How to Turn Job Changes Into Closed Deals (Champion Tracking Playbook)

You just got an alert: your best champion from last year's biggest deal has moved to a new company. This is the moment champion tracking tools like UserGems, Champify, and MarketBetter are built for. But what happens next determines whether that alert becomes a closed deal or a wasted opportunity.

Most sales teams fumble the post-alert execution. They send a generic congratulations email, get no response, and move on. Meanwhile, the teams that consistently turn champion job changes into revenue follow a systematic, multi-channel playbook that maximizes speed, personalization, and persistence.

In this article, we lay out the complete champion tracking playbook — from detection to closed deal — with specific tactics for each step. We'll also show you how the right platform can automate each step so your team executes flawlessly every time.

The Champion Tracking Playbook: 6 Steps to Closed Deals

Step 1: Detect — Catch the Job Change Fast

Speed is everything in champion tracking. Research from InsideSales.com (now XANT) shows that responding to a lead within 5 minutes makes you 21x more likely to qualify the opportunity compared to waiting 30 minutes. For champion tracking, the clock starts when the job change happens — not when you find out about it.

What to do:

• Set up real-time job change monitoring across your entire CRM
• Configure instant notifications (push, email, Slack) for high-priority champions
• Categorize champions by tier: Tier 1 (executive sponsors, decision-makers), Tier 2 (power users, influencers), Tier 3 (end users, contacts)
• Ensure alerts include context: the champion's history with your product, their previous deal size, and their new company's ICP fit

The timing gap problem: Most champion tracking tools detect job changes days or weeks after they happen, because they rely on LinkedIn profile updates. By the time the alert fires, your competitor may have already reached out.

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's champion tracking runs continuously, combining multiple data sources to detect changes faster. When a change is detected, it appears immediately in your daily playbook with full context — no need to research in separate tools.

Step 2: Prioritize — Not All Champions Are Equal

When multiple alerts fire simultaneously, you need a framework for prioritization. Not every champion job change is worth the same effort. The key variables are:

Champion Tier:

• Tier 1 — Executive Sponsor / Decision Maker: They signed the contract, owned the budget, and made the buying decision. These are your highest-priority alerts. Drop everything and engage.
• Tier 2 — Power User / Internal Champion: They used your product daily, advocated for it internally, and drove adoption. High priority — they'll influence the buying decision at their new company.
• Tier 3 — End User / Contact: They used your product but weren't a decision-maker. Worth a touch, but lower urgency.

New Company Fit:

• Does the new company match your ICP (industry, size, revenue)?
• Are they using a competitor's product that yours replaces?
• Is the company showing intent signals (website visits, search behavior)?

Champion History:

• How recently were they a customer?
• How large was their previous deal?
• Were they a vocal advocate (references, case studies, G2 reviews)?

Prioritization matrix:

Priority Level	Champion Tier	Company ICP Fit	Intent Signals	Action
🔴 Critical	Tier 1	Strong Fit	Yes	Call within 1 hour
🟠 High	Tier 1	Strong Fit	No	Call within 24 hours
🟠 High	Tier 2	Strong Fit	Yes	Call within 24 hours
🟡 Medium	Tier 2	Strong Fit	No	Email + call within 48 hours
🟡 Medium	Tier 1–2	Moderate Fit	Any	Email sequence, call in week 1
🟢 Low	Tier 3	Any	Any	Automated email sequence

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's daily playbook automatically prioritizes champion alerts based on champion tier, company fit, and intent signals. Your SDR doesn't need to build this matrix manually — it's done for them every morning.

Step 3: Personalize — Make It About Them, Not You

The #1 mistake sales teams make with champion outreach is leading with a product pitch. Champions know your product — they don't need an elevator pitch. They need to feel like you remember them, you value the relationship, and you understand their new context.

Personalization framework:

Email subject line examples:

• "Congrats on the new role at [Company], [First Name]!"
• "[First Name] — saw you joined [Company]. Exciting move."
• "From [Old Company] to [Company] — great fit"

Email body structure:

1. Acknowledge the move — genuine congratulations, reference their previous impact
2. Reference shared history — "You drove 40% adoption at Acme in the first quarter" or "The results your team got were some of our best case studies"
3. Bridge to new context — "I'd imagine you're evaluating tools for your new team. Happy to share how companies similar to [New Company] are using us"
4. Soft ask — "Would love to catch up and hear about your plans. Quick 15 minutes this week?"

What NOT to do:

• Don't send a generic template
• Don't lead with pricing or features
• Don't assume they'll buy immediately
• Don't pitch in the first message — just reconnect

Phone script framework: "Hey [Name], it's [Your Name] from [Company]. First off — huge congrats on the VP of Sales role at [Company]. That's awesome. I actually wanted to reach out because I remember how much you crushed it at [Old Company] — you drove some incredible results with us. I'd love to hear about what you're building at [Company] and see if there's a way we can help you hit the ground running. Got 15 minutes this week?"

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's email automation pre-populates personalized templates with champion history, previous deal data, and new company context. The smart dialer surfaces call scripts with relevant talking points. No manual research required.

Step 4: Multi-Channel Outreach — Don't Rely on Email Alone

Email response rates continue to decline. The average B2B cold email gets a 1–3% reply rate. Even warm champion emails only see 15–25% response rates. If you rely on email alone, you'll miss 75–85% of your champion opportunities.

The multi-channel sequence:

Day	Channel	Action
Day 1	📞 Phone	Call #1 — congratulatory, warm reconnection
Day 1	📧 Email	Personalized congratulations email (if call goes to VM)
Day 1	💼 LinkedIn	Connection request + congratulations message
Day 3	📧 Email	Follow-up: share a relevant case study or insight
Day 5	📞 Phone	Call #2 — reference the email, offer value
Day 7	📧 Email	Share specific ROI data from their previous usage
Day 10	📞 Phone	Call #3 — final attempt with urgency
Day 14	📧 Email	Break-up email: "If timing isn't right, I'll check back in Q2"
Day 30	📧 Email	Re-engagement: new feature, case study, or industry insight

The key is persistence without being pushy. Each touch adds value — a case study, a data point, a relevant insight — rather than just asking for a meeting.

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's email automation and smart dialer execute this entire sequence from one platform. The daily playbook shows which step each champion is on and what action to take next. No forgetting, no gaps, no tool switching.

Step 5: Follow Up — The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up

Most champion outreach fails not because the signal was bad, but because the follow-up was inconsistent. The reality of champion sales cycles:

• 10% of champions are ready to buy immediately (first 30 days)
• 30% of champions start evaluating within 90 days
• 40% of champions begin a buying process within 6 months
• 20% of champions don't lead to an opportunity (wrong fit, budget constraints, etc.)

This means 70% of your champion opportunities will take 1–6 months to materialize. If your outreach stops after 2 weeks, you're abandoning the majority of your pipeline.

Long-term nurture strategy:

• Monthly check-in — Share industry insights, product updates, or relevant content
• Quarterly business review invite — Offer to share anonymized benchmarks from similar companies
• Trigger-based re-engagement — When their new company shows website visits or intent signals, escalate to active outreach
• Event invitations — Webinars, conferences, dinners — give them reasons to stay connected

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's intent signals and website visitor ID create natural re-engagement triggers. When a champion's new company starts visiting your website, the daily playbook automatically escalates them from nurture to active outreach. This is impossible with alert-only tools like UserGems or Champify that don't track website visitors.

Step 6: Close — Leverage the Champion Relationship

When a champion is ready to buy, the closing process is different from a typical deal:

Advantages you have:

• The champion already knows your product's value
• They can articulate ROI from personal experience
• They become your internal advocate from day one
• They often push for faster procurement timelines

How to accelerate the close:

1. Reference previous results: "At Acme, your team saw 40% productivity improvement in Q1. Let's replicate that here."
2. Offer a champion-specific deal: Fast-track onboarding, dedicated CSM, or a pilot program
3. Equip your champion: Give them an internal business case, ROI calculator, and comparison materials they can share with their new leadership
4. Multi-thread early: Don't rely solely on the champion — ask for introductions to other stakeholders
5. Compress the timeline: Champions have credibility to push for faster decisions. Help them build urgency internally.

How MarketBetter helps: MarketBetter's platform gives you complete visibility into the opportunity — champion history, website engagement from the new company, intent signals, all communication history — in one view. Your AE can walk into the closing call fully prepared.

The Complete Playbook at a Glance

Step	Manual Process	With MarketBetter
1. Detect	Check alerts in UserGems/Champify, research manually	Automatic detection, instant context in daily playbook
2. Prioritize	Manual assessment, CRM research, spreadsheet scoring	AI-powered prioritization by champion tier + ICP fit + intent
3. Personalize	Research in CRM, draft custom emails, prepare call scripts	Pre-populated templates with champion history and company context
4. Multi-Channel	Switch between Outreach, dialer, LinkedIn, CRM	One-click dial, automated email sequences, all from one screen
5. Follow Up	Manual reminders, inconsistent cadence, lost signals	Automated nurture with intent-triggered re-engagement
6. Close	Scattered data across tools, incomplete context	Unified view of champion history + company engagement + intent

Why This Playbook Fails Without the Right Tools

The playbook above works. It's been proven by thousands of B2B sales teams. But execution is everything, and execution requires tools.

If your stack looks like UserGems + Outreach + ZoomInfo + Orum + Warmly + Drift, you're juggling six tools, six logins, and six data silos. The playbook becomes a coordination nightmare, and your SDRs spend more time switching between tools than actually selling.

MarketBetter consolidates the entire playbook into one platform. Detection, prioritization, personalization, multi-channel outreach, follow-up, and closing support — all in one place, with one dataset, and one daily workflow. That's how you turn job changes into closed deals consistently, not occasionally.

Read more: Why Champion Tracking Alone Isn't Enough | From Champion Alert to Closed Deal: Why Speed Wins

Ready to Go Beyond Champion Tracking?

MarketBetter combines champion tracking with website visitor intelligence, intent signals, and a full SDR execution platform — dialer, email, and AI chatbot included.

Book a Demo →