Signals

Signals are indicators of account activity or change that suggest a company may be receptive to outreach. They represent external triggers—like new hires, funding rounds, or job postings—that create engagement opportunities, even if the account hasn’t interacted with your brand yet.

What Are Signals?

Signals are one of four scoring dimensions Seam uses to prioritize accounts:

Dimension	What It Measures
Fit	Does the account match your ICP?
Intent	Are they interacting with your brand?
Signals	Are there external opportunities happening?
Reach	Can you engage with them?

While intent shows what accounts are doing with your brand, signals show when to engage based on external events and changes at the company.

Key Distinction: Intent = engagement with your content. Signals = external events creating opportunities.

Types of Signals

Buying Signals
Social Signals
Engagement Signals

Organizational changes that create opportunities:

New Hires - Hiring in specific roles relevant to your solution
Job Openings - Open positions indicating investment in certain areas
Promotions - Internal promotions within the buying committee
Champion Tracking - Previous customers moving to new companies
Funding Rounds - New funding indicating budget availability
Acquisitions - Company acquisitions or mergers

Intent signals (website visits, email engagement) are technically a subset of signals but are tracked separately in Seam’s Intent system.

Common Signal Use Cases

New Hire Outreach

Signal: Target account hires a VP of Sales or Head of Revenue OperationsOpportunity: New leaders often evaluate tech stacks in first 90 daysAction: Automatically add new hire to welcome sequence with role-specific messagingExample: When a company hires a “Director of Clinical Documentation,” trigger outreach with relevant use cases for that role

Champion Tracking

Signal: Previous customer or champion moves to a new companyOpportunity: Warm relationship can accelerate deal at new organizationAction: Alert sales team, trigger personalized “congrats on the new role” sequenceBenefit: Convert one customer into multiple by following champions

Funding-Based Timing

Signal: Series B company raises $20M funding roundOpportunity: Fresh budget and growth initiatives create buying windowsAction: Engage with growth-focused messaging about scaling infrastructureSegmentation: Track funding signals for companies under 500 employees, hiring signals for 500+ employees

Job Opening Intelligence

Signal: Company posts 5+ engineering rolesOpportunity: Rapid hiring indicates growth and potential tech stack expansionAction: Target with messaging about developer productivity or infrastructure toolsExample: “We see you’re scaling your eng team—here’s how we help companies grow efficiently”

Competitive Displacement

Signal: LinkedIn post mentions “frustrated with [competitor name]”Opportunity: Active dissatisfaction with current solutionAction: Automatically route to competitive sales team with comparison contentKeywords to monitor: Competitor names, pricing complaints, migration mentions

Conference & Event Signals

Signal: Key contact posts about attending your industry conferenceOpportunity: In-person networking opportunity or increased awarenessAction: Book meeting at event or trigger post-event follow-up sequenceBenefit: Convert event awareness into pipeline conversations

How Signals Trigger Automation

Signals power Seam’s automated plays by triggering actions when specific events occur: Example Play: New VP of Sales Outreach

Signal Detected: Company hires VP of Sales
  ↓
Filter: Fit Score = A or B
  ↓
Actions:
  1. Research new VP's background (previous companies, challenges)
  2. Find 2-3 additional buying committee members
  3. Enrich all contact data (emails, phones, LinkedIn)
  4. Add VP to "new executive" personalized sequence
  5. Route to appropriate account executive
  6. Notify SDR with talking points about tech stack evaluation

Build Signal-Based Plays

Learn how to automate outreach triggered by signals

Automated Air Cover

Signals enable “air cover” for mid-tier accounts that don’t justify manual SDR time:

Signal Fires

B-fit account posts job opening for “Data Engineer”

Automatic Prospecting

Seam finds 3 relevant contacts (Engineering Lead, VP Engineering, CTO)

Enrichment

Validates emails and phone numbers from 20+ data providers

Deployment

Adds contacts to automated nurture sequence without SDR involvement

Escalation

If contacts engage, escalate to human rep for personalized follow-up

This ensures no opportunities slip through while reps focus on A-tier accounts.

Signal-Based Segmentation

Different signals matter for different account segments:

Account Segment	Primary Signals	Why
Enterprise (1000+ employees)	New hires, promotions	Leadership changes drive evaluation cycles
Mid-Market (100-1000)	Funding, rapid hiring	Growth and budget availability
SMB (under 100)	Founding team changes	New decision-makers with different preferences
High-Growth	Series B+ funding, 50+ job openings	Scaling pain points emerge
International	New market expansion posts	Entering regions you serve

Configure plays with segment-specific signal triggers for maximum relevance. Seam monitors LinkedIn and Twitter/X for relevant signals:

Keywords to Track

Buying Intent Keywords
Competitor Mentions
Pain Point Indicators
Timing Signals

“Looking for recommendations for [your category]”
“Evaluating [solution type]”
“Need help with [pain point you solve]”
“Anyone use [your product] or [competitor]?”

Start with 10-15 high-signal keywords. Monitor results for 30 days, then refine based on which keywords correlate with opportunities.

Data Sources

Seam aggregates signals from multiple sources:

Category	Sources
First-Party	Website tracking, CRM, marketing automation, sales engagement
Job Data	LinkedIn, job boards, company career pages
Social	LinkedIn, Twitter/X (posts, likes, comments, shares)
Enrichment	ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lucia, 20+ other providers
Funding	Crunchbase, PitchBook, press releases
Intent	Bombora (offsite keyword surges)

The multi-provider waterfall approach ensures comprehensive signal coverage across geographies and company sizes.

Integration with Scoring

Signals contribute to account prioritization alongside Fit and Intent: High-Priority Account Example:

Fit Score: A (perfect ICP match)
Intent Score: High (visited pricing page 5 times)
Signal Score: High (just raised Series B, hiring VP Sales)
Reach Score: Low (not currently engaged)

→ Action: Top priority for immediate outreach with personalized, timely messaging This account has the right profile, is showing interest, has a trigger event, and isn’t being worked yet—perfect timing.

Fit Scoring

Combine signals with ICP scoring

Intent Tracking

Layer signals with engagement data

Best Practices

Prioritize quality over quantity

Don’t track every possible signal. Focus on 3-5 signal types that historically correlate with closed deals.

Personalize outreach based on the signal

“Saw you just hired a VP of Sales” is much more relevant than generic messaging. Reference the signal in your outreach.

Layer signals with fit

A funding signal only matters if the account is a good fit. Filter all signals through fit score to avoid wasted effort.

Set timing windows

Some signals are time-sensitive (new hire has 90-day window), others are durable (funding lasts longer). Adjust urgency accordingly.

Segment by account tier

A-tier accounts get manual, personalized outreach on signals. B/C-tier accounts get automated plays. Don’t treat all signals the same.

Test messaging by signal type

Funding-based outreach should sound different from new-hire outreach. A/B test messaging for each signal category.

Monitor signal-to-opportunity conversion

Track which signals actually lead to pipeline. Double down on high-converting signals, eliminate noise.

Viewing Signal Data

In Seam

Account Timeline - Chronological view of all signals per account
Signal Dashboard - Trending signals across your TAM
Play Triggers - Configure which signals trigger automation
Audience Filters - Segment by specific signal types

In Your CRM

Signals sync to Salesforce/HubSpot:

Recent signals displayed on Account records
Custom fields for signal types (new hire, funding, etc.)
Activity timeline showing signal history
Alerts when high-priority signals fire

Sales reps see signals in context with other account data.

Common Questions

How are signals different from intent?

Signals = External events at the company (new hires, funding, job posts)Intent = Engagement with your brand (website, email, ads)Signals indicate timing and opportunity. Intent indicates interest. Both together = high-priority account.

How quickly are signals detected?

Depends on source:

Social signals: Real-time to hourly
Job postings: Daily
Funding: Within 24-48 hours of announcement
New hires: 1-7 days (based on LinkedIn updates)

Can I track custom signals specific to my industry?

Yes. You can configure custom signal definitions based on keywords, role titles, or company attributes specific to your business.

Do signals consume credits?

Monitoring signals does not consume credits. Acting on signals (prospecting contacts, enrichment) consumes credits based on the actions taken.

How do I know which signals matter for my business?

Run a back-test: analyze your last 20 closed-won deals and identify common signals that were present before or during the sales cycle. Focus on those.

Can I get alerted when specific signals fire?

Yes. Set up Slack notifications, email alerts, or CRM task creation when high-priority signals occur on A-tier accounts.

Data

Intelligence

Agents

Management

What Are Signals?

Types of Signals

Common Signal Use Cases

How Signals Trigger Automation

Build Signal-Based Plays

Automated Air Cover

Signal-Based Segmentation

Keywords to Track

Data Sources

Integration with Scoring

Fit Scoring

Intent Tracking

Best Practices

Viewing Signal Data

In Seam

In Your CRM

Common Questions

​What Are Signals?

​Types of Signals

​Common Signal Use Cases

​How Signals Trigger Automation

Build Signal-Based Plays

​Automated Air Cover

​Signal-Based Segmentation

​Social Listening

​Keywords to Track

​Data Sources

​Integration with Scoring

Fit Scoring

Intent Tracking

​Best Practices

​Viewing Signal Data

​In Seam

​In Your CRM

​Common Questions

What Are Signals?

Types of Signals

Common Signal Use Cases

How Signals Trigger Automation

Automated Air Cover

Signal-Based Segmentation

Social Listening

Keywords to Track

Data Sources

Integration with Scoring

Best Practices

Viewing Signal Data

In Seam

In Your CRM

Common Questions