Intent data was cool. Until we realized all sellers were chasing the exact same data. And pitching the exact same companies. With the exact same lines.
“Congrats on the round of funding!”
The best signals aren’t the ones anyone has access to. They’re in your network.
There are four types of network signals every seller should track: Connection, Relationship, Partner, and Referral.
Connection Signals
A mutual connection signal is when someone in your network shares a connection with a prospect, thus creating natural introduction opportunities.
Imagine you sell a marketing product and you’re trying to break into an account, Acme. You just heard that Acme has released a new product feature. Maybe the VP of marketing at your target account used to work closely with your current customer’s marketing lead.
Here’s an example message you might send to your current customer:
Hey [Customer’s Name],
Hope you’re doing great! I saw that Acme just launched their new [product/feature name], looks like a big move for them.
I noticed their VP of Marketing, [Prospect’s Name], used to work with you at [Previous Company], and I was curious if you still keep in touch. We’ve been exploring ways our platform could help teams like theirs accelerate [relevant goal e.g., “campaign performance” or “content collaboration”].
If it feels natural, would you be open to making an introduction? Happy to send a note you can forward along. No pressure at all. Even a quick sense of how they like to work or where they’re focused right now would be super helpful.
Appreciate it either way, always love seeing where our customers’ networks intersect.
Cheers,
[Your Name]
Suddenly, that cold email congratulating them on the feature release doesn’t feel so cold.
Relationship Signals
Job changes and promotions are all part of relationship transition signals. When people you know (customers, partners, former colleagues, etc.) change roles and land in positions, they might become your internal champions.
Few things open faster than when someone you know walks into the doors at a new company. You’re not reintroducing your product, you’re reactivating an existing relationship.
These signals are time sensitive. Typically, the first 90 days is when decisions and tech stacks are reevaluated, and you want to make sure you’re mentioned in the conversation.
You might spot relationship signals when someone posts on LinkedIn, CRMs might show past champions at new companies, or tools like Commsor may surface these changes.
Here’s a message you might send to your champion:
Congrats on the new role! I still remember how your team crushed it with [specific success]. Excited to see what you build at [new company]. If you’re exploring [relevant area], happy to share what’s worked for others in similar transitions.
In a go-to-network motion, your past champions are never really past, they’re future opportunities in disguise.
Partner Signals
The strongest networks aren’t just built based on who you know, they’re also built based on who your partners know. Partners, integrators, or vendors are natural opportunities for warm introductions or co-selling situations.
In every industry, sellers exist inside an ecosystem of tech integrations, agencies, and service partners.
An integration partner may be implementing at a company that fits your ideal customer profile, and that’s a natural opportunity to serve the customer with double the delight. You’re borrowing credibility from someone your prospect already knows and trusts.
Co-selling with partners has been shown to shorten deal cycles and boost win rates because prospects see you as part of a solution they already value.
And according to Salesforce, ecosystem-sourced deals can be 2-3x more likely to close than cold outbound.
The GTN Flywheel shows this perfectly. Partner signals sit between Connect and Amplify on the flywheel. It’s where collaboration compounds trust.
You might consider reaching out to a partner with a message like this:
“I saw you’re working with Acme, they’ve been on our radar too. Think there’s a natural way we could support your work there?”
You can also use shared wins to create co-marketing content or case studies… basically turning one signal into multiple opportunities.
Referral Signals
Happy customers are sometimes your best sales reps. Advocates of your product or service can open doors to people you’ve never met or even know about. When trust is already established, introductions to an extended network become easy.
When customers start introducing you to their peers, your network starts working for you. All the work you’ve previously done is compounding on itself.
An example might be when your champion at Ingen introduces you to their former colleague at Biosyn who’s struggling with the same problem… and I’m not talking about dinosaurs on the loose.
Unlike mutual connection or partner signals, these come from advocacy that you earned, not observed.
Referrals convert better than any other channel because they’re powered by trust. According to LinkedIn, buyers are 7x more likely to respond to outreach that comes through someone they trust.
There’s a compounding element to referrals. Each referral creates new nodes in your network that can later become future signal sources.
If you notice a customer is having high success after implementing your product, ask for an introduction. Make it personal and relevant. You might say:
“You mentioned your friend at Acme is tackling something similar. Would you be open to connecting us? Totally fine if not, even just a quick insight into how they’re approaching it would help.”
Referrals aren’t just one-off wins, they’re the ultimate proof that trust scales. Each referral you get adds more momentum to your Go-to-Network flywheel, turning customers into your most powerful Connectors.
When you layer referral, partner, and relationship signals together, your outreach stops being cold. It compounds into warm, predictable pipeline.
Read more about network signals here.
