Page | On your site reading "X vs Y" comparisons | Website analytics, content-specific tracking |
| New LinkedIn Connection | Just connected with you or your sales team | LinkedIn notifications, CRM connection tracking |
| Birthday / Work Anniversary | Low-signal but valid conversation opener | LinkedIn notifications, CRM enrichment |
| Speaker at a Conference | Speaking at an industry event — thought leadership + visibility | Event websites, LinkedIn event posts, Exa news search |
| Changed Profile Photo or Bio | Updating LinkedIn presence — often signals active job searching | Trigify profile monitoring |
| Endorsed Someone for Skills | Recent LinkedIn activity — active on platform | LinkedIn monitoring |
| Joined a New LinkedIn Group | Joined a professional group related to your space | LinkedIn group monitoring (limited) |
| Posted a Job Ad Themselves | Founder or exec directly recruiting — growth/urgency | Trigify `became_hiring`, LinkedIn job posts |
| Changed Location | Moved to a new city/country | Trigify profile monitoring, LinkedIn |
| Completed a Certification | New skills or credentials — often precedes role change | LinkedIn profile updates |
| Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile | ICP title checked out your profile | Smuggler.dev profile view alerts |
| Sent You a Connection Request | ICP title connected with you unprompted | Smuggler.dev connection monitoring, LinkedIn notifications |
| DM'd You on LinkedIn | ICP title messaged you — highest intent inbound signal | Smuggler.dev message monitoring, LinkedIn inbox |
| Engaged With Your Post (Non-Connection) | Someone outside your network liked/commented on your post | Smuggler.dev post engagement tracking |

#### A2: Company Signals (company-level)

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Funding Round Announced | Press release, Crunchbase, TechCrunch, company blog | Exa web search, Google Alerts, Crunchbase, PitchBook |
| Company Hiring for Relevant Roles | Job postings indicating they're building the function you serve | Trigify `company_started_hiring`, LinkedIn job search, Indeed, Greenhouse |
| Job Count Increased | Headcount growth acceleration | Trigify `company_jobs_count_increased` |
| New Product or Feature Launch | Announced something new — strategic shift or growth | Exa news search, Product Hunt, company blog, TechCrunch |
| Merger or Acquisition | Bought or was bought — tech stack consolidation | Exa news, press releases, SEC filings, Crunchbase |
| Entered New Market or Geo | Expanding to new country or vertical | Exa news, company blog, LinkedIn company page updates |
| Opened New Office | Physical expansion — growth signal | Exa news, local business press, LinkedIn company updates |
| Closed Office or Downsized Location | Retrenchment — may signal restructuring | Exa news, local press |
| Rebranded or New Website | New name, logo, website — often a strategic pivot | Visualping, Exa news, BuiltWith |
| New Executive Hire | C-suite or VP hire — new priorities, new budget, new tool evaluation | Exa news, LinkedIn company page, press releases |
| Executive Departure | C-suite or VP left — instability or strategic shift | Exa news, LinkedIn, press |
| Layoffs / RIF | Reduced workforce — restructuring, budget reallocation | Exa news, Layoffs.fyi, LinkedIn posts, WARN notices |
| Leadership Restructuring | Reorganization — new decision-makers, new priorities | Exa news, LinkedIn, company blog |
| New Management Strategy | CEO letter, strategy change announcement | Exa news, company blog, earnings calls |
| Won an Award | Industry recognition — growth and credibility | Exa news, industry publications, award sites |
| Featured in Analyst Report | Gartner MQ, Forrester Wave — often triggers tool evaluation | Exa news, analyst firm websites, press releases |
| Good Quarter / Earnings Beat | Strong results — expansion budget unlocked | Exa news, earnings calls, financial news |
| Bad Quarter / Earnings Miss | Poor results — cost-cutting OR new tool investment | Exa news, earnings calls, financial news |
| Revenue Milestone | ARR announcement, revenue milestone | Exa news, company blog, press releases, TechCrunch |
| Customer Milestone | "X customers," "Y users" announcement — growth signal | Exa news, company blog |
| New Partnership Announced | Strategic partnership — ecosystem expansion | Exa news, press releases, LinkedIn |
| Changed CRM or Tech Stack | Adopted/dropped a tool (job posts mentioning tools) | Exa search + job postings, BuiltWith, StackShare |
| New Tool Adoption | Publicly mentioned adopting a tool in your ecosystem | Exa news, LinkedIn posts, job postings |
| Change in Marketing Agency | Hired/fired an agency — may re-evaluate martech | Exa news, agency announcements, LinkedIn |
| IPO Filed or Rumored | Going public — process/compliance tooling upgrade | Exa news, SEC EDGAR, financial news |
| Lawsuit Filed or Resolved | Legal action — may trigger compliance/security tooling | Exa news, PACER, legal databases, press |
| Regulatory Action | Fined, investigated, or new regulation applies | Exa news, government agency sites, industry press |
| Cybersecurity Incident / Breach | Data breach — immediate security tooling need | Exa news, HaveIBeenPwned, security press, SEC filings |
| Website Traffic Spike or Drop | Significant traffic change — growth or trouble | SimilarWeb, SEMrush, Ahrefs |
| SEO / SEM Spend Increase | Spending more on search — growth or new market entry | SEMrush, Ahrefs, BuiltWith, ad monitoring |
| New Marketing Channel | Started podcast, YouTube, newsletter — growth activity | Exa news, company blog, platform-specific search |
| Changed Marketing Budget | Publicly discussed marketing investment changes | Exa news, earnings calls, marketing press |
| Event Sponsorship or Exhibition | Sponsoring a conference — growth/visibility play | Exa news, event websites, LinkedIn |
| Change in Inbound vs Outbound Strategy | Shift in sales approach — new tooling needs | Exa news, job postings for SDR/AE roles, company blog |
| Negative Press Coverage | Bad PR — crisis mode, may need new tools/agencies | Exa news, Google News, X |
| Positive Press Coverage | Good PR — growth moment, awareness spike | Exa news, Google News |
| Supply Chain Issues | Public supply chain problems — logistics/procurement tools | Exa news, industry publications |
| Product Recall | Recalled a product — crisis, quality/compliance tools | Exa news, CPSC, FDA, industry press |
| Selling Assets or Divesting | Selling business units — restructuring | Exa news, financial press |
| Facing Piracy or IP Issues | IP theft — legal/security needs | Exa news, legal press, TorrentFreak |
| Offering Free Trials or Freemium | New pricing model — growth push | Website monitoring, Exa news |
| Published Case Study With a Competitor | Publicly endorsing a competitor | Exa search, competitor case studies, LinkedIn |
| Competitor Launched a Feature Targeting Them | Competitor announcement mentioning their industry | Exa news, competitor monitoring |
| Customer Base Increase/Decrease | Public customer count change | Exa news, company blog, earnings calls |
| New Website / Major Website Change | Redesigned site — often accompanies repositioning | Visualping, BuiltWith, homepage monitoring |
| Website Security Issues | SSL cert expiry, defacement, downtime | BuiltWith, security monitoring |
| Change in Web Traffic Source Mix | Traffic shift from one channel to another | SimilarWeb, SEMrush |
| Increase in Software Expenses | Publicly discussed SaaS spend increases | Exa news, earnings calls, tech press |
| Shift in Sales Channel | Moving from direct to channel or vice versa | Exa news, job postings, company blog |
| Company Following Competitors on Social | Following competitors on LinkedIn/X | Social media monitoring |
| Employee Count Increase | Headcount growth above industry average | LinkedIn company page, Crunchbase, Exa news |
| Employee Count Decrease | Headcount reduction | LinkedIn company page, Layoffs.fyi, Exa news |
| Change in Employee Review Trend | Glassdoor/Indeed reviews turning positive or negative | Glassdoor, Indeed, RepVue, Exa news |
| Change in Customer Review Trend | G2/Capterra/Trustpilot reviews shifting | G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, review monitoring |
| New Legislation Affecting Their Industry | Regulatory change creates compliance needs | Exa news, government sites, industry associations |
| Industry Downturn or Upturn | Macro changes to their sector | Exa news, industry reports, economic data |
| Major Industry Development | Sector-defining event (new tech, consolidation, disruption) | Exa news, industry publications, analyst reports |
| New Technology Trend in Their Space | AI, blockchain, etc. affecting their vertical | Exa news, tech press, industry publications |
| Conference or Trade Show Announcement | Industry event where they might be present | Event websites, Exa news, LinkedIn |
| Participating in an Accelerator / Incubator | Startup in YC, Techstars — rapid growth phase | Exa news, accelerator pages, Crunchbase |
| Grant or Government Funding Received | Non-dilutive funding — R&D, innovation grants | Exa news, government grant databases, SBIR/STTR |
| Patent Filed or Granted | IP activity — R&D investment signal | USPTO, Google Patents, Exa news |
| Open Source Release or Contribution | Company released OSS — technical signal | GitHub, Exa news, tech press |
| Hiring Freeze Announced | Stopped hiring — budget caution | Exa news, LinkedIn, press |
| Return-to-Office Mandate | Office policy change — facilities/collaboration tools | Exa news, company blog, press |
| Remote-First Announcement | Going remote — tooling and process changes | Exa news, company blog, LinkedIn |
| DEI or ESG Initiative Launched | New corporate initiative — related tooling | Exa news, company blog, press |
| Sustainability Report Published | Corporate responsibility focus | Exa news, company website |
| Change in Billing Model | Moved from subscription to usage, etc. | Website monitoring, Exa news |
| Compliance Certification Achieved | SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA — signals maturity | Exa news, certification registries, company blog |
| Competitor Launched a New Product | A competitor of YOUR prospect launched something | Exa news, competitor monitoring, industry publications |
| Company Announced AI/ML Initiative | Building AI capabilities — infra, data, tooling need | Exa news, job posts for ML roles, company blog |
| Company Sunset a Product or Feature | Killing a product line — consolidation or pivot | Exa news, company blog, customer communications |
| Filing for Bankruptcy / Restructuring | Chapter 11, administration — major change | Exa news, court filings, financial press |
| Change in Ownership | PE/VC acquired majority stake — new tooling decisions | Exa news, Crunchbase, financial press |
| Spin-off or Divestiture | Business unit becoming independent — new tech stack | Exa news, financial press |
| Joint Venture Formed | Two companies forming a JV — new entity with needs | Exa news, press releases |
| B Corp or Benefit Corporation Status | Corporate structure change | Exa news, B Lab registry |
| New Board Member Appointed | Governance change — new priorities | Exa news, press releases, LinkedIn |
| Annual Report Published | Yearly review — strategy, priorities, challenges | Company investor relations, Exa news |

### Section B: ABM / Targeted Account Signals

Signals mapped to named accounts you've already identified as high-value targets.
You're watching specific companies for buying windows.

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Target Account Visited Your Website | IP-based identification of named account traffic | Clearbit Reveal, RB2B, 6sense, Demandbase |
| Target Account Visited Pricing Page | Named account on pricing — high intent | Clearbit Reveal, RB2B + page-level tracking |
| Target Account Downloaded Content | Gated asset download from target account | CRM + website analytics |
| Target Account Started Free Trial | Named account signed up — PLG entry point | Product analytics, CRM |
| Target Account's Champion Changed Jobs | Your contact left — risk or opportunity | Trigify `changed_company` on watched profiles |
| Target Account Engaged With Your Outbound | Opened email, clicked link, replied | Outreach/SalesLoft/Instantly analytics, CRM |
| Target Account Following You on Social | Company or key contacts followed you | LinkedIn, X analytics |
| Target Account Mentioned in Competitor Case Study | Competitor claims them as a customer — displacement opportunity | Exa search, competitor website monitoring |
| Target Account Running Competitor's Ads | They're promoting a competitor's product | Competitor social monitoring |
| Target Account Attended Competitor's Webinar | Engaging with competitor content | Competitor event monitoring, LinkedIn |
| Target Account Posted Competitor Job | Hiring someone to manage competitor's tool | Job board search with competitor name |
| Target Account's Tech Stack Changed | New tools added or removed — stack in flux | BuiltWith, HG Insights, job postings |
| Target Account Won a New Contract | Won business — may be scaling | Exa news, press releases |
| Target Account's Customer Satisfaction Dropped | Public complaints, negative reviews about current provider | G2, Capterra, social listening, Reddit |
| Target Account's Competitor Made a Move | Their competitor launched something — reactive buying | Exa news, competitor monitoring |

### Section C: Account Expansion (Existing Accounts)

Signals within accounts you've already landed — not new logos, but more seats,
more products, higher tier.

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Usage Spike | Account usage suddenly increased — ready for more seats/features | Product analytics (PostHog, Mixpanel, Amplitude) |
| New Department or Team Using Product | Different team started using unofficially | Product analytics by user domain/department |
| Key Contact Promoted | Champion got promoted — more budget and influence | Trigify `changed_role`, LinkedIn monitoring |
| Account Hired in Relevant Function | Staffing up the team that uses your product | Trigify `company_started_hiring`, LinkedIn job posts |
| Account Entered New Market | Geographic or vertical expansion — more users | Exa news, company monitoring |
| Account's Company-Wide Rollout Mentioned | Internal champion pushing wider adoption | CRM notes, CS calls, email |
| Account Asked About Enterprise Features | Feature requests for SSO, audit logs, permissions | Support tickets, CS calls, Featurebase |
| Account's Contract Renewal Approaching | 90/60/30 days out — expansion conversation window | CRM, billing system, contract management |
| Account Exceeded Plan Limits | Hit seat cap, usage cap, or rate limit | Product analytics, billing system |
| Account Using API / Webhooks | Technical integration = sticky, expansion-ready | Product analytics, API gateway |
| Account Adopted a New Workflow | Started using a feature they didn't before | Product analytics, onboarding data |
| Multiple Users From Same Account Created | Organic bottom-up growth within account | Product analytics |
| Account Invited External Collaborators | Sharing with partners/clients — platform stickiness | Product analytics |
| Account Sent You a Referral | Referred another company — strong advocate | CRM, referral tracking |
| Account Agreed to Case Study | Willing to be public reference — expansion-ready | CRM, CS notes |
| Account Attended Your Event | Showed up to webinar, dinner, conference — engaged | Event platforms, CRM |
| Account's CSAT/NPS Score Increased | Satisfaction trending up | Survey tools, CS platform |
| Account Joined Your Community | Joined Slack/Discord/forum — deeper engagement | Community platform analytics |
| Account Submitted Feature Requests | Investing time to tell you what they need | Featurebase, support, CS calls |
| Account Integrated New Tool | Connected a new integration — expanding stack around you | Product analytics (integration events) |
| Account's Executive Became Your Champion | C-suite started engaging with your content | LinkedIn monitoring, event attendance |
| Account Asked About Uptime SLA | Evaluating for mission-critical use | Support tickets, CS calls |
| Account Requested Security Review | Procurement process starting — enterprise expansion | CS calls, security team communications |
| Account's Credit Card Expiring and Replaced | Billing change — often prompts plan review | Billing system |
| Account Added Payment Method | Added backup card, moved from monthly to annual | Billing system |
| Account's Team Size Grew Beyond Plan | More people than seats — natural expansion trigger | Product analytics, billing vs actual usage |
| Account's Email Domain Added New Users | New users with same domain signing up | Product analytics |

### Section D: Customer Success & Upsell

Signals from existing customers indicating they're ready to upgrade, cross-sell,
or add products.

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Asked About a Feature In Your Higher Tier | Feature gating working as designed | Support tickets, CS calls, Featurebase |
| Customer Compared Your Plans Publicly | Asked on social/community about plan differences | Social listening, community monitoring |
| Customer's Use Case Expanded | Started doing something new with your product | Product analytics, CS calls |
| Customer Asked for Training | Wants to skill up their team on your product | CS calls, support tickets |
| Customer's Industry Peers Upgraded | Competitive pressure within their vertical | Internal data on peer accounts |
| Customer Received Funding | Their company got investment — budget unlocked | Exa news, Crunchbase |
| Customer's Revenue Grew Significantly | Scaling — your product needs to scale with them | Exa news, financial data |
| Customer's Account Manager Changed | New CSM or AE — fresh discovery opportunity | CRM, internal handoff |
| Customer Renewed Early | Signed renewal before deadline — upsell window | Billing system, CRM |
| Customer Paid Annually | Annual commitment shows serious intent | Billing system |
| Customer Asked for Invoice / PO Process | Moving from card to procurement — enterprise trajectory | Billing communications |
| Customer's Executive Sponsor Changed | New exec — re-establish value, new priorities | LinkedIn monitoring, CRM |
| Customer Merged or Was Acquired | Entity change — more seats or new buying center | Exa news, CRM |
| Customer Launched New Product Line | New business unit = new use case | Exa news, company blog |
| Customer Mentioned You in a Case Study or Talk | Publicly endorsing — high expansion likelihood | Social listening, Exa news |
| Customer Attended Your User Conference | Invested time and travel — highly engaged | Event registration |
| Customer Joined Your CAB / Advisory Board | Customer advisory board — strategic relationship | Internal CAB roster |
| Customer's Product Usage Diversified | Using more features than before | Product analytics |
| Customer Asked About Multi-Product Bundle | Interested in cross-buy | CS calls, sales conversations |
| Customer Mentioned a Competitor's Feature | "X does this, do you?" — retention risk AND upsell | CS calls, support tickets |
| Customer's Industry Got New Regulation | Compliance requirement your product helps with | Exa news, industry monitoring |
| Customer's Headcount Grew Significantly | More employees = more seats needed | LinkedIn, Exa news |
| Customer Asked About SSO / Advanced Security | Enterprise readiness — precedes plan upgrade | Support tickets, CS calls |
| Customer Asked About API Access or Webhooks | Technical integration = deeper commitment | Support tickets, CS calls |
| Customer's NPS Detractor Became Promoter | Turned around a negative relationship | NPS surveys |
| Customer Asked to Be Design Partner | Wants to co-develop features — high investment | CS calls, product conversations |
| Customer Recommended You on G2/Capterra | Public review posted — advocacy signal | G2, Capterra monitoring |
| Customer Referenced You in a Job Posting | "Experience with [your product] required" — deep adoption | Exa job search |

### Section E: Churn Prevention

Signals that a customer may be at risk of leaving. Act fast.

| Signal | How to Track | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Product Usage Dropped Significantly | 50%+ decline in key actions | Product analytics |
| Login Frequency Declined | Users logging in less often | Product analytics |
| Key Champion Left the Company | Your advocate is gone — relationship at risk | Trigify `changed_company`, LinkedIn monitoring |
| Champion's Role Changed Internally | Moved to a different team — lost influence | Trigify `changed_role`, LinkedIn |
| Support Ticket Volume Spiked | Sudden increase in issues | Support system, Featurebase |
| Support Satisfaction Dropped | CSAT scores declining | Support system |
| Customer Asked About Data Export | "How do I get my data out?" — strongest churn signal | Support tickets, CS calls |
| Customer Asked About Cancellation Policy | Checking terms before leaving | Support tickets, CS calls |
| Customer Stopped Responding to CS Outreach | Gone dark — disengaged | CRM, email analytics |
| Customer's Payment Failed | Card declined, invoice unpaid | Billing system |
| Customer Downgraded Plan | Moved to lower tier — value perception dropped | Billing system |
| Customer Removed Seats | Reduced user count | Billing system, product analytics |
| Customer Disconnected Integrations | Removed integrations — reducing stickiness | Product analytics, integration health |
| Customer Started Using a Competitor | Detected via product analytics (competitor URLs) or social | Product analytics, Trigify competitor monitoring |
| Customer's Contract Renewal Passed Without Action | Auto-renewed without engagement — silent risk | Billing system, CRM |
| Customer Complained Publicly on Social Media | Negative post about your product | Social listening, Trigify keyword monitoring |
| Customer Left a Negative Review | 1–2 star review on G2/Capterra | G2, Capterra monitoring |
| Customer's Account Executive Left Your Company | Their AE churned — relationship gap | Internal CRM, HR system |
| Customer's Industry in Decline | Sector struggling — budget cuts likely | Exa news, economic data |
| Customer Had Layoffs | Headcount reduction = fewer seats, lower budget | Exa news, LinkedIn |
| Customer's Budget Was Cut | Explicit budget reduction conversation | CS calls, CRM notes |
| Customer Asked for Pricing Concession | Pushing for discount — value perception issue | CS calls, billing conversations |
| Customer Comparing to Competitor in Calls | Mentioning competitors more frequently | CS call transcripts (Gong/Chorus/Fireflies) |
| Customer Not Using Key Features | Core features adopted during onboarding now unused | Product analytics |
| Customer's Time-to-Value Exceeded Threshold | Onboarded but never reached activation milestone | Product analytics, CS platform |
| Customer's Billing Contact Changed | New person paying the bill — re-evaluation risk | Billing system |
| Customer Requested a Service Credit or Refund | Unhappy enough to ask for money back | Billing system, support tickets |
| Customer Escalated to Executive Team | Made it to CEO/CTO level complaint | Internal communications, support escalations |
| Customer's NPS Score Dropped Significantly | Promoter → Detractor in one cycle | NPS survey tool |
| Customer's Feature Requests Ignored for >6 Months | They asked and nothing happened — frustration builds | Featurebase, product feedback |
| Customer Experienced Downtime or Major Bug | Service disruption — trust erodes | Incident management, status page |

---

## Part 5: Tool-Specific Tracking Playbooks

### 5A: Trigify (Social Signals + Social Listening)

Trigify gives you 15 native signal types across person and company monitoring.
These are second-party signals — public social/professional activity.

**Trigify Person/Profile Signals**

| Signal Type | What It Detects | Required Config | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| `changed_role` | Person changed job title or got promoted | None | Timing outreach to new decision-makers |
| `changed_company` | Person moved to a new company | None | Fresh start = stack evaluation window |
| `became_hiring` | Person posted a job ad | `jobKeywords[]`, `locations[]` | Founder/hiring manager hiring = growth |
| `liked_competitor_content` | Person engaged with competitor's LinkedIn posts | `competitorCompanyUrls[]` | Active shopping behaviour |
| `liked_tracked_company_content` | Person engaged with your company's posts | `trackedCompanyUrls[]` | Warm leads, brand awareness |
| `liked_tracked_person_content` | Person engaged with a tracked individual's posts | `trackedPersonUrls[]` | Influence mapping |
| `commented_on_tracked_content` | Person commented on specific tracked posts | `trackedPostUrls[]` | Deep engagement signal |
| `posted_about_tracked_topic` | Person posted about a topic you're tracking | `topicKeywords[]` | Thought leadership, pain point articulation |
| `competitor_engagement` | Person engaged with competitor content above threshold | `threshold`, `competitorCompanyUrls[]` | Composite: high-intent shopping |
| `buying_window` | Person matched topic + role keywords — explicit intent | `threshold`, `topicKeywords[]`, `jobKeywords[]` | Strongest intent signal Trigify offers |
| `influence` | Person has thought leadership on a topic | `threshold`, `topicKeywords[]` | Partnership, content collaboration |

**Trigify Company/Account Signals**

| Signal Type | What It Detects | Required Config | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| `company_started_hiring` | Company posted jobs matching your keywords | `jobKeywords[]`, `locations[]` | Growth signal = tooling need |
| `company_jobs_count_increased` | Company's job count increased above threshold | `threshold`, `jobKeywords[]`, `locations[]` | Acceleration signal |
| `company_posted_relevant_initiative` | Company posted about a relevant initiative | `initiativeKeywords[]` | Strategic alignment |
| `expansion` | Company expanding to new locations | `threshold`, `locations[]` | Geographic growth |

**Trigify Social Listening (Keyword-Based)**

Beyond native signals, Trigify's search + workflow engine captures:

- **Brand mentions** — who's talking about you, where, with what sentiment
- **Competitor mentions** — who's talking about competitors
- **Pain point discovery** — people posting about problems you solve
- **Comparison shopping** — "X vs Y" discussions
- **Feature requests** — what people wish existed
- **Question mining** — people asking questions your product answers

Setup pattern:

1. Create a search that casts a broad net (keywords + platform)
2. Build a workflow that uses AI to extract specific signals from those results
3. Route qualified signals to Slack, CRM, or email

**Credit economics (as of 2026):**

- Social Signals: 1–32 credits per target per day depending on signal types enabled
- `buying_window` is the most expensive (17–32 credits/day — AI + enrichment)
- `changed_role` and `changed_company` are the cheapest (1 credit/day each)
- Estimate before provisioning — use the `/v1/social-signals/estimate` endpoint

**Trigify as a Second-Party Signal Engine: The Architecture**

```
ICP List (LinkedIn URLs)
    ↓
Social Signals Subscriptions (15 signal types, daily checks)
    ↓
Signal Results (typed, scored, with evidence URLs)
    ↓
Scoring + Routing Logic (tiered: Hot/Warm/Manual)
    ↓
Downstream Action: CRM task | Slack alert | Email | Smuggler/Lemlist campaign
```

Proven pattern from Trigify's own ICP pilot (100 B2B SaaS GTM profiles, 8 signals):

- **Tier 1 (pull trigger):** `buying_window`, `liked_competitor_content`, `changed_role`, `company_started_hiring`
- **Tier 2 (nurture):** `posted_about_tracked_topic`, `changed_company`, `company_jobs_count_increased`
- **Tier 3 (accumulate):** `engaged_with_tracked_topic`
- **Cost:** ~3–9k credits/day for 100 profiles
- **Routing:** Smuggler A "Hot" / Smuggler B "Warm" / Manual queue

### 5B: Exa (Web Search for Third-Party Signals)

Exa is your search engine for third-party signals — news, funding, press
releases, job postings, regulatory filings, and everything that lives on the
public web outside social platforms.

| Signal Category | Exa Search Approach | Example Query |
|---|---|---|
| Funding rounds | Search for "[company] funding" + time filter | `"Acme Corp" funding round 2026` |
| Executive hires | Search for "[company] appoints/hires [title]" | `"hires" "chief revenue officer" SaaS` |
| Product launches | Search for "[company] launches/announces [product]" | `"Clay" launches new feature` |
| M&A activity | Search for "[company] acquires/merges" | `"Apollo" acquires` |
| Layoffs | Search for "[company] layoffs/restructuring" | `"tech layoffs" June 2026` |
| Legal/regulatory | Search for "[company] lawsuit/fine/SEC" | `SEC filing data breach SaaS` |
| Industry developments | Search for "[industry] report/trend/analysis" | `"GTM tools market" report 2026` |
| Competitor monitoring | Search for "[competitor] announces" + time filter | `"Common Room" announces` |
| Earnings reports | Search for "[company] Q2 2026 earnings" | `"salesforce" quarterly results` |
| Job postings | Search for "[tool name] experience required" | `"Trigify experience" OR "Trigify specialist"` |
| Partner/channel news | Search for "[company] partners with" | `"HubSpot" partners with "AI"` |
| Case studies | Search for "case study [competitor] [industry]" | `"case study" "Common Room" SaaS` |

**Exa Search Patterns for Signal Detection**

```
1. Funding radar:
"[company]" "series" OR "seed" OR "raises" OR "funding" -"looking for funding"

2. Hiring surge:
"[company]" "hiring" OR "expanding team" OR "growing our" -"always hiring"

3. Competitor displacement:
"switched from [competitor]" OR "replaced [competitor]" OR "alternative to [competitor]"

4. Pain point mining:
"struggling with [problem]" OR "frustrated with [tool category]" OR "looking for [solution type]"

5. New initiative detection:
"[company]" "launches" OR "announces" OR "introduces" -"coming soon" -"stay tuned"

6. Buying intent (blogs/articles):
"best [tool category]" OR "top [tool category] tools" OR "[tool category] comparison" OR "[tool category] review"
```

**Exa + Trigify: The Combined Workflow**

```
Exa builds the universe (firmographic search, company lists, static research)
    ↓
Trigify overlays the signal (social monitoring, buying intent, real-time activity)
    ↓
GTM Grid combines both into scored, enriched records
    ↓
Downstream action
```

Example: "Find 500 Heads of Growth at B2B SaaS companies and tell me which ones
are showing buying signals."

1. **Exa:** Search for "Head of Growth" + "B2B SaaS" → build list of names + LinkedIn URLs
2. **Trigify:** Feed those LinkedIn URLs into Social Signals subscriptions → detect `buying_window`, `posted_about_tracked_topic`, `changed_role`
3. **GTM Grid:** Combine Exa's firmographic data with Trigify's signal data → scored, routed leads
4. **Action:** Hot leads → Smuggler/Lemlist campaigns; Warm leads → nurture sequence

### 5C: GTM Grid (Signal Combination & Enrichment)

The GTM Grid (at gtmgrid.dev) is the combination layer where signals from
multiple sources get merged, scored, and enriched into actionable records.

**What the GTM Grid does:**

- Ingests data from Trigify (social signals), Exa (web research), Smuggler (LinkedIn enrichment), CRMs
- Applies scoring and routing logic
- Outputs enriched lead lists for outbound campaigns
- Runs enrichment columns: email finding, company data, ICP scoring

**Key columns for signal combination:**

- Trigify Social Signals → signal type, score, date detected
- Exa research → funding data, news hits, company events
- Smuggler enrichment → verified emails, LinkedIn profile data
- Custom scoring → combined signal strength

### 5D: Smuggler.dev (LinkedIn Activity Signals)

Smuggler.dev detects LinkedIn profile activity that Trigify's social signals
don't cover — the private interactions on your own LinkedIn account. These are
second-party signals from your LinkedIn, not public posts.

| Smuggler Signal | What It Detects | How to Use It |
|---|---|---|
| Profile view | Someone viewed your LinkedIn profile | ICP title + profile view = warm opener: "Noticed you checked out my profile — curious what caught your eye." |
| New connection request | Someone sent you a connection request | ICP connection = they already know who you are. Accept and message within 24 hours. |
| Connection accepted | Someone accepted your connection request | Green light to send a follow-up. Don't pitch immediately — reference something specific. |
| Message received | Someone DMed you on LinkedIn | Inbound from an ICP title is the highest-intent signal there is. Respond within 2 hours. |
| Post engagement from non-connection | Someone outside your network engaged with your post | Expand reach — send a connection request referencing the post they engaged with. |
| Endorsement received | Someone endorsed you for a skill | Low-signal but valid opener: "Thanks for the endorsement — what are you working on these days?" |

**Smuggler + Trigify combination:**

- Trigify tells you what prospects are doing publicly (posting, job changes, engaging with competitors)
- Smuggler tells you what prospects are doing *to you specifically* (viewing your profile, connecting, messaging)
- Together they give you the full picture: public intent + private interest

### 5E: Fireflies (Call-Based Signals)

Fireflies (and equivalents: Gong, Chorus, Granola) transcribes and analyzes your
sales and customer calls. These are first-party signals hiding in your own
conversations that most teams never systematically mine.

| Call Signal | What to Listen For | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor mentioned | Prospect/customer named a competitor — especially positively | Log as competitive threat. Attach battlecard. Flag for AE. |
| Budget mentioned | "We have budget for this," "Q3 budget," "just got approval" | Buying signal. Escalate priority. Move deal forward. |
| Timeline mentioned | "We need this by," "evaluating in the next," "going live in" | Real deal. Attach to CRM with specific dates. |
| Decision maker revealed | "My VP needs to sign off," "I'll loop in our CTO" | Map the buying committee. Research the new names. |
| Pain point surfaced | "Our current problem is," "struggling with," "biggest challenge" | Gold for positioning. Use their own words in your follow-up. |
| Feature request | "Do you have," "can your product do," "I wish it could" | Product feedback + expansion signal. Log to Featurebase AND notify CS. |
| Cancellation risk language | "Not sure this is working," "we might pause," "evaluating options" | Churn signal. Escalate immediately. |
| Expansion signal | "Other team might need this," "can we add more seats," "enterprise features?" | Upsell opportunity. Notify CS. |
| Champion enthusiasm | "I love this," "this is exactly what we needed," "game changer" | Ask for referral, case study, or introduction. |
| Objection raised | "Too expensive," "not a priority right now," "need to think about it" | Log objection type. Refine positioning. |

**How to operationalize Fireflies signals:**

1. Connect Fireflies to your calendar so all calls are auto-transcribed
2. Use Fireflies' AI summaries to surface key moments (competitor mentions, objections, action items)
3. Feed call transcripts into Trigify via webhook/API as part of the GTM Intelligence evidence layer
4. Set up Trigify workflows triggered on call-based signals (e.g., competitor mentioned → Slack alert + CRM task)

### 5F: Other Tools Quick Reference

| Tool | Best For | Signal Types Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Google Alerts | Free, set-and-forget company/competitor monitoring | News mentions, press, blog posts |
| Crunchbase / PitchBook | Funding rounds, acquisitions, company data | Investment signals, growth |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Manual prospecting + job changes, company alerts | Role changes, company growth |
| Smuggler.dev | LinkedIn profile views, connections, messages, post engagement | Private LinkedIn activity on YOUR account |
| Apify | Web scraping at scale — job boards, event sites, company pages, reviews | Job postings, event attendees, company data, reviews |
| Theirstack | Job posting intelligence — who's hiring for which roles, with which tools | Hiring signals, tool adoption, growth trajectories |
| BuiltWith / Wappalyzer | Technology stack detection | Tool adoption, stack changes |
| Glassdoor / RepVue | Employee sentiment | Culture/growth signals |
| G2 / Capterra / TrustRadius | Customer reviews, competitor reviews | Satisfaction, competitor displacement |
| Product Hunt | New product launches | Market entry, new competitors |
| SimilarWeb / SEMrush / Ahrefs | Web traffic and SEO data | Growth, marketing investment |
| SEC EDGAR | Public company filings (US) | Financial health, risk factors, MD&A |
| Layoffs.fyi | Tech layoff tracker | Restructuring signals |
| Fireflies / Gong / Chorus | Call transcription and analysis | Competitor mentions, budget/timeline, pain, churn, expansion |
| Mailstore / Google Vault | Email archive search for customer communications | Churn signals (your email history) |

---

## Part 6: Implementation Playbook — Starting From Scratch

### Phase 1: Define Your Signal Stack (Day 1)

- Pick 3–5 buying triggers specific to your business (e.g., "just hired a Sales Ops person," "competitor frustration," "raised Series A")
- Map each trigger to a signal from the catalogue above
- Assign each signal a tier (1/2/3) and a response SLA
- Document: what changes → who we contact → what we say

### Phase 2: Set Up Monitoring (Day 2–5)

- **Trigify:** Create a 100-profile ICP pilot with 5–8 Social Signals. Start with `changed_role`, `changed_company`, `buying_window`, `liked_competitor_content`, `posted_about_tracked_topic`, `company_started_hiring`. Estimate credits first, then provision.
- **Exa:** Set up a recurring research workflow for your top 20 target accounts — weekly check for news, funding, and executive changes.
- **Google Alerts:** Set up alerts for your top 10 competitors, top 20 target accounts, and 5 key industry terms.
- **Website:** Add Clearbit Reveal or RB2B for de-anonymizing website visitors.

### Phase 3: Build Scoring & Routing (Week 1–2)

- Create a scoring model: Tier 1 signals = instant route to outreach; Tier 2 = accumulate and surface; Tier 3 = log for pattern detection
- Set up Slack alerts for Hot signals
- Build CRM task creation for qualified signals
- Create the Google Sheet for tracking (see the social-signals-scoring-pipeline reference for the 5-tab sheet structure)

### Phase 4: Optimize (Ongoing)

- Track conversion: which signal types → meetings → pipeline → closed won
- Kill signals that never convert (precision > volume)
- Add signals that correlate with won deals
- Adjust scoring weights based on actual outcomes
- Expand monitored profiles as you validate the model

---

## Part 7: Pitfalls & Principles

1. **Precision over volume.** 5 high-quality signals > 50 noisy ones. Every false positive erodes trust in the system.
2. **Response time matters.** A Tier 1 signal responded to in 2 hours converts. Same signal in 2 days is dead.
3. **Context is everything.** A signal without "why this matters for them" is just noise. Every alert should include the reason and the recommended action.
4. **Don't over-automate early.** Run signals in semi-automated mode (alerts + manual review) for the first month. Automate routing once you've validated which signals actually convert.
5. **Second-party beats third-party for outbound.** Knowing a specific person just changed jobs (Trigify) is worth more than knowing a 500-person company is "showing intent" (third-party intent data). Person-level > account-level.
6. **Credit discipline.** Estimate before provisioning. Social Signals billing is per successful check, not per signal produced. Empty days still cost. Budget for max, not min.
7. **Signal decay is real.** A funding round from 6 months ago means nothing. A job change from 2 weeks ago is gold. Weight signals by recency.
8. **Combine, don't silo.** A single signal rarely converts alone. The magic is: funding round (Exa) + hiring SDRs (Trigify) + visited pricing page (website) = triple-confirmed buying window.

---

## Part 8: Setup Guides — How to Actually Configure Each Signal Source

This section is the "go do this" companion to Part 5. For each tool, here are the
exact steps, configs, and queries to get signals flowing.

### 8A: Trigify Social Signals — Exact Setup

**Step 1: Estimate credits first. Always.**

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.trigify.io/v1/social-signals/estimate" \
  -H "x-api-key: $TRIGIFY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "targets": [{"linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/example"}],
    "config": {
      "version": 1,
      "signals": [
        {"type": "changed_role", "config": {}},
        {"type": "changed_company", "config": {}},
        {"type": "buying_window", "config": {
          "threshold": 70,
          "topicKeywords": ["social listening", "buying signals", "intent data"],
          "jobKeywords": ["Head of Sales", "RevOps", "GTM", "Growth"]
        }},
        {"type": "liked_competitor_content", "config": {
          "competitorCompanyUrls": ["linkedin.com/company/common-room-hq", "linkedin.com/company/clay-labs"]
        }},
        {"type": "company_started_hiring", "config": {
          "jobKeywords": ["SDR", "AE", "RevOps", "Sales"],
          "locations": ["United Kingdom", "United States", "Remote"]
        }},
        {"type": "posted_about_tracked_topic", "config": {
          "topicKeywords": ["outbound", "pipeline", "signal-based selling", "GTM"]
        }},
        {"type": "company_jobs_count_increased", "config": {
          "threshold": 2,
          "jobKeywords": ["SDR", "AE", "Sales", "Growth"],
          "locations": ["United Kingdom", "United States"]
        }}
      ]
    }
  }'
```

This returns `daily_credit_range: {min, max}`. If it fits your budget, proceed.

**Step 2: Subscribe your ICP profiles.**

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.trigify.io/v1/social-signals/subscriptions" \
  -H "x-api-key: $TRIGIFY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "subscriptions": [
      {"linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/prospect-1"},
      {"linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/prospect-2"}
    ],
    "config": { "...": "same config from estimate step" }
  }'
```

Batch in groups of 10–15. The response echoes full config per subscription —
bigger batches flood your context.

**Step 3: Verify subscriptions are active.**

```bash
curl -X GET "https://api.trigify.io/v1/social-signals/subscriptions?status=ACTIVE" \
  -H "x-api-key: $TRIGIFY_API_KEY"
```

**Step 4: Check results daily.**

```bash
curl -X GET "https://api.trigify.io/v1/social-signals/results?page_size=50&signal_date_from=$(date -I -d '1 day ago')" \
  -H "x-api-key: $TRIGIFY_API_KEY"
```

### 8B: Trigify Keyword Searches — Exact Setup

For social listening beyond native signals (brand mentions, competitor mentions,
pain point mining).

**Buying intent search (LinkedIn posts):**

```bash
trigify search create linkedin-posts \
  --name "Buying Intent — CRM Evaluation" \
  --keywords "looking for a CRM" "evaluating CRM" "CRM recommendations" "best CRM for" \
  --keywordsAnd "B2B" \
  --keywordsNot "job" "hiring" \
  --frequency DAILY
```

**Competitor displacement search (Reddit):**

```bash
trigify search create reddit-posts \
  --name "Competitor Dissatisfaction" \
  --keywords "switched from [competitor]" "replaced [competitor]" "[competitor] alternative" "frustrated with [competitor]" \
  --frequency DAILY
```

**Pain point search (X/Twitter):**

```bash
trigify search create twitter-posts \
  --name "Outbound Tool Pain" \
  --keywords "\"outbound is broken\"" "\"cold email not working\"" "\"SDR team struggling\"" "\"pipeline dried up\"" \
  --frequency DAILY
```

**Question mining (LinkedIn):**

```bash
trigify search create linkedin-posts \
  --name "GTM Questions" \
  --keywords "how do you handle" "what tool for" "any recommendations for" "what's everyone using for" \
  --keywordsAnd "outbound" "sales" "pipeline" "GTM" \
  --frequency DAILY
```

Then attach a workflow to extract and route signals from the search:

1. Look up workflow examples: `trigify workflow examples`
2. Create a workflow: New Post trigger → AI agent (sentiment/qualify) → IF (passes filter) → Slack notification or CRM task
3. Test with a real post: `trigify workflow test --id <workflow_id> --post-json '<real_post_json>'`

### 8C: Exa — Recurring Signal Queries

Set these up as recurring searches (weekly or daily). Run them manually or via cron.

**Weekly funding radar (run every Monday):**

```
"[target company 1]" OR "[target company 2]" OR "[target company 3]" "series" OR "seed" OR "raises" OR "funding" OR "investment" after:2026-01-01
```

Combine with Exa's recency filter to only get last-7-days results.

**Weekly exec hire detection:**

```
"[target company]" "appoints" OR "hires" OR "joins" OR "named" "chief" OR "VP" OR "head of" after:2026-01-01
```

**Weekly competitor launch monitoring:**

```
"[competitor 1]" OR "[competitor 2]" OR "[competitor 3]" "launches" OR "announces" OR "introduces" OR "unveils" after:2026-01-01
```

**Daily layoff tracking (for displacement plays):**

```
"layoffs" OR "reduction in force" OR "restructuring" OR "job cuts" SaaS OR software OR tech after:2026-01-01
```

**Weekly case study detection (who's endorsing competitors):**

```
"case study" "[competitor name]" OR "customer story" "[competitor name]" OR "how we use [competitor name]"
```

Automation pattern: Write a cron job that runs each Exa query, extracts company
names from the results, cross-references against your ICP list, and surfaces
matches to Slack.

### 8D: Google Alerts — Free Setup (5 Minutes)

Create these alerts at google.com/alerts. Use exact-match quotes for precision.

| Alert | Query | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor launches | `"[competitor] launches" OR "[competitor] announces"` | As-it-happens |
| Competitor funding | `"[competitor] funding" OR "[competitor] raises"` | As-it-happens |
| Target account news | `"[account name]"` (one alert per top-10 account) | Once/day |
| Industry regulation | `"[your industry] regulation" OR "[your industry] legislation"` | Once/week |
| Executive moves | `"appoints [title]" "[your space]"` | Once/day |
| Displacement keywords | `"switched from [competitor]" OR "replaced [competitor]" OR "[competitor] alternative"` | As-it-happens |

### 8E: Smuggler.dev — LinkedIn Activity Monitoring

Smuggler detects LinkedIn activity on YOUR account. Setup via the smuggler-tools skill.

**Profile view alerts:**

- Smuggler tracks who views your profile (with title/company data)
- Filter for ICP titles (e.g., "Head of Sales", "RevOps", "GTM Engineer")
- Route ICP profile views to Slack: "ICP profile view: [Name], [Title] at [Company] — viewed your profile. Reach out referencing specific content on your page."

**Connection request monitoring:**

- Smuggler detects incoming connection requests
- Filter: ICP title + relevant company size = accept and message within 24 hours
- Non-ICP: accept silently or ignore

**Message inbox monitoring:**

- Highest priority. Inbound from ICP title = respond within 2 hours
- Smuggler can auto-tag and notify on specific sender criteria

### 8F: GTM Grid — Combining Signals Into Scored Records

The Grid is where signals from all sources get merged into actionable lead records.

**Table structure (3-table pattern):**

1. **Accounts/People table (the universe):** LinkedIn URLs, company size, industry, title, fit score
2. **Signal Events table (append-only log):** signal type, source, date, score, evidence URL
3. **Campaign Queue table (actionable output):** combined score, routing tier, last contacted, campaign assignment

**Key Grid columns for signal scoring:**

| Column | Source | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| `trigify.latest_signals` | Trigify Social Signals API | Pulls recent signal types and dates per profile |
| `trigify.signal_count_30d` | Trigify Social Signals API | Count of signals in last 30 days |
| `exa.news_hits_30d` | Exa search results | Count of news mentions in last 30 days |
| `exa.funding_detected` | Exa search results | Boolean: funding round found |
| `smuggler.profile_views` | Smuggler API | Count of profile views from this contact |
| `smuggler.connection_status` | Smuggler API | Connected / Not connected / Pending |
| `ai.icp_score` | Grid AI | ICP fit score based on title + company |
| `formula.combined_signal_score` | Grid formula | Weighted sum of all signal columns |
| `formula.routing_tier` | Grid formula | IF combined_score >= threshold THEN "Hot" ELSE... |

**Signal scoring formula (Grid formula column):**

```
(
  IF(trigify.buying_window_detected, 40, 0) +
  IF(trigify.liked_competitor_content, 35, 0) +
  IF(trigify.changed_role_recent, 30, 0) +
  IF(trigify.company_hiring, 30, 0) +
  IF(trigify.posted_about_topic, 15, 0) +
  IF(exa.funding_detected, 25, 0) +
  IF(exa.news_hits_30d >= 3, 15, 0) +
  IF(smuggler.profile_views > 0, 10, 0)
) * ai.icp_score / 100
```

**Routing thresholds (Grid formula column):**

```
IF combined_signal_score >= 40 THEN "Hot"
ELSE IF combined_signal_score >= 20 THEN "Warm"
ELSE "Monitor"
```

### 8G: Fireflies — Call Signal Setup

1. **Connect Fireflies to your calendar.** Sign up at fireflies.ai, grant calendar access. All calls are auto-transcribed.
2. **Set up keyword alerts.** In Fireflies settings, add keyword trackers:
   - Competitor names (triggers on mention in any call)
   - "budget", "timeline", "decision", "approval" (buying signals)
   - "cancel", "not working", "too expensive" (churn risk)
   - "more seats", "other team", "enterprise" (expansion signals)
3. **Feed transcripts into Trigify.** Set up a webhook from Fireflies to Trigify:
   - Fireflies → Webhook on call completed → Trigify webhook endpoint
   - Trigify workflow: New webhook event → AI agent (extract signals from transcript) → Slack alert + CRM task
4. **Review weekly.** Pull the last 7 days of calls. Scan for the 10 call signal types in Part 5E. Any match → action.

### 8H: Apify / Theirstack — Job Board & Event Scraping

**Apify for job board monitoring:**

- Use Apify's LinkedIn Job Scraper or Indeed Scraper actors
- Set up a recurring run (weekly) scraping job postings for your target companies
- Filter for roles containing your keywords (SDR, AE, RevOps, etc.)
- Export results to Google Sheets or pipe into GTM Grid

**Apify for event attendee scraping:**

- Scrape event websites (Luma, Eventbrite, conference pages) for attendee lists
- Cross-reference attendees against your ICP (title + company)
- Route matches to your campaign queue

**Theirstack for hiring intelligence:**

- Search for companies actively hiring for specific roles
- Filter by: job title keywords + company size + industry + location + funding stage
- Export the company list → feed LinkedIn URLs into Trigify Social Signals
- Theirstack also reveals which tools companies mention in job postings ("experience with [tool name] required") — direct tool adoption signal

---

## Part 9: How to Respond to Signals — Lead With the Pain, Not the Signal

This is where most signal-based outreach dies.

The amateur move: lead with the signal itself. *"Congrats on the new VP of Sales
role!"* This is weak because the signal isn't the story — the knock-on
consequences of the signal are the story. The signal is just evidence that
something changed. Your job is to connect that change to a problem you solve.

### The Rule: Signal → Pain → Bridge → Ask

| Step | What It Does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| **Signal** | The observable event (don't state it — use it as context) | VP of Sales just started a new role |
| **Pain** | What that signal means for them — the pressure, the inherited problems, the promises they made | They promised a 30/60/90-day plan. They inherited a team they didn't hire. They need quick wins to validate the board's decision. |
| **Bridge** | Connect their new reality to your value proposition | "The fastest way to show pipeline momentum in your first quarter is signal-based outbound — reaching prospects when they're actually in market, not spraying cold emails." |
| **Ask** | A low-friction next step that acknowledges their context | "Happy to share how [similar VP of Sales] used this to book 12 meetings in their first 30 days. Worth 15 minutes?" |

### Signal-to-Pain Mapping (15 Examples)

| Signal | The Amateur Response | The Pain It Creates | The Bridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| New VP of Sales role | "Congrats on the new role!" | They promised a 30/60/90 to get the job. Inherited a team they didn't hire. Need pipeline fast to justify the hire. | "New VPs tell us the fastest path to pipeline credibility is warm outbound triggered by live signals — not building lists from scratch." |
| New Head of Growth role | "Saw you just started at X!" | CEO hired them to hit a number. Auditing the stack. Everything is up for review in the first 90 days. | "Growth leaders in their first quarter typically re-evaluate their entire outbound stack. Happy to show you how [peer] built theirs on signal-based triggers." |
| Raised Series A | "Congrats on the funding!" | Took $10M+ with a mandate to 3x revenue. The clock is ticking. Every hire, tool and campaign is under board scrutiny. | "Post-Series A, the pressure shifts from 'can we grow' to 'can we grow efficiently.' Signal-based outbound gives you a measurable pipeline lever the board can see." |
| Company hiring SDRs | "Saw you're hiring!" | Building an outbound function from scratch. New SDRs need ramp time. They need pipeline now while the team trains. | "While your new SDRs ramp, social signals let you hand them warm triggers instead of cold lists — cutting ramp time from months to weeks." |
| Engaged with competitor content | "Noticed you liked Competitor's post!" | Actively researching the category. Comparing options. If you don't reach them now, they'll pick someone else. | "Most people who engage with [competitor] content are comparing options. Happy to give you the honest comparison so you don't have to piece it together from marketing pages." |
| Job change to a new company | "Congrats on the move!" | In evaluation mode for the first 90 days. Old vendor relationships are gone. Building a new stack from scratch. | "New roles come with a blank slate on tooling. Most RevOps leaders use their first quarter to replace what wasn't working at their last company." |
| Posted about outbound struggles | "Great post about outbound!" | Publicly admitting what they're doing isn't working. Team under pressure. Looking for answers. | "Your post on outbound struggles resonated — most teams are spraying cold lists because they can't see who's actually in market. That's exactly what signal-based outbound fixes." |
| Layoffs at target company | (Don't mention it — it's sensitive) | Doing more with less. Fewer reps, same quota. Efficiency isn't optional — it's survival. | "Teams running lean after restructuring tell us the only outbound that pencils out is reaching people who are actively showing buying signals." |
| Promoted to Director | "Congrats on the promotion!" | More responsibility, more visibility, more pressure. Need to justify the promotion with results. | "Director-level roles come with a board-facing pipeline number. Signal-based triggers let you show pipeline attribution that [previous tool] couldn't." |
| Company hiring RevOps | "Saw you're building RevOps!" | Formalizing operations for the first time. This hire was approved because something was broken. The new RevOps person needs to fix it fast. | "First RevOps hire usually means the GTM stack is being rebuilt from scratch. That's where signal-based routing replaces spray-and-pray." |
| Good quarter / earnings beat | "Great quarter!" | Have budget. Have momentum. Being asked "what's next?" by the board. | "Strong quarters unlock expansion budget. Most teams use that window to invest in infrastructure that compounds — not one-off campaigns." |
| Bad quarter / earnings miss | (Don't mention it — it's sensitive) | Under a microscope. Every dollar scrutinized. Need efficiency, not new spend. | "When pipeline is under the microscope, the conversation shifts from 'more activity' to 'better signals.' That's where we help." |
| Competitor mentioned in call | (Internal signal — don't lead with it) | The deal isn't won. They're comparing. You need to differentiate or you'll lose. | "Based on what you mentioned about [competitor], the real difference is [specific thing]. Happy to walk you through why [peer company] made the same call." |
| Champion stopped logging in | (Internal — reach out to the champion, not about the product) | Something changed. They're busy, frustrated, or evaluating alternatives. Silence is the loudest churn signal. | "Haven't seen you in [product] lately — wanted to check if everything's working for your team or if something's changed on your end." |
| Viewed your LinkedIn profile | "Saw you checked out my profile!" | They already know who you are. Curious enough to click. The opener is already written — don't make it weird by stating the obvious. | Don't mention the profile view. Just reach out: "Your [company/role/post] caught my eye — particularly [specific thing]. Would love to connect." |

### The Principles

1. **The signal is never the opener.** It's the context you use to make your message relevant. Don't state what they already know happened to them.
2. **Lead with empathy for their new reality.** What changed for them because of the signal? What pressure are they under that they didn't have before? What promises did they make? What problems did they inherit?
3. **The bridge must connect to YOUR value, not generic advice.** "Signal-based outbound" only works if Trigify is your product. Replace with whatever you actually sell: "compliance automation," "developer tools," "supply chain visibility." The bridge is the link between their new pain and your specific solution.
4. **Sensitivity matters.** Some signals (layoffs, bad quarters, data export requests) should inform your strategy but never appear in your outreach. Use them to shape the message, not to lead with.
5. **The ask respects their context.** A newly promoted VP has no time. A post-funding founder is overwhelmed. A champion who's gone dark needs a soft touch. Match the ask to their bandwidth.
6. **Evidence beats claims.** "Other VPs of Sales we work with..." is more persuasive than "our product helps with..." Reference specific outcomes from similar roles or companies whenever possible.