Signal Types in Sync GTM
Outcome: three signals chosen for your motion, each with a detection action, a cost per row, a window and a check cadence written down.
- Surface
- App and MCP server
- Level
- Intermediate
- Uses
- The signal enrichments — see the catalogue below
- Credits
- ~5 for a five-row test of three signals
- Prerequisite
- Lesson 01
The catalogue
Grouped by what the event tells you.
Money
| Signal | Detects | Window | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recent funding | A round closed | 90 days | Raised funding recently |
| Total funding | Cumulative capital | — (attribute) | Company total funding |
| M&A | Acquired or acquiring | 180 days | Mergers and acquisitions |
People
| Signal | Detects | Window | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job change | A person moved companies | 90 days | Job change |
| Promotion | New authority, same company | 90 days | Recently promoted |
| Leadership change | A new exec in seat | 90 days | Leadership change |
| Headcount growth | The org is expanding | 90 days | Headcount growth |
Building
| Signal | Detects | Window | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is hiring | Open roles exist | 30 days | Is hiring |
| Job listings | Which roles, with the text | 30 days | Company job listings |
| Tech-stack change | A tool added or removed | 180 days | Techstack change |
| New product launched | A launch | 60 days | New product launched |
| New location | Geographic expansion | 180 days | New location |
Attention
| Signal | Detects | Window | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn engagement | Interaction with relevant content | 14 days | LinkedIn engagement |
| New blog posted | Content activity | 30 days | New blog posted |
| Mentioned in news | Press coverage | 60 days | Mentioned recently on news |
| Website traffic growth | Demand rising | 90 days | Website traffic growth |
Latency matters as much as the signal
A signal is only useful if you find out inside its window. Each source has its own lag between the event and the data being available.
| Signal | Typical detection lag |
|---|---|
| Job posts | Days — fastest of the useful signals |
| LinkedIn engagement | Days |
| Job change and promotion | 1–4 weeks, depending on when the person updates their profile |
| Funding | 1–6 weeks — announcement lags the close |
| Tech-stack change | Detected on your re-run cadence, so up to a quarter |
| Headcount growth | Monthly at best |
Latency plus your check cadence is your real time-to-action. A funding signal with a four-week lag, checked monthly, means you reach the account on average six weeks after the round closed — most of the way through the window. Match the check cadence to the signal, not to your calendar.
Cost shapes the design
| Cost band | Signals | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap | Job listings, is hiring, headcount, funding | Run across the whole watchlist weekly |
| Moderate | Job change, promotion, leadership change | Run across a tracked list, gated |
| Higher | Stack change, traffic, news | Quarterly, or on high-value accounts only |
The cheap band is where a signal pipeline lives. If your primary signal is in the higher band, restrict the watchlist rather than the cadence.
Choosing your first three
One that fires often
Job posts, for most B2B motions. It gives the pipeline enough volume to be worth running.
One that is high-conviction
Funding, exec hire, or job change. Fires rarely, converts well.
One specific to your product
The stack change, the launch, the expansion — whatever means “they now need what we sell”.
Three is the right number to start. More than that and you cannot tell which one is producing the meetings.
Do this now
Write your three signals
With the action that detects each.
Write a window for each
In days. Without a window it is not a signal.
Write a check cadence
Matched to window and latency, not to convenience.
Estimate the weekly cost
Rows in the watchlist × cost per signal × frequency.
Test each on five known accounts
Companies where you know the event happened. Did the signal fire? How stale was it?
Record the detection lag you observed
It changes what cadence you need.
Check your work
- Three signals, each with an action, window and cadence
- The cadence accounts for detection lag, not just the window
- You have a weekly cost estimate
- Each signal was tested against an account where you know the answer
Where this breaks
Running every available signal at once produces a pipeline nobody can debug. When ten triggers all feed one queue and reply rates are poor, there is no way to tell which signal is worthless and which is carrying the whole thing. Start with three, measure each separately, and add a fourth only when you can state the conversion rate of the first three.
Further automation
Store the signal date, not just a true/false flag. Everything in this course — windows, decay, dedupe, prioritization — depends on knowing when the event happened, and a boolean throws that away permanently.
Next lesson
03 — Funding trigger campaigns, the first complete play.
Reference for this lesson: Signals, How enrichment works, Credits, GTM Engineering — attributes versus signals.