If you’re in sales or marketing, you already know: relationships with key buyers can make or break your quarter. But actually keeping tabs on those buyers—especially when they change jobs or move around—turns into a nightmare of spreadsheets, sticky notes, and missed opportunities. If you’re using Usergems, you’ve got a shot at solving this, but only if you set it up right. This guide is for anyone who wants to build custom workflows that actually work, not just look good in a demo.
Why Custom Workflows Matter (and Where Most Go Wrong)
Out of the box, Usergems will track job changes and surface some contacts. That’s a start, not a strategy. The real value comes when you tailor workflows to your process and team—because nobody else sells exactly like you do.
Here’s where people trip up: - Relying on canned automation and never tweaking it. - Drowning reps with notifications instead of actionable tasks. - Letting “relationship nurturing” become a random series of emails that get ignored.
Custom workflows can fix this, but only if you’re honest about where your team actually needs help.
Step 1: Map Out Your Key Buyer Relationships
Before you touch Usergems, get clear on who your “key buyers” are. Not every contact is worth nurturing, and chasing everyone just leads to chaos.
How to do it: - Start with your CRM. Who’s been involved in deals that closed in the past year? - Categorize buyers by role (champion, decision-maker, influencer, blocker). - Identify which titles or personas actually drive revenue for you—not just the ones who reply to emails. - Make a short list. Ruthless focus beats “we track everyone” every time.
Pro tip: If your ICP (ideal customer profile) is fuzzy, stop here and fix that first. Usergems won’t magically clarify your strategy.
Step 2: Decide What “Nurture” Means for Your Team
One company’s nurture is another’s spam. Get specific about what you want to happen when a key buyer moves jobs or goes dark.
Questions to ask: - Do you want sales to reach out immediately, or just flag the change for later? - Is this a marketing touch (like a gift or invite), or a sales-owned play? - How often should someone be pinged, and when does it get annoying? - What does “success” look like—a booked meeting, a reply, a referral?
Write this down. If you don’t, your workflow will end up with random tasks that nobody owns.
Step 3: Set Up Custom Triggers in Usergems
Now you’re ready to get hands-on. Usergems can track job changes, new hires, and more—but you need to tell it what matters.
Here’s what works: - Job-change triggers: Get notified when a key contact lands at a new company. Filter by title, industry, or company size to avoid noise. - Account-based triggers: Set up alerts when multiple contacts from a target account change jobs within a certain window (could signal churn risk or new opportunity). - Seniority filters: Only track director-level and above, unless your deals depend on end users too.
What to ignore:
Don’t bother tracking every LinkedIn update or minor title change. You’ll just annoy your team and clutter your CRM.
How to set up: 1. Log into Usergems and sync your CRM data. 2. Go to the "Workflows" or "Triggers" section. 3. Create a new workflow. Pick your event (e.g., “Contact changes job to target company”). 4. Add filters—title, department, region, whatever matters. 5. Map the trigger to the right team member or group.
Pro tip: Start small. It’s better to get one clean, useful workflow going than to build a Rube Goldberg machine nobody uses.
Step 4: Design the Follow-Up Actions
A trigger is useless if nothing happens next. Decide what should actually be done—and who does it.
Typical actions: - Auto-create a task in your CRM for the account owner. - Send a Slack or Teams notification to the assigned rep. - Enroll the contact in a light-touch email sequence (but don’t just blast the same template every time). - Flag for marketing to send a gift or invite to an event.
What works best: - Blend automation with a personal touch. The first email should not sound like it came from a robot. - Make tasks crystal clear—no “follow up soon.” Say exactly what’s expected. - Build in accountability. If a rep ignores the task, who notices? (Hint: probably not you, unless you set up reporting.)
What to skip:
Don’t automate multi-step cadences without oversight. If you’re not monitoring replies and unsubscribes, you’ll just train buyers to ignore you.
Step 5: Test, Monitor, and Adjust Relentlessly
No workflow survives first contact with reality. Expect to tweak things as you see what works (and what backfires).
How to monitor: - Measure reply rates, meetings booked, and closed/won deals that started with a Usergems trigger. - Ask your reps what’s actually useful and what feels like busywork. - Tune your filters—if you’re getting too many low-value alerts, tighten them up. - Don’t be afraid to turn off a workflow that’s not delivering.
What to ignore:
Vanity metrics like “number of contacts tracked.” It’s about outcomes, not activity.
Step 6: Keep Sales, Marketing, and Ops in the Loop
Workflows fall apart when nobody owns them. Make sure everyone knows: - Who gets notified, and how? - Who’s responsible for each step? - How feedback gets back to the person tweaking the workflow.
Best practices: - Monthly check-ins to review what’s working. - Document your workflows somewhere accessible (not just in your head or buried in Usergems). - Be open to killing workflows that aren’t helping.
Step 7: Don’t Overcomplicate It
It’s tempting to automate every “what if”—but more rules mean more things to break. Start with the core flows: - Alert reps when a champion lands at a new target account. - Flag churn risk when several contacts leave a customer. - Simple, clear follow-up with a personal touch.
You can always add more sophistication later, but nobody ever said “I wish my CRM was more complicated.”
Wrapping Up: Simple Beats Clever
Custom workflows in Usergems can help you actually act on key buyer moves—not just watch them happen. But resist the urge to build out every possible scenario on day one. Start with the basics, keep your team in the loop, and don’t be afraid to kill anything that turns into noise. As with most things in sales ops, the best workflow is the one people actually use.
Keep it simple. Iterate. You’ll nurture the right relationships—and actually see results.