20 “tell me when” custom sales signals, from 193 sales calls

Custom sales signals are alerts you define in your own words, such as “tell me when a target account talks about moving off Salesforce”, and that get checked against what your accounts and prospects publish. They exist because the built in signals (job changes, headcount, funding) are the same for every seller, while the moment that matters to your deal is specific to what you sell. We read the summaries of 193 of our own sales and customer calls from 26 June to 15 October 2026, pulled out every time someone asked to be told when something happened, and grouped the asks. Below are the 20 custom sales signals worth setting up, the few that no post will ever catch, and how to write a rule that fires on the right post.

A note on the data: these are aggregated counts of how many accounts raised each kind of ask. No customer, company or person is named, and nothing below is a quote.

TL;DR

• The top two asks tied: “tell me when an account talks about a topic or initiative” and “tell me when they’re hiring for specific roles”, each raised by 8 accounts.
• Most asks are about what companies say in public, not about a data field. Topic, hiring, events, expansion and deals often show up in posts.
• A few asks can’t be answered from posts: who visited your website, regulatory filings and RFPs need other sources.
• Several asks were really agents: finding a departed contact’s replacement and starting a sequence to them is a signal plus a job.
• A good custom signal is one yes or no rule that a single post can be judged against, plus 3 to 5 phrases people would actually write.
• In Salesgear you describe it in plain English, preview it free on up to 5 records, and get a feed item with the post as proof and a drafted next move. Nothing sends on its own; every draft waits for your OK.

What 193 sales calls asked for

Here is every kind of “tell me when” ask that came up, by the number of accounts that raised it.

What sellers asked to be told about	Accounts asking	Can a post catch it?
A target account talks about a topic or initiative	8	Yes
An account is hiring for specific roles	8	Yes
An account uses or adopts a specific tech stack	7	Partly; most wanted it as a list filter
An account or person attends or speaks at an event	6	Yes, when they post about it
People engage with a competitor’s or an influencer’s posts	5	A different job: importing engagers
A target company visits our website	5	No
An account raises funding	4	Yes
A prospect posts about a topic	3	Yes
An account announces a merger, acquisition or joint venture	2	Yes
A vertical event, such as a new season, grant or program	2	Yes, when announced
An account expands into a new region	2	Yes
An account makes a regulatory filing	1	Rarely
An account issues an RFP	1	Rarely

Two patterns stand out. First, topic intent and hiring tie at the top, and both are about what a company is about to do, said out loud by its own people. Second, the asks cluster around reasons to reach out now with something specific to say, which is the gap a generic intent score leaves. One more ask came up about 6 times outside these categories: tell me when someone is new in their role at an account.

20 custom sales signals worth setting up

Each one is written the way you would describe it: a plain “tell me when” sentence, the yes or no rule a single post is judged against, and who to reach when it fires. The brackets are yours to fill in.

Topic and initiative intent

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
1	a target account talks about moving off [tool]	The post says the company is replacing, migrating away from, or evaluating alternatives to [tool]	The leader of the team that uses [tool]
2	an account says it is evaluating [category]	The post says the company is reviewing, piloting or choosing a [category] tool	Whoever posted, if Director or above; else the head of that function
3	an account talks about [pain]	The post describes [pain] as a current problem at the company, not general commentary	The owner of the process that hurts
4	an account announces an [initiative] program	The post announces or launches [initiative] at the company, such as an AI rollout or a new market	The executive named in the announcement

Hiring

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
5	an account is hiring [roles] using [tech]	The post announces an open [role] at the company that names [tech]	The hiring manager who posted, never the recruiter
6	an account makes its first hire in [function]	The post announces the first or founding [function] role, or a new Head of [function]	The new leader, or the executive they report to
7	an account is hiring in [region]	The post announces open roles at the company located in [region]	The regional leader or the executive driving expansion

For hiring, a built in signal may already do this for you: Salesgear Hiring intel rolls hiring posts into initiatives and names the owner. Use a custom signal when you care about one specific role and tool combination. Our list of 20 job postings as buying signals helps you pick which.

Tech stack

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
8	an account starts using [tech]	The post says the company has adopted, rolled out or gone live on [tech]	The owner of the rollout named in the post
9	an account is migrating to [platform]	The post says the company is moving to, or has moved to, [platform]	The leader running the migration

Events

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
10	an account will attend or speak at [event]	The post says someone at the company is attending, exhibiting at or speaking at [event]	The person attending, if senior; else their manager
11	an account hosts a webinar or event about [topic]	The post announces an event hosted by the company about [topic]	The host, or the marketing leader behind it

Competitors

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
12	an account mentions using [competitor]	The post says the company uses, has bought or is rolling out [competitor]	Park it, or note the renewal date
13	a prospect posts frustration with [competitor or category]	The post describes a problem the author has with [competitor or category]	The author, with a helpful note, not a pitch

The engager ask is different. Seeing who liked or commented on a competitor’s post is a list building job, not a rule about one company. We covered it in importing people from posts and events.

Funding, deals and expansion

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
14	an account raises funding	The post announces a funding round for the company	The executive who owns your category, not the CEO by default
15	an account announces a merger, acquisition or joint venture	The post announces the company is acquiring, merging with or forming a joint venture with another company	The leader of the function that has to integrate it
16	an account expands into [region]	The post says the company is opening, launching or hiring in [region]	The leader of the new region
17	an account announces a new [season, grant or program]	The post announces a new [season, grant or program] run by the company	The program owner named in the post

Your prospects’ own posts

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
18	a prospect posts about [topic]	The author writes about [topic] as something they are working on	The author
19	a prospect posts about a new project or role	The author says they started a new project, team or role	The author, with congratulations tied to the project

Watch your competitors

#	Tell me when	The rule a post must meet	Who to reach
20	a competitor launches or prices something new	The post on the competitor’s page announces a new product, feature, plan or price	Nobody there; update your talk track and your open deals

For a fuller view of competitor moves (teams they are building, what they ship, where they are heading), see our guide to competitor tracking.

The asks a post can’t answer

• Website visits. 5 accounts asked to know when a target company visits their site. A post cannot tell you that. It needs a tracking script on your own site and a way to match visitors to companies, which is a separate product category with its own accuracy limits; our piece on intent data accuracy covers what to expect.
• Regulatory filings. Public registries publish these. Set a saved search on the registry that covers your market and check it weekly.
• RFPs. Public sector RFPs live on procurement portals. Most portals offer email alerts by keyword.
• Tech stack as a filter. Most of the 7 tech stack asks were really “only show me companies on [tech]”, which belongs in your list filters, not in an alert.

When the ask is really an agent

Five of the asks were not signals at all. They were a signal followed by a job someone wanted done every time. Paraphrased and anonymized:

• When a contact leaves an account, find their replacement and start a parallel sequence to them.
• When a champion moves to a new company, alert me; when an account is in the news, write a personalized email about it.
• When an account attends an event, research it and add it to a sequence.
• When a list in our CRM changes, enrich the new people and route them to the right rep.
• Score a list and pull out the top accounts into a smaller list.

That is the line between a signal and an AI agent for sales: the signal tells you when, the agent does the work that follows. In Salesgear, agents stop at the draft for anything that would reach a prospect.

How to write a custom sales signal that fires on the right post

Most bad custom signals are too vague (“tell me when they’re growing”) or too many rules at once. Five rules keep yours sharp.

• One yes or no question. Write the rule so a single post either meets it or does not. Start it with “The post says”.
• About the company or person, not the topic. “The post says the company is replacing Salesforce” beats “The post is about CRM”. News reposts and opinion pieces should fail.
• 3 to 5 phrases people actually write. “moving off Salesforce”, “migrating our CRM”, “Salesforce alternative”. Not your product category’s jargon.
• Pick the right source. Launches and news land on the company page. Plans and pains show up in posts by its people. For prospects, read their own posts.
• Decide who you will reach before it fires. If you can’t name the title, the signal isn’t ready.

A template you can copy:

Name:       Moving off Salesforce
Tell me when: a target account talks about moving off Salesforce
Rule:       The post says the company is replacing, migrating away from,
            or evaluating alternatives to Salesforce.
Phrases:    moving off Salesforce; Salesforce migration; Salesforce alternative;
            replacing Salesforce
Watch:      Target accounts list; company page and its people
Reach:      VP Revenue Operations

How to run custom sales signals by hand

For 20 to 30 accounts, you can run three or four custom signals manually in about 30 minutes a week.

1. Write the rule and the phrases using the template above.
2. Each week, search posts for each phrase with the company name, and check each account’s company page for new announcements.
3. For every post, ask the yes or no question honestly. A caveat (“though”, “but”, “rather than”) usually means no.
4. Log matches with the post link, the exact words that prove it, and who to reach.
5. Write one note per match that quotes the post and asks one question.

Past a few dozen accounts, the weekly search is the part that stops happening.

The Salesgear way: custom signals

Custom signals in Salesgear Signals follow the same method, on every record you point them at.

• Describe it in plain English. Salesgear turns your sentence into a signal: a short name, one yes or no rule starting with “The post”, up to 5 search phrases, and the sources to read. Four starters cover the most common asks: account talks about [topic], hiring for [roles] using [tech], prospect posts about [topic], expanding into [region].
• Choose who to watch. An account list, a contact list, or your competitors. Accounts read the company page and its people; contacts read their own posts.
• Preview it free. Run it on up to 5 records first. Nothing is charged and nothing is saved.
• Weekly checks, new posts only. The first check reads the last 30 days; later checks read only what is new. Every new company page post is judged; posts by its people are ranked and the most relevant are judged.
• A strict judge. A post matches only when it says so about that company or person. Vague hints, news about someone else, and partial fits don’t count.
• What lands in your feed. The account or person, the matching post with the exact words that prove it, up to 3 posts as evidence, who to reach (the poster if they are Director or above, else the senior title Salesgear suggests for that post), and a drafted next move.

Custom signals are a deep intel signal: 2 credits per company per check, 1 per contact. Posts are read without using your own LinkedIn account. From any match, an agent can research, find the right person, check they are still there and draft. Nothing sends on its own; every draft waits for your OK.

Related reading

• Hiring signals for sales: find the initiative and the person who owns it
• Job postings as buying signals: 20 roles that tell you what a company will buy next
• Clay hiring signals vs Salesgear: setup, cost per check, what you get back
• Competitor tracking for sales teams
• Signal based prospecting: a working guide
• 12 buying signals examples that show a buyer is ready to talk

Frequently asked questions