Product usage signals
Product usage signals come from sign-ups, usage, limits, and settings inside your own product. They are the signals you own outright, and for product-led B2B SaaS they decide which free accounts sales should talk to first.
11 product usage signals
All B2B signalsProduct sign-up from an ICP account
Someone from a company that fits your ICP signs up for your free plan or trial.
Strong · The first 3 days after sign-up · Email, Rep alert, CRM
Product usage milestone
A free or trial account hits a usage event that predicts conversion, such as inviting teammates or connecting an integration.
Strong · Same day · Email, Rep alert
Several users from one company
Several people from the same company sign up for your product separately.
Strong · Once the third user signs up · Email, Rep alert
Usage limit reached
An account hits a plan limit on seats, credits, records, or features.
Strong · Within 24 hours · Email, Rep alert
Clicked a locked feature
A free or trial user clicks a feature that needs a higher plan.
Good · Within 24 hours · Email, Rep alert
Serious systems on a starter plan
An account on a low tier connects enterprise systems such as Salesforce or Jira, or builds heavily, without an enterprise plan.
Strong · Within a week of the connection · Rep alert, Email
Plan downgrade
A top-tier account downgrades, or signals it will at renewal.
Good · Within 30 to 45 days of the downgrade · Rep alert, Email
Usage drop
A paying account’s usage falls sharply against its own baseline.
Good · Within a week of the drop · Rep alert, Email
Teammate invited from another team
A user invites someone from a different department, such as sales inviting finance, into your product.
Strong · The 30 days after the invite · Email, CRM
Integration connected
A trial or free user connects your product to their CRM, data warehouse, or another core system.
Strong · The 2 weeks after the connection · Email, Rep alert
SSO or security review requested
An account asks about SSO, SCIM, audit logs, or sends a security questionnaire.
Strong · The month after the request · Email, CRM
FAQs about product usage signals
Product usage signals come from sign-ups, usage, limits, and settings inside your own product. They are the signals you own outright, and for product-led B2B SaaS they decide which free accounts sales should talk to first.
“Product sign-up from an ICP account”, “Product usage milestone”, “Several users from one company”, “Usage limit reached”, “Serious systems on a starter plan”, “Teammate invited from another team”, “Integration connected”, and “SSO or security review requested” 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 11 product usage signals, the most common plays run through email, rep alert, and crm. 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, PostHog, Slack, Segment, and Intercom. 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.
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.
CRM and network signals
The relationships and history you already own.
Tell us who you sell to
Bring your best customers, and we'll show you the product usage signals we would start with and the plays they would trigger. Signals run through our outbound and GTM engineering practice.