One system keeps this client’s CRM clean, watches every existing customer for expansion and churn signals, and flags net new accounts worth a conversation. This is the build, with the client’s name kept private.
Who is the client?
A vertical SaaS company selling to professional services firms. Sales-led, with long, multi-threaded cycles and a fixed market of about 1,000 target accounts.
What was the problem?
With a small market, every account matters, and the biggest revenue sits in existing customers. Account data was incomplete. Signals sat across the CRM, webinars, content and the open web. The agents they already had were half-built.
Part 1: how do we keep the CRM clean?
- Duplicate accounts and contacts found and merged
- Missing firmographics filled: headcount, location, industry, ownership
- Contacts checked for job changes, so departed champions get flagged instead of emailed
- Lifecycle stages and ownership checked against rules
- Scheduled enrichment, so records stay current
Part 2: which customer signals does it watch?
Expansion signals, for upsell and cross-sell:
- Headcount growth at the customer firm
- New offices, mergers, or acquisitions of other firms
- New hires in the buyer’s team (learning, talent, compliance)
- New service lines or practice areas announced
- Leadership changes that bring in a new budget owner
- Heavy engagement with webinars or content about a product they don’t own yet
Churn risk signals:
- The champion or main user leaves the firm
- The firm is acquired, or merges into a company using a competitor
- Layoffs, office closures or a hiring freeze
- A new leader in the buyer’s role, who may re-evaluate vendors
- Engagement drops: no webinar attendance, no content engagement
- A renewal is coming up with no recent touchpoints
Part 3: which net new account signals does it watch?
- Leadership changes in the buyer’s role at a target firm
- Hiring for roles the product supports
- Firm growth, mergers and new offices
- Webinar registrations and attendance from target accounts
- Engagement with the client’s subject-matter experts on social posts, matched against the target account list
- Website content engagement from target accounts
What does each signal produce?
- An account and contact score, written back to the CRM
- A real-time alert to the account owner in team chat, with context
- For high-intent accounts, a ready-to-review outreach draft in the client’s voice
- A weekly digest and a monthly rollup for the marketing and customer success leaders
How does it run?
- The CRM is the system of record for scores and insights.
- Team chat is the real-time alert layer.
- Webinar registrations flow straight into the signal system.
- Everything is built in the client’s own accounts, to meet their engineering team’s requirements, and handed over as documented workflows.
Where does it stand?
The system is in rollout. Once it’s live, we’ll add the numbers here: records cleaned, signals surfaced each week, expansion opportunities opened and at-risk accounts flagged.
See how we build systems like this on agentic GTM systems, or the other builds in our case studies.
Questions
What does CRM hygiene include?
In this build: finding and merging duplicate accounts and contacts, filling missing firmographics (headcount, location, industry, ownership), checking contacts for job changes so departed champions are flagged instead of emailed, checking lifecycle stages and ownership against rules, and scheduled enrichment so records stay current.
What are churn risk signals?
Signs that a customer may leave. This system watches for a champion or main user leaving, the firm being acquired or merging into a company that uses a competitor, layoffs or a hiring freeze, a new leader in the buyer's role, engagement dropping, and a renewal coming up with no recent touchpoints.
What are expansion signals?
Signs that a customer could buy more: headcount growth, new offices or acquisitions, new hires in the buyer's team, new service lines, a leadership change that brings in a new budget owner, and heavy engagement with webinars or content about a product they don't own yet.
Where do the scores and alerts go?
Scores and insights are written back to the CRM, which stays the system of record. Team chat is the real-time alert layer: the account owner gets each signal with its context, and high-intent accounts come with an outreach draft in the client's voice.