If you’re tired of chasing dead leads and want to get serious about account-based marketing (ABM), you need more than guesswork. You need to spot real signs that a company is growing or shifting—before your competitors do. This guide is for marketers, sales ops folks, or anyone in B2B who wants to use data (not just “gut feel”) to focus their efforts. We’re going to dig into tracking company growth signals using Coresignal, a data provider that claims to give you the raw info you need—if you know what you’re looking for.
Let’s get right to it.
Why Bother With Company Growth Signals?
Here’s the short version: ABM works best when you’re not wasting time on companies that aren’t ready to buy. Growth signals—like hiring sprees, leadership changes, or funding rounds—are clues that a company might actually have a budget, a mandate, or a pain point you can solve.
But not all signals are created equal. Some are noisy, out of date, or just plain irrelevant. The trick is knowing what matters for your business and how to track it without drowning in data.
Step 1: Get Clear on What Growth Signals Actually Matter
Don’t start with the data. Start with your ideal customer profile (ICP) and your team's real-world experience. Ask yourself:
- What triggers have led to deals in the past? (Think: new CTOs, major product launches, sudden hiring bursts.)
- What’s just noise? (Lots of companies hire interns every summer. Doesn’t always mean they’re scaling up.)
- How quickly do you need to act on a signal before it's stale?
Pro tip: If you’re not sure, look at your last ten closed deals. What changed for those companies in the months before you signed them?
Here are a few signals that are usually worth tracking:
- Headcount growth: Are they hiring fast, or are they in a hiring freeze?
- Leadership changes: New decision-makers often mean new priorities and budgets.
- Recent funding: Fresh capital usually leads to spending.
- Job postings: Specific roles (think “DevOps Engineer” or “CMO”) can hint at strategic moves.
- Office openings/closings: Physical expansion or contraction is a big clue.
Skip “vanity” signals like press releases or awards unless you know they correlate with buying behavior in your space.
Step 2: Understand What Coresignal Actually Offers
Before you sign up or pull data, get real about what Coresignal can and can’t do.
What you get:
- Employee data: Current and historical headcount, job titles, hiring trends.
- Company profiles: Firmographics (industry, size, location), funding data, web presence.
- Job postings: Aggregated from public sources—sometimes delayed, but useful in bulk.
- Leadership moves: Changes in executive roles, sometimes before they hit the news.
What you don’t get:
- Real-time alerts: Data is updated regularly, but not instantly. If you need second-by-second updates, this isn’t Bloomberg.
- Private company financials: You’ll get rough estimates, not the full P&L.
- “Intent” data: Coresignal tracks signals, not whether someone’s visited your site.
Bottom line: It’s a solid source for public company signals, but you’ll still need to do some digging and sense-checking.
Step 3: Pull the Data (Without Drowning in It)
Now, let’s talk about actually getting this data in a usable way.
1. Pick your method:
Coresignal offers APIs, CSV data dumps, and browser-based dashboards. If you’re technical (or have a data team), use the API—it’s more flexible. Otherwise, start with a CSV export.
2. Filter ruthlessly:
Don’t download everything. Use filters for:
- Industry (match your ICP)
- Company size (headcount/funding)
- Region (no sense tracking companies you can’t sell to)
- Date range (focus on changes in the last 3–6 months)
3. Look for “delta,” not just “state”:
Tracking that a company has 500 employees is less useful than seeing they’ve grown 20% in the last quarter. Focus on changes over time.
Example: - Pull employee counts by month for each target. - Track titles added or removed from leadership. - Note the appearance of new job postings (especially ones that match your solution).
4. Don’t trust raw numbers blindly:
Public data is messy. Sometimes a company “adds” 100 employees because a data source updated, not because they hired that many. Spot-check a few results manually—especially if something looks weird.
Step 4: Turn Signals Into Actionable ABM Plays
Here’s where most teams fall down: they collect tons of data, then just... stare at it. You need a plan for what to do when a signal pops up.
1. Build alerting (even if it’s basic):
You don’t need a fancy system. A simple spreadsheet or Slack notification is enough to start.
- “If company X adds >10% headcount in a quarter, flag them.”
- “If company Y hires a new CTO, assign to a rep for outreach.”
2. Tailor your outreach:
Don’t blast the same message. Reference the signal (“Congrats on the new funding round—I know that comes with a lot of priorities. If you’re looking at scaling your ops, here’s how we’ve helped others...”)
3. Prioritize your list:
Not all signals are equal. A new VP of Sales at a 500-person SaaS company is a bigger deal than five new analysts at a bank. Weight your signals and focus on the highest potential.
4. Test, review, and iterate:
Track which signals actually lead to conversations or deals. Drop the ones that don’t. ABM is a grind—it’s normal to tweak as you go.
Step 5: Avoid Common Pitfalls
Let’s be honest: most teams trying this for the first time will overload themselves or chase the wrong signals. Here’s what to skip:
-
Don’t chase every blip:
A single new job posting doesn’t mean a company is doubling in size. Watch for patterns, not anomalies. -
Don’t trust data blindly:
No data provider is perfect. Check a few companies you know well—does the data seem right? -
Don’t try to automate everything immediately:
Manual review isn’t sexy, but it keeps you from embarrassing mistakes. Automation comes later. -
Don’t ignore your sales team’s instincts:
If they say, “These signals don’t match what I’m seeing on the ground,” listen. Data should support, not replace, boots-on-the-ground intel.
Step 6: Make It Sustainable
You don’t need a giant tech stack to do this well. Here’s how to keep it simple:
- Pick a small target list (50–100 companies).
- Review signals once a week, not every day.
- Focus on two or three high-signal triggers.
- Schedule a monthly review to see what’s working.
If you overload yourself, you’ll stop doing it. ABM is about focus and consistency, not chasing every shiny object.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple and Iterate
Tracking company growth signals in Coresignal can give you a real edge—but only if you’re ruthless about what matters and honest about what’s actually working. Don’t get caught up in dashboards and data for their own sake. Start small, pay attention to what your best customers are actually doing, and tweak as you go. Most importantly, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The best ABM teams are the ones who take action, learn fast, and aren’t afraid to adjust their playbook.
Now, go find those signals—and spend your energy where it counts.