CRM and network signals
CRM and network signals come from the relationships and history you already own, from closed-lost deals and past replies to shared investors and partner overlap. They are the cheapest signals to act on, and the ones most teams leave unused.
8 CRM and network signals
All B2B signalsClosed-lost, revisited
A deal you lost months ago, at an account where something has since changed.
Good · 6 to 12 months after the loss, or when a new signal lands · Email, Ad audience
Lookalike of your best customers
An account that matches the traits of your closed-won customers, modeled from your own deals.
Early · Ongoing · Ad audience, Email
Mutual connection or shared investor
An account shares an investor, a board member, a former employer, or a close connection with you or your customers.
Good · Ongoing · Email, LinkedIn outreach
Customer growing a new team
An existing customer hires, expands, or launches a new team that could use your product.
Strong · While the team is being built · Email, Rep alert
Replied “not now”
A prospect replies to outbound that it is not the right time, and often says when would be.
Good · The date they named · CRM, Ad audience, Email
Replied “we are building this ourselves”
A prospect replies that they are building the thing you sell in-house.
Strong · Now, and again in 60 to 90 days · Rep alert, Email, CRM
Account overlaps with a partner’s customers
A target account is already a customer of one of your technology or agency partners.
Good · Ongoing · Email, CRM
Customer champion promoted
The person who brought you in at a customer is promoted, usually to a role with a bigger team or budget.
Strong · The first 90 days in the new role · Email, CRM
FAQs about CRM and network signals
CRM and network signals come from the relationships and history you already own, from closed-lost deals and past replies to shared investors and partner overlap. They are the cheapest signals to act on, and the ones most teams leave unused.
“Customer growing a new team”, “Replied “we are building this ourselves””, and “Customer champion promoted” are rated Strong, which means worth acting on this week on its own. The rest are worth a play when stacked with a second signal on the same account.
Each signal routes to the channels that fit it. Across the 8 CRM and network signals, the most common plays run through email, crm, and ad audience. Each signal page lists the play it triggers on every channel, with an example opening line.
Understory Agency tracks them in Clay, most often with Clay, HubSpot or Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Instantly, Claude Code, and Crunchbase. Each signal page lists the steps to detect it, the tools, and the play it triggers when it fires.
Other kinds of signals
People signals
Who just arrived, moved up or left, at the accounts you sell to.
Hiring signals
What a company is hiring for, which tells you what it is about to build.
Company event signals
Funding, launches, expansion and the other moments that reset budgets.
Tech stack signals
What a company installs, removes or outgrows.
Website visitor signals
Who is reading your pages, and which pages they read.
Product usage signals
Sign-ups, usage and limits inside your own product.
Social and content signals
What buyers post, like, comment on and ask in public.
Ad engagement signals
Which accounts see, watch and click your ads.
Event signals
Who is going where, speaking where and showing up to what.
Competitor signals
Your competitors’ customers, audiences and bad weeks.
Public record signals
Filings, permits, contracts and other records anyone can read.
Custom scrape signals
Signals nobody sells, built for one market with Claude Code and Apify.
Tell us who you sell to
Bring your best customers, and we'll show you the CRM and network signals we would start with and the plays they would trigger. Signals run through our outbound and GTM engineering practice.