Signals are the new segments.

I know I touched on similar themes in my last newsletter, but this one goes a layer deeper with a more playbook-style approach. I recently spoke about this concept at the G2 AI in Action Roadshow, and the response was incredible—so I wanted to share the full framework with you all.

Annnnd also major shoutout to my GTM Engineer colleague Alex Lindahl for coining the phrase “signals are the new segments” — if you’re not already subscribed to his Claymation newsletter, you should be!

Let’s dive into it.

Your Revenue Blindspots

Right now, someone in your TAM is researching solutions like yours. They’re reading competitor content, downloading whitepapers, attending webinars, or dealing with a crisis that makes your product essential.

Your segments can’t see them. Your signals can.

While you’re targeting “VP Marketing at 500+ person SaaS companies,” your actual buyers are showing intent signals you’re completely blind to. The buying landscape has shifted, but most ICPs haven’t evolved past static demographics.

Traditional segmentation creates the same target lists for everyone. It’s a race to the same inbox, and you’re losing before you start.

Segments tell you who to go after. Signals tell you when.

What Winning Teams See That Others Miss

The revenue teams pulling ahead aren’t just better at execution—they’re playing an entirely different game. They’ve moved from demographic hunting to intent detection.

Everyone’s fishing in the same shallow waters—targeting “VP Marketing at SaaS companies with 100-500 employees.” That’s just the tip.

The real opportunity lies beneath the surface.

Access to unstructured information that tells a story of the business gives winning teams exactly what they need to know.

For example, let’s say you sold HR solutions to fast growing companies. Most of your competitors use increase in headcount and funding rounds as their triggers to reach out to your prosects. But what if you knew…

• The VP just got promoted last month

• Their company had a security breach covered in TechCrunch

• They’re hiring 5 engineers

• Glassdoor reviews say “growing pains with current tools”

All within the last 3 months. No announcements of funding rounds. Headcount hasn’t changed (or at least publicly).

These signals (that mostly live in unstructured data) reveal urgency.They tell you why now—and help you meet prospects in their moment of need.

From Segments to Signals: A New GTM Playbook

We’ve been talking a lot about the concept of GTM Alpha at Clay. In other words, finding a way for you to outperform your competitors when going to market.

In finance, "alpha" is outperformance over the market benchmark. No one wants to admit it, but most GTM teams are still picking targets based on outdated segments and wishful thinking. Great teams find the edge by spotting what others miss — subtle shifts, buying behavior, signals in the noise. That’s where the revenue is.

Example 1: Segment = Where they hang out online (Reddit) → Signal = What they’re saying online (Keyword mentions, analyzing comments, extracting Reddit competitor product mentions

Example 2: Segment = Title and Org → Signal = Alerts when title changes

Example 3: Segment = Headcount on company LinkedIn→ Signal = Headcount Growing Pains via unstructured data on Glassdoor reviews

Real-world signal use cases:

• Vanta layers SOC2 certs, website changes, funding news, and CISO job posts

• Certemy tracks OSHA violations to find compliance pain

• Rutter uses AI to identify high-value executives who need financial products the moment relevant conference attendee lists become public

• Rippling calculates commute distances using Google Maps to determine mail targets

They’re not just better. They’re operating in an entirely different intelligence tier. If you also think about it, it will make a much better buyer experience for your prospects as well. They may not know their pain points. But because your team knows how to solve problems like theirs, you can help them diagnose their problems before they become a lot bigger.

While competitors are still sorting through broad segments, these teams are acting on precise, time-sensitive intelligence. They're not just better at execution—they're playing a different game entirely. The single thing that separates them is access to information and the speed with which they act on it.

Your North Star: Finding You Unique Data Advantage + Creating a System to Act On It

Most teams are targeting the same accounts using the same stale filters—industry, size, title. The real edge comes from uncovering unique, hard-to-spot signals that AI can scale—things your competitors don’t see because they don’t even know to look. Here’s how to find your Unique Data Advantage.

Step 1: Study Your Best Customers

Interview your sales team about what they manually research before calls. Map your prospects' digital footprint: what they read, where they gather, what problems they discuss.

Ask yourself:

• What key details would you task 100 interns with uncovering about each prospect?

• If you were a PhD in their industry, what core insights would you pursue?

• What frustrations do your best customers voice just before they pull the trigger?

• Which events spark the most urgent buying decisions in your market?

• Where do prospects turn when existing solutions let them down?

Step 2: Turn Insights Into Signals

Your answers from the questions above become trackable signals.

Here's how real companies connect the dots:

• Supermetrics distinguishes between brands and agencies to route leads to the right sales teams

• Intercom determines the breadth of a company’s support documentation

• Cake.ai identifies AI engineering teams that have 2-5 developers (their sweet spot)

Here are some other examples from companies I work with:

Sell to fast-growing companies? → Track Glassdoor sentiment spikes—when reviews mention "growing pains," companies need operational solutions NOW

Compete on pricing? → Extract competitor mentions from sales calls—when prospects compare pricing, you're in an active deal

Target funded companies? → Layer funding announcements with hiring spikes—new money plus rapid growth equals infrastructure needs

Step 3: Layer Multiple Signals, Build a Machine to Track Them

Single signals are interesting. Multiple signals tell a story.

But to truly act on them, you need to build a system—a machine—that continuously pulls unstructured data into a place that's actionable for sales. It's as simple as that.

At Clay, we do exactly this. We ingest job changes, department growth, website behavior, event attendance, social mentions, and product usage data—then automatically bundle those insights into prioritized account alerts.

Reps stop getting noise. They get clear, contextual narratives:

• Someone on Reddit is asking about Salesforce alternatives

• A GitHub repo just spiked, signaling adoption

• A key decision-maker was promoted last week

• A funding announcement dropped, and the company is hiring rapidly

This isn't just about seeing the data—it's about structuring it into repeatable signals that route to the right people with the right playbooks.

Our team knows who needs attention—and most importantly, why.

Step 4: Test and Iterate

Your GTM tactics decay faster than you realize—so here’s the bottom line: keep iterating. Modern growth holds no permanent advantage, only fleeting wins. Markets shift, rivals replicate, and prospects tune out familiar pitches.

Winning teams aren’t wedded to today’s playbooks—they’re driven by what comes next. Learning agility is your true edge. Trends fade, but solving your prospects’ problems better than anyone else endures. That means using superior data, honing your playbooks, and experimenting without pause. Pair that with a strong product, and you’ve got a blueprint for success.

From Spreadsheet Brain to Creative Brain

Hot take: Product Market Fit is dead. PMF doesn't account for change, and change creates the biggest buying opportunities—new pain, new pressure, new urgency.

GTM Ikigai assumes PMF and adds what most businesses miss. I borrowed this from my days co-founding a career change program, where we used ikigai—the Japanese concept of "reason for being"—to help people find fulfilling work.

Traditional ikigai balances what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what pays you. But markets shift. The world might pay you for a skill today but not tomorrow. Adaptability is everything.

GTM Ikigai works the same way. It balances what prospects signal they need (not what they needed last year), what your product actually solves, what your team can execute consistently, and what creates measurable value.

The magic happens at the intersection, where timing meets opportunity.

Building systems takes engineering and systems-level design. But modern prospecting requires creativity to reach GTM Ikigai. Spreadsheet brain builds the infrastructure to capture signals. Creative brain turns those signals into experiences that prospects actually want to engage with.

This is where signals become stories, and stories become revenue.

A GTM principle to live by: Automate the Predictable. Humanize the Exceptional.

5 Ruthless Moves to Make This Week: 

1. Unearth Your Unique Data Advantage 📊

   Identify insights only you can see—what data do you have (or can create) that no one else does?

2. Run a GTM Signal Audit 📡

   Surface buying signals hiding in plain sight—title changes, tech installs, intent spikes, and more.

3. Operationalize Signal Tracking ✅

   Build workflows that automatically flag high-potential accounts the moment signals fire.

4. Run Micro-Tests, Ruthlessly 🎯

   Launch, learn, and iterate fast. One tight loop > a thousand brainstorms.

Want more content?

PS: Don’t forget to follow my How to Outbound series on LinkedIn—the latest episode just dropped! I break down actionable tactics you can implement immediately.

Curious how to use Gong transcripts to analyze calls in Clay (like in the Vanta case study)? I did a full breakdown on YouTube.