Do you want to waste your limited budget on programs that don’t yield worthwhile pipeline? We don’t.

Most ABM programs target accounts without identifying the specific buyers driving decisions.

That's why we focus on contact-level signals that show you exactly who to reach and when.

Last year, we used contact-level signals to fuel our ABM program and drive 25% of our pipeline and 37% of our revenue in 2023.

At UserGems, we’re rethinking ABM using a signal-based GTM approach to make it more human and relevant. Here’s how to start targeting the people at your accounts at the right time.

Intent signals are overrated

In my position, I’m lucky to join customer and prospect calls to get an inside look at what other marketers are doing in their organizations. From these conversations, I keep hearing about one thing over and over and over again: intent signals.

The term suggests buyers are ready to purchase, but the reality is more complicated.

Intent signals often fail to show clear pipeline impact. In our experience working with revenue teams, most struggle to connect intent data to actual revenue outcomes. In fact, I usually hear the opposite: that they’re a nice-to-have addition to a tech stack but don’t deliver results.

These are some of the biggest issues I’ve heard about “intent” signals.

Issue 1: Too much data, no prioritization. Intent signal lists are massive, but they don't tell your team which accounts or contacts to prioritize first.

Intent signal lists are massive. Sure, you have the information you need (great!), but you’re also probably overwhelmed by what to do with it (less great!)

When you have data but no clear action steps, your revenue team struggles to identify priorities. Without clear playbooks or strong ops support, the data sits unused.

So-called 'intent' rarely indicates true buying intent

Signal lists tend to show all the companies that are supposedly showing “signals” without narrowing the list down to your priorities. You don’t get a clear picture about what stage in the buying journey they’re actually in with those intense signals.

“Intent” could just mean a prospect “downloaded an ebook” or “attended a webinar.” These signals often indicate research activity, not buying readiness. Again, this makes it nearly impossible for your revenue team to know which actions to take next to build the strongest possible pipeline.

Contact-level signals reveal who wants to buy within the company

Intent signals are typically account-level data.

Let’s say Coca-Cola is “showing intent.” According to its LinkedIn page alone, over 10,000 people work there.

Intent signals show account-level data without contact details. You know the company showing intent but lack the specific contacts driving that interest.

How do you do your outreach? It’s hard to provide personalized outreach when you don’t know the person you’re talking to. Without knowing who you're reaching, your outreach feels generic and impersonal. So you can see how not having contact-level data can be a huge problem.

The new era: contact-level buying signals

People buy from people. That means your outreach needs to target specific individuals, not just accounts. The person on the other end of your outreach is also human.

That’s why you need to start tracking buying signals at the contact level instead of only the account level. Understanding how individuals interact with your company can offer more actionable insights, telling you who to reach out to and giving you a clear reason why.

So which signals should you track at the contact level? These are the people signals that generated 25% of UserGems’ pipeline last year.

Tracking new hires & promotions

Did you know that if you reach out to a new executive within the first 3 months, they’ll convert 2.5x higher than after a year? In fact, new execs spend 70% of their budgets within their first 100 days.

After those first 100 days, you're competing for a much smaller budget. There will only be 30% of budget left after those first 100 days. You have to reach out at the right time, regardless of whether or not they’ve shown “intent.”

When people start a new job or get promoted, they're looking to make an impact quickly. That means it’s the best possible time for them to consider new solutions and technology.

💡 Pro Tip: UserGems’ New Hires & Promotions Signal automatically identifies buyers who are new to their roles in the accounts you care about. Then it uses workflows to push those contacts directly into the right cadence.

Tracking past champions

If they loved you once, they’ll probably love you again. In fact, previous customers are 3x more likely to buy again.

That’s why it’s so important to track past champions when they change jobs and move those people to the top of your prospecting list. (Yes, you still need to do the outreach. Don’t wait for them to come to you.)

In 2023, 17% of UserGems's sales-accepted pipeline came directly from the champion tracking signal. These were all previous customers, users, and prospects who started a new job at our ICP accounts.

Prioritizing past champions delivers better results than broad, untargeted outreach.

Here’s the proof:

📈 WorkRamp drives 15% of its BDR-generated pipeline with UserGems champion tracking.

📈 Dozuki increased ROI 9x within 6 months of launching its champion tracking program.

📈 Metadata sees 81% shorter sales cycles and 17% bigger contract sizes since tracking champion job changes.

How to make job change signals work for you

We don't use a traditional ABM platform at UserGems. So here’s how we do it: When accounts go live, we use UserGems to surface the buying committee and push that over to ADRs (our version of SDRs that focus on accounts). Champions, previous Closed Lost opps, and previous users are at the top of their list.

Combine signals with clear action steps for better outbound results

Okay, prioritizing the right people for your outreach is a great start. But once you get the signal, what do you actually do with those hot leads?

You need to know what action to take for each signal.

What does the email sequence look like? When do you send your outreach? That's how we set up our playbooks at UserGems, and we recommend you do the same. Your team needs clear next steps to take action.

Here’s an example of who does what at UserGems when they get the signal 👇

What we're seeing for 2024

Outbound is not a volume game. Outbound has always required quality over quantity, and this truth matters more than ever today. Your teams don’t have the time for it, and your prospects don’t have the patience.

The goal is going to be to make the human the hero, not the company. That means targeting individuals with your outbound and paid ad campaigns instead of only focusing on the account level.

Many cool tools exist, but they require team bandwidth to deliver value. I predict a lot of leaders will do everything they can to ease the burden on marketing teams.

How you can start turning signals into actions to grow pipeline

Tracking contact-level signals like new hires, promotions, and past champions will keep you focused on reaching out to the right people at the right time.

UserGems automates this entire process, from signal detection to action.

You can harness contact-level insights to fill your pipeline with the best prospects, the ones who are most likely to buy.

Many of the signals we're launching in the next few months are hard to track manually, but UserGems automates the entire process.

‍Book a demo to see how UserGems helps you reach the right buyers at the right time.