Power-up your pipeline
Signals are data points or events that provide reasons for your team to engage with specific prospects and accounts. How do signals impact pipeline generation?
We analyzed 4.2 million target accounts, 2.28 million opportunities, and consulted with 30+ revenue leaders to uncover signal benchmarks for GTM. Including perspectives from...
In this report:
Why pipeline generation is in hard mode
It takes more time, activities, and contacts to generate a new opportunity.
What revenue teams think about buying signals
Signals have gained traction and trust among GTM teams. Which ones work best?
Benchmarks for your signal-based plays
Find first-of-its-kind data about the efficacy of signals to make smarter GTM strategies.
It’s game over for spray and pray
Past UserGems research revealed that all roads lead to signal-based selling.
The solution for missing quota used to be to add more activities. But now outbound activities have reached unsustainable numbers and there’s nowhere left to go.
It takes 4x as many activities to book a meeting compared to 5 years ago.
The number of activities needed to book an outbound meeting in 2024 has quadrupled.
But that’s not the only change causing pipeline problems.
Increase in Average Days It Takes to Create a New Opportunity
Increase in Average Opportunity Duration (Deal Cycles)
Average contacts needed for opportunity creation
It takes 3x longer to create new opportunities than four years ago, and reps have to contact 1.5x more prospects to create a new opportunity.
And no, you’re not the only one feeling time drag on. Since 2020, companies have seen the length of deal cycles increase by 66% (and you can expect this number to keep trending up and to the right).
A new player enters the game
91% of revenue leaders reported that they are using, or plan to use, signals this year. But what do these leaders mean when they talk about "signals"?
We asked around to figure out a unified definition for signals.
Here's our definition:
Signals are defined as "moments of interest" – data points or events that provide reasons for your team to engage with specific prospects and accounts.
Did participants agree with this definition? Almost unanimously!
Criteria for good signals
Timeliness
identify the right time to target potential buyers
Relevance
sales and marketing have context to craft the right messaging
Accuracy
the data being surfaced and actioned is up-to-date and accurate
Actionability
teams can take direct action using the signal data in some way (send an email, create an ad audience, add to a sequence, etc.)
Company Signals vs. People Signals:
Strengths:
Helps with account prioritization, gives context for relevant messaging, uncovers warm accounts.
Strengths:
Uncovers exactly who to reach out to, provides a reason to engage, and allows for deeper, more relevant personalization.
Based on the definition above, buying signals can be categorized into two main types: people signals (data at the contact level) and company signals (data at the account level).
People signals and company signals are more powerful when used together. This is often referred to as signal stacking.
You cannot just spray and pray outreach anymore. Is cold outbound really hard? 100%. But if you're dialed in right, have a process, a foundation, and you understand who you're reaching out to, people are still spending money.
The signals backstory
What does the emergence of “signals” mean for your GTM?
Are revenue teams using signals or just talking about them? Are signals just a fad or a paradigm shift? And, most importantly, are they effective for pipeline generation?
Here’s what we learned from consulting with 30+ revenue leaders.
Signal trends among B2B revenue teams
A majority of respondents are currently using buying signals for pipeline generation
Two-thirds of respondents have been using signals in their GTM for 1 or more years
Over half said their company plans to expand its signal use in the next 12 months
- Signals aren't new to high-performing teams.
- If you’re not using signals, you’re already months, even years, behind.
- A minority of respondents indicate reluctance about rolling out signal motions until there’s more proven success.
Even though the general sentiment about signals is positive, respondents still shared plenty of reservations.
The most common concerns about buying signals are:
There are many valid use cases for buying signals. But how are your peers approaching their signal-based strategies? We asked them to share the role of signals in their current GTM motions.
The most and least popular use cases for buying signals are:
Most Popular
Less Popular
Most leaders use signals to identify and prioritize prospects most likely to convert. The most popular use cases reinforce the shift from spray and pray prospecting toward more efficient approaches.
These signals are currently the most popular among GTM teams:
Of the signals companies prefer for their signal-based strategies, there is a healthy mix of company and people signals.
This implies that, whether consciously or not, GTM teams already understand that effective pipeline strategies need account-level and contact-level data.
And this approach seems to be paying off!
Over half responded that buying signals have been effective or very effective
Over half of survey respondents reported that buying signals have been effective or very effective for generating new pipeline.
It’s hard to guess the future of signals, but it’s looking pretty bright.
Our prediction: more teams will adopt signals over the next year based on the positive trends we’re seeing.
New power-ups for your pipeline
The general consensus is that buying signals are an effective way to build pipeline.
That begs the question: Which signals work best?
We crunched the numbers from over 4 million accounts and 2 million opportunities to uncover how signals power up pipeline generation.
GROWTH & EXPANSION
Growth and expansion signals signify when companies are experiencing events that may impact willingness – or create a need – to buy new products and tools.
What we found:
- Not surprisingly, most growth-related signals have a positive impact on the opportunity creation rate.
- Of these signals, Funding is often the best buying indicator, even slightly more than IPO.
Percentage of companies that experienced opportunity creation lift by signal
IPO
Funding
Expansion
Acquisition
(Acquired company)
Acquisition
(Acquiring company)
Recommended actions:
- Monitor your target accounts for growth-related signals monthly. Many companies announce these news 1-3 months after the fact; the sooner you know, the more likely you can catch them within the buying window.
- Many vendors will reach out the same time as your team does. Think of creative and thoughtful ways to cut through the noise.
GROWTH & EXPANSION
Likely to be accompanied by new budgets, operational needs, strategic initiatives, and changing workloads.
Company-level activity can surface accounts but not individual prospects. Easy personalization for follow-up.
Getting this public information wrong makes your team seem sloppy.
Depending on your product/service, might not always indicate an immediate buying need.
COMPANY NEWS
Company news signals provide context on organizational changes such as product releases, new partnerships, legal issues, and awards or honors.
News signals like these can uncover company goals and product roadap, and are most commonly used for crafting relevant messaging.
What we found:
General company news aren't often a buying signal. Teams using these signals only see moderate (up to 25%) opportunity creation lift.
But they can provide contextual information to help your outreach to be more thoughtful and relevant.
Percentage of companies that experienced opportunity creation lift by signal
Partnership
Legal Issues
Product Announcement
Awards
Recommended actions:
While these news aren't buying signals, they provide contextual information to help your team's outreach cut through the noise.
When targeting enterprise accounts, these news can imply future organizational and strategic changes where your solution can help. If this is your motion, make sure your team can easily access the latest news where they do their outreach.
COMPANY NEWS
Might be helpful to understand the bigger picture about the target company.
Company-level activity can surface accounts but not individual prospects. Easy personalization for follow-up.
Getting this public information wrong makes your team seem sloppy.
Does not indicate an immediate buying need.
HIRING TRENDS
Company hiring signals uncover internal organizational changes, including hiring, firing, and management changes.
Signals in this category often prompt reevaluation of current tools and processes, and lead to accelerated purchasing decisions.
What we found:
Interestingly, both Hiring and Layoffs news are about equally likely to boost a team's opportunity creation rate.
Caveat: this depends on your product/service.
Percentage of companies that experienced opportunity creation lift by signal
Hiring
Layoffs
Management changes
Recommended actions:
- Monitor your target accounts for Hiring changes (e.g. job postings, news)
- Tailor your messaging to tactfully acknowledge the changes and how your product/service could help
- Make sure reps have this info to easily reference in their outreach.
HIRING TRENDS
Indicate potential shifts in a company’s priorities, strategies, and decision-making processes.
Find and prioritize recently hired or promoted prospects within the account.
For signals related to hiring changes, it’s important to get the information right.
Purchasing decisions are likely to be made quickly following hiring changes.
CUSTOMER COMPETITORS
The customer competitor signal enables teams to target competing companies of your current customer accounts. This signal helps organizations identify new ICP accounts in a proven category or industry.
What we found:
- Analysis of our own outbound found that Customer Competitors convert 2.5X higher than regular ICP cold accounts.
- Emails that mention competitors experience a 40% boost in opportunity creation rate.
Yep, you read that right. UserGems reps more than doubled their chances of converting an opportunity simply by namedropping an account’s competition.
Recommended actions:
- Build a competitor list for each of your best customers
- Prioritize going after companies in those categories either with prospecting and/or teaming up with Marketing for a 1:Many campaign
- Make sure reps have this info to easily reference in their outreach.
CUSTOMER COMPETITORS
Similar companies to customers (especially if they’re direct competitors) indicate a strong fit.
Need to identify prospects within the account like cold outreach, but can create FOMO in the messaging.
The more accurate this signal is, the more FOMO you can create in your messaging resulting in better conversion.
Not a trigger event; it can be run at any time.
CHAMPION TRACKING
Unlike Hiring Trends signals, these contact-level signals track individual job movements that indicate a new path into an account
Previous UserGems research shows that involving past contacts in an opportunity results in 114% higher win rates, 12% shorter deal cycles, and 54% higher deal sizes. There’s no doubt that past champions have a big impact on revenue.
How can you optimize your pipeline generation efforts to target the most valuable prospect types?
What we found:
Overall, the data shows that familiarity, relationships, and past experience positively impact pipeline generation efforts.
- Champion contacts had the highest positive impact on opportunity creation at a 58% lift
- Closed Won contacts weren’t far behind, boosting opportunity creation by 50%
- Interestingly, former Open Opp contacts are more likely to convert to an opportunity than past users (even if they never became customers!)
What does this mean for you? Optimize your signal-based plays for familiarity and affinity (what we call Champion Lifetime Value).
Recommended actions:
CHAMPION TRACKING
Surfaces individual buyers who are already familiar with your product/service.
Can be used to prioritize warmest buyers & accounts, build ad audiences, and send highly personalized emails.
The more accurate this signal is, the more FOMO you can create in your messaging resulting in better conversion.
Past champions in their new role are 3X more likely to make purchasing decisions within the first few months in their role. Familiarity also has long-tail benefits for nurturing
NEW HIRES & PROMOTIONS
The New Hires and Promotions signal comes from shifts in a company.
These signals often indicate it’s a good time for vendors to engage with a prospect or target account, as new executives spend 70% of their budget in their first 100 days.
What we found:
Our data shows that engaging new hires at target accounts can boost your opportunity conversion rate by +45%.
Promotions are not far behind, resulting in a 39% increase.
You don't want to use this signal too late, though! New executives convert 2.5x higher in their first three months vs. after one year.
This signal is especially beneficial for building new relationships, establishing in-roads into an account, and re-engaging with potential buyers.
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Increase in Opportunity Creation Rate
Recommended actions:
- Monitor your target accounts for New Hires monthly
- Don't ignore New Promotions in your target accounts (and your Customer accounts).
Both of these signals are good news for your pipeline.
(Conversely, these could be churn risks if the account is Current Customer. Let your CSM team know to set up a Slack or email alert when this happens.)
NEW HIRES & PROMOTIONS
Surfaces new buyers who have budget and incentives to make an impact in their first 3 months.
Can be used to prioritize buyers & accounts that are in a buying window, build ad audiences, and accelerate or de-risk open opportunities.
The more accurate this signal is, the more FOMO you can create in your messaging resulting in better conversion.
New executives are 2.5x more likely to convert in their first 3 months.
Cheat codes for signal-based GTM
Even though we found positive trends from using signals for pipeline generation, it’s important to remember that signals aren’t a silver bullet for more pipeline.
We surveyed revenue leaders, reviewed social media posts, and analyzed hours of discussions to find out how teams are adapting to the era of signal-based GTM.
Here are cheat codes to make signals work for your team.
Start with a clear ICP
You can't first build the signal-based approach. You need to have the ICP first, tinker with it, and fit those signals into the ICP – not the reverse.
When you start getting into a signal-led motion, there's so much operational work that goes into it to making it really effective for your organization. If you're not fitting that into an ICP first, you're just breaking the links in the chain of how the process should flow.
Taylor Corr
Samsara
Set up a pilot program first
What I've seen in the past happen is if you try to roll this out across an entire team right away, all it takes is one poor experience or something doesn't go right, and then everybody's just done.
I typically like to think about how we can select our best AEs, best SDRs and form a pilot program around that. At the end of the day, that helps you work out a lot of those processes to ensure a smoother process. Eventually, when you do want to roll it out to the entire team or additional sales teams, those processes are already fine-tuned.
Tyler Pleiss
Movable Ink
Get the timing right
For a lot of signals, speed to getting in contact with them can be huge. Prioritize the signals that actually move the needle so that your SDR team can jump on those, versus giving them way too many. Too many Slack notifications, too many lead assignments, they will feel super overwhelmed and the good signals end up buried and cold by the time they're ready to reach out.
Tara Robertson
Chili Piper
Prioritize and tier signals
Not all signals are created equal. Signal value is extremely variable based on who you're targeting and what your service or software is.
If you're targeting early-stage companies and sell software that improves onboarding and ramping, a hiring signal is a great sign. If you're targeting large enterprise organizations and are selling conversational intelligence, a hiring signal is much less valuable because enterprise organizations are always hiring and backfilling.
Brian Liebel
Ambition
Measure top of funnel efficiency
If we really break it down, using signals should lead to top-of-funnel efficiency. And that, in bare bones, means it should take fewer sales activities to get replies and fewer accounts and contacts to generate qualified meetings. This is efficiency – inputs and outputs – and you should measure this.
Measure lift against your baseline for cold outbound and you can get data in weeks. It shouldn't take more than 30 days to show that initial lift and show that you're being more efficient at the top of the funnel.
Harry Sims
Outbound Works
About this report
People surveyed
Department
- 43% Sales
- 53% Marketing
- 4% RevOps
Seniority
- 40% Director
- 23% VP
- 16% Founder/C-Level
- 16% Other
Business Size
- 27% SMB (<100)
- 50% Mid-market (100-1000)
- 23% Enterprise (1001+)
Data analyzed
- 350+ companies
- 2.3M opportunities
- 67M contacts
- 4.2M accounts
