Step-by-Step Breakdown
Champion tracking is one of the highest-converting GTM plays because you're reaching out to people who already know your product, have experienced success with it, and trust your company. When a happy customer or internal champion moves to a new company, they bring that positive sentiment with them.
The data speaks for itself: champion-sourced opportunities typically have 3-5x higher conversion rates than cold outbound, with deal cycles that are 40-60% shorter. Why? Because you're not starting from zero—you already have credibility and a warm relationship.
💬 Pro-tip #1: The best time to reach out is 60-90 days after they've started their new role. They've had time to understand the landscape and identify problems, but haven't locked into solutions yet.
This play works particularly well for B2B SaaS companies where individual contributors or managers can influence buying decisions. We've seen this consistently work across companies from Series A through enterprise, with reply rates often exceeding 60% when executed properly.
The challenge isn't identifying that this is a good play—it's systematically tracking when your champions move and reaching out at the right time with the right message.
Building a champion tracking system requires three key capabilities: job change detection, data enrichment, and outreach orchestration.
You need to monitor when your customers and champions change companies. Here are three solid options:
Option A: UserGems - The gold standard for job change tracking. They specialize in tracking relationship changes and integrating with your CRM. Starts around $1,200/month but provides the most comprehensive coverage.
Option B: Clay + Apollo/ZoomInfo - More affordable option where you upload your champion list to Clay and use data providers to check for job changes weekly. Costs around $400-600/month depending on volume.
Option C: LinkedIn Sales Navigator + Manual Process - Set up saved searches for your champions and check weekly. Most manual but cheapest option at $80/month per seat.
💬 Pro-tip #2: Don't just track customers—also track prospects who engaged heavily but didn't buy, former employees who left on good terms, and champions from companies that churned (they still know your product works).
You'll need to enrich new company data and orchestrate your outreach timing.
Clay remains the best choice here for its flexibility in building workflows, though Zapier can work for simpler setups, and n8n is a great open-source alternative.
For champion tracking, you want multichannel capability since you likely have their email and LinkedIn.
Option A: Outreach or Salesloft - Enterprise-grade with advanced sequencing. $100-150/user/month.
Option B: Apollo or Lemlist - Mid-market option with good email + LinkedIn capabilities. $50-100/user/month.
Option C: HeyReach + Email tool - Combine LinkedIn automation with your existing email platform. $160/month + email costs.
Total cost to get this up and running: $600-1,800/month
| Setup | Job Tracking | Orchestration | Outreach | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | Clay + Apollo | Clay | HeyReach + Email | ~$600/month |
| Mid-tier | UserGems | Clay/Zapier | Apollo | ~$1,200/month |
| Enterprise | UserGems | Outreach | Outreach | ~$1,800/month |
Start by identifying everyone who should be tracked:
Export these contacts from your CRM, support tools, and LinkedIn. You want name, current company, title, email, and LinkedIn URL at minimum.
If using UserGems, upload your champion list and configure alerts for job changes.
If using Clay + data providers:
If going manual with Sales Navigator:
Create a multi-step workflow in Clay (or your chosen platform):
💬 Pro-tip #3: Use AI prompts to help research the new company and generate personalized talking points. Here's a prompt that works well:
Build different sequences based on relationship strength:
Strong Champion (former customer/heavy user):
Warm Contact (engaged prospect/former colleague):
Key metrics to track:
Set up reporting in your CRM to track champion-sourced opportunities separately.
The key with champion messaging is leading with the relationship, not the product. You're a familiar face in a new environment.
LinkedIn Message:
Hey [Name]! Saw you made the move to [Company] - congrats!
I remember how much you loved using [specific feature] at [Previous Company] to solve [specific problem]. I imagine you're probably looking at the tech stack at [New Company] and thinking about what gaps exist.
No agenda here - just wanted to reconnect and see how the transition is going. If you ever want to bounce ideas off someone who knows the space, always happy to chat.Follow-up Email:
[Name],
Hope you're settling in well at [Company]. I've been following their growth in [specific area] - really impressive trajectory.
I came across this [case study/benchmark/insight] that made me think of some of the challenges you mentioned facing at [Previous Company]. Thought it might be useful as you evaluate your new tech landscape.
[Insert valuable resource - case study, benchmark report, etc.]
Always here if you want to discuss anything - no strings attached.
Best,
[Your name]LinkedIn Connection:
Hey [Name] - saw you landed at [Company]! We connected when you were evaluating solutions at [Previous Company]. Would love to stay connected and hear how the new role is going.Follow-up Email:
[Name],
Congrats on the move to [Company] as [Title]!
I remember our conversations about [specific challenge] when you were at [Previous Company]. I imagine [New Company] might be facing similar challenges given their [specific context about new company].
I've been working with a few companies in [industry/space] on this exact problem and wanted to share what we're seeing work. [Insert 1-2 specific insights or tactics].
If you're ever looking to compare notes on how other companies are handling this, happy to share what I'm seeing across our customer base.
Best,
[Your name]💬 Pro-tip #4: Always reference something specific from your previous interactions. This proves the relationship is real and jogs their memory.
Champion tracking is relationship arbitrage—you're taking strong relationships from one company and transferring that goodwill to another. When done systematically, it becomes a predictable source of high-quality pipeline.
The key is consistency: tracking needs to be systematic, outreach needs to be genuine, and follow-up needs to be persistent but not pushy.
¹ Clay Research Prompt Example:
#CONTEXT#
You are helping a sales rep prepare for outreach to a former champion who just joined a new company. This person previously used and loved our product at their old company.
#OBJECTIVE#
Research the new company and generate 3-5 specific talking points that would be relevant for a champion who used [YOUR PRODUCT] at their previous company.
#INSTRUCTIONS#
1. Research the company using the provided URL and LinkedIn page
2. Look for:
- Recent company news, funding, or major initiatives
- Job postings related to our solution area
- Technology challenges they might be facing
- Growth indicators that suggest they'd need our type of solution
- Any mentions of problems our product typically solves
3. Generate talking points that connect their previous positive experience to potential opportunities at the new company
#OUTPUT#
Provide:
- 2-3 sentence company summary
- 3-5 specific talking points formatted as: "At [Previous Company], you used [our product] for [specific use case]. [New Company] is [relevant situation] which suggests they might have similar needs."
- 1-2 relevant resources to share (case studies, benchmarks, etc.)
#EXAMPLE INPUT#
Champion: John Smith, moved from TechCorp to NewCompany as VP Engineering
Previous use case: Used our API monitoring tool to reduce downtime
New Company URL: [company website]
#EXAMPLE OUTPUT#
Company Summary: NewCompany is a fast-growing fintech that just raised Series B and is scaling their platform to handle 10x transaction volume.
Talking Points:
1. At TechCorp, you used our monitoring to catch API issues before they hit customers. NewCompany's recent Series B means scaling challenges are coming - the same proactive monitoring approach would be valuable here.
2. I noticed NewCompany is hiring 5 backend engineers. At TechCorp, you mentioned how our alerting helped your team focus on building instead of firefighting - something a growing eng team would definitely appreciate.
3. NewCompany's fintech focus means uptime is critical. The 99.9% → 99.99% improvement you saw at TechCorp would directly impact customer trust in financial transactions.
Resources to Share:
- Fintech uptime benchmark report
- Case study from similar Series B company