The “Champion Migration” Tracker

Follow your best customers and advocates when they change jobs. When a power user or internal champion moves to a new company, strike fast with a 'Congrats + Re-sell' play.

Standard Complexity
Owner: Sales / Customer Marketing
Updated Jan 2025
Workflow overview diagram

Workflow overview

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Trigger

Past customer, power user, or champion updates LinkedIn with new company/role

Inputs

Champion database (closed-won contacts, NPS promoters, power users), LinkedIn monitoring, CRM history

Output

Personalized outreach to new company, qualified lead with relationship context, warm intro to new org

Success Metrics

Reply rate >35%, meeting book rate >15%, 6x faster sales cycle vs. cold accounts

Overview

What It Is

The Champion Migration Tracker monitors your past customers, power users, and internal champions for job changes. When someone who loved your product at Company A moves to Company B, this playbook triggers timely, personalized outreach that leverages your existing relationship to open doors at their new organization. It's the highest-conversion outbound motion that exists—because you're not cold, you're known.

Why It Matters

Champions move jobs every 2-3 years on average. When they leave, you lose an advocate—but you gain an opportunity at their new company. These leads convert at 5-10x the rate of cold outreach because: (1) they already know and trust your product, (2) they often have mandate to 'fix' things at the new company, and (3) people hire what they know. Most companies never track these moves. This playbook ensures you never miss a champion migration.

Who It's For

  • B2B companies with strong customer relationships and repeat buyers
  • Sales teams looking for the warmest possible outbound leads
  • Customer Success teams wanting to extend customer lifetime value
  • Companies with NPS programs that identify promoters

Preconditions

Required Tools

  • UserGems, ChampionTrack, or similar (for job change monitoring)
  • LinkedIn (for verification and engagement)
  • CRM with historical contact data (HubSpot/Salesforce)
  • Optional: NPS/CSAT system for promoter identification

Required Fields/Properties

  • Champion Database (list of contacts to track: closed-won, NPS 9-10, power users)
  • Historical relationship context (product usage, deal history, CS interactions)
  • LinkedIn URLs for all tracked contacts
  • Outreach templates by relationship type

Definitions Required

  • Who qualifies as a 'champion' worth tracking (deal size, NPS, engagement level)
  • Time window for outreach after job change (recommend: 30-90 days)
  • Routing rules: AE vs. SDR based on relationship and new company ICP fit
  • Exclusion criteria (new company too small, wrong industry, etc.)

Step-by-Step Workflow

1

Build Your Champion Database

Goal: Create a prioritized list of past contacts worth tracking for job changes.

Actions:

  • Export closed-won contacts from CRM (last 3-5 years)
  • Add NPS promoters (9-10 scores) from customer feedback
  • Add high-engagement users from product analytics (power users)
  • Include: CS contacts, champions from deals, executive sponsors
  • Enrich with LinkedIn URLs for each contact
  • Score by relationship strength: Strong, Medium, Warm

Implementation Notes: Don't track everyone—track people who actually liked you. A closed-won contact who churned after 6 months is not a champion. Focus on promoters and power users.

Automation Logic:

CHAMPION SCORING CRITERIA STRONG CHAMPION (Priority 1) ✓ NPS 9-10 OR ✓ Product power user (top 20% usage) OR ✓ Provided case study/reference OR ✓ Internal sponsor who drove the deal MEDIUM CHAMPION (Priority 2) ✓ NPS 7-8 OR ✓ Active product user OR ✓ Positive CS relationship OR ✓ Multi-year customer WARM CONTACT (Priority 3) ✓ Closed-won but limited engagement OR ✓ Short tenure customer OR ✓ Secondary contact (not primary buyer)
2

Configure Job Change Monitoring

Goal: Set up automated tracking for when champions change roles.

Actions:

  • Upload champion database to UserGems (or similar tool)
  • Configure alert criteria: new company, new title, start date
  • Set up filters: exclude lateral moves at same company, promotions
  • Configure daily/weekly digest of job changes
  • Push alerts to Slack and CRM automatically

Implementation Notes: UserGems and similar tools monitor LinkedIn for profile updates. There's typically a 2-4 week lag from when someone starts a new job to when they update LinkedIn—plan for this delay.

Automation Logic:

{ "monitoring_config": { "source": "usergems", "contacts": "champion_database", "trigger_on": [ "new_company", "new_role_different_company" ], "exclude": [ "same_company_promotion", "lateral_move_same_company" ], "alert_destinations": [ "slack_channel_job_changes", "crm_lead_creation", "email_to_owner" ], "icp_filter": { "company_size": ">50 employees", "industry": "{{target_industries}}" } } }
3

Qualify New Company Fit

Goal: Determine if the champion's new company is a good prospect.

Actions:

  • Enrich new company: size, industry, tech stack, funding
  • Check against ICP criteria
  • Verify champion's new role has relevance to your product
  • Check if new company is already a customer or in pipeline
  • Score opportunity: Hot, Warm, or Pass

Implementation Notes: Not every migration is an opportunity. If your champion moves to a 5-person startup and you sell enterprise software, that's a Pass. Focus energy on qualified opportunities.

Automation Logic:

NEW COMPANY QUALIFICATION HOT OPPORTUNITY: ✓ New company in ICP (size, industry) ✓ Champion in buying role (VP+, Ops leader) ✓ Strong relationship score ✓ Not currently a customer → AE outreach within 2 weeks WARM OPPORTUNITY: ✓ New company partially fits ICP ✓ Champion in relevant role ✓ Medium relationship score → SDR outreach within 4 weeks PASS: ✗ New company outside ICP (too small, wrong industry) ✗ Champion in irrelevant role ✗ Already a customer (route to CS for expansion) ✗ In active pipeline (notify deal owner)
4

Craft Personalized Outreach

Goal: Create high-touch outreach that leverages the existing relationship.

Actions:

  • Pull historical context: deal history, product usage, CS notes
  • Reference specific wins/experiences from past engagement
  • Acknowledge the job change with genuine congratulations
  • Offer to help with the 'new job challenge' (first 90 days, stack audit)
  • Suggest reconnecting, not selling

Implementation Notes: This is NOT a cold email. Reference your shared history explicitly. 'I remember when we implemented X together at {{old_company}}' is 10x better than generic 'Congrats on the new role.'

5

Route & Execute

Goal: Get the right rep reaching out at the right time.

Actions:

  • Route Hot opportunities to previous account owner if available
  • If no history, route to territory AE
  • Set SLA: outreach within 2 weeks of detection (ideally 30-60 days into new role)
  • Coordinate with CS if champion left existing customer
  • Log all outreach and responses in CRM

Implementation Notes: Timing matters. Too early (first week) and they're overwhelmed. Too late (6 months) and they've already chosen tools. Sweet spot is 30-90 days when they're evaluating and have budget.

6

Close the Loop

Goal: Track outcomes and refine the champion database.

Actions:

  • Track: outreach sent, replies, meetings, opportunities created
  • Measure conversion rate by champion strength score
  • Add new champions from closed deals to tracking database
  • Remove churned/negative contacts from champion list
  • Share wins with CS team to reinforce champion relationship building

Implementation Notes: Champion tracking is a flywheel. Every new closed deal adds potential future champions. Build the relationship with an eye toward their eventual job change.

Templates

Email Template: Strong Champion (Previous Buyer)

Subject: Congrats on {{new_company}}—and a quick offer

Hi {{first_name}},

Just saw you landed at {{new_company}}—congrats! That's a great move.

I remember working with you at {{old_company}} when we rolled out {{product/feature}}. You were one of our best partners on that project.

I'm guessing the first 90 days at a new gig are chaos—inheriting someone else's stack, figuring out what's broken, building credibility fast. If you're evaluating [product category] again, I'd be happy to help any way I can—even if it's just a sounding board.

No pressure to buy anything. Just wanted to reconnect and offer a hand if useful.

Good to see you thriving,
{{sender_name}}

Email Template: Medium Champion (Power User)

Subject: Saw the news about {{new_company}}—congrats!

Hi {{first_name}},

I noticed you recently joined {{new_company}}—congratulations on the new role!

I remember you were one of our most active users at {{old_company}}. Hope you got a lot of value from [specific feature they used heavily].

If you're looking at similar tools for your new team, I'd be happy to share what's new on our end. We've shipped a lot since you were last in the product.

No pitch—just thought you might want to reconnect. Would a quick 15 minutes be useful in the next few weeks?

Best,
{{sender_name}}

Email Template: Warm Contact (Past Deal)

Subject: {{first_name}} → {{new_company}}—nice move!

Hi {{first_name}},

Congrats on the move to {{new_company}}! I saw the update on LinkedIn and wanted to reach out.

We connected a while back when you were at {{old_company}}. Not sure if [product category] is on your radar at the new gig, but if it is, I'd love to catch up and share what's new.

Either way, best of luck settling in.

{{sender_name}}

Champion Strength Scoring Table

| Criteria | Points | Notes |
|----------|--------|-------|
| NPS 9-10 | +3 | Promoter status |
| NPS 7-8 | +1 | Passive |
| Provided case study | +3 | Active advocate |
| Served as reference | +2 | Willing to vouch |
| Power user (top 20%) | +2 | Deep product knowledge |
| Deal sponsor/champion | +3 | Drove purchase decision |
| Multi-year customer | +1 | Sustained relationship |
| CS escalations | -2 | Had issues |
| Churned account | -3 | May have negative sentiment |

**Strong**: 5+ points | **Medium**: 2-4 points | **Warm**: 1 point | **Pass**: 0 or negative

Slack Alert: Champion Job Change

🚀 *Champion Job Change Detected*

*Champion:* {{champion_name}}
*Previous Company:* {{old_company}} ({{old_role}})
*New Company:* {{new_company}} ({{new_role}})
*Detected:* {{detection_date}}

*Relationship Context:*
📊 Champion Score: {{champion_score}} ({{score_tier}})
💰 Previous Deal: ${{deal_value}} ({{close_date}})
⭐ NPS Score: {{nps_score}}
📝 CS Notes: "{{cs_note_excerpt}}"

*New Company Fit:*
🏢 Size: {{new_company_size}} employees
🏭 Industry: {{industry}}
📍 ICP Match: {{icp_match_status}}

*Recommended Action:* {{recommended_action}}
*Assigned To:* {{assigned_rep}}

<{{crm_contact_link}}|View Contact> | <{{linkedin_url}}|LinkedIn Profile>

QA + Edge Cases

Test Cases Checklist

  • Champion changes job → alert fires within 24 hours
  • New company enriched with size, industry, ICP fit score
  • Strong champion at ICP company → routed to AE
  • Champion moves to existing customer → routed to CS for expansion
  • Email template correctly pulls historical context (old company, NPS, etc.)
  • Pass-qualified migrations (bad ICP fit) → logged but no outreach
  • Duplicate detections → deduplicated

Common Failure Modes

  • Stale LinkedIn data: Champion changed jobs 4 months ago but just updated LinkedIn. Reference their start date in outreach to avoid seeming late.
  • Wrong relationship memory: CRM says they were a customer but they actually churned unhappily. Cross-reference CS notes before outreach.
  • Over-pitching: Treating champion outreach like cold email. This is a relationship—lead with connection, not pitch.
  • Missing the window: Reaching out 6 months after job change when they've already bought something else. Speed matters.

Troubleshooting Tips

  • If detection is slow: Verify LinkedIn URLs are correct, check UserGems sync frequency
  • If reply rates are low: Review relationship scoring—are you tracking actual champions?
  • If new companies don't convert: Tighten ICP filters or adjust qualification criteria
  • If CS is upset about poaching: Coordinate on transition—maybe they want to do the outreach

KPIs and Reporting

KPIs to Track

  • Champions Tracked: 1,000+ contacts in monitoring database
  • Monthly Job Changes Detected: 2-5% of champions change jobs annually
  • Reply Rate: >35% (vs. 3-5% for cold outbound)
  • Meeting Book Rate: >15% of qualified migrations
  • Sales Cycle Comparison: 6x faster close than cold accounts

Suggested Dashboard Widgets

  • Champion Database Health: Table showing total champions tracked, by score tier, with LinkedIn URL coverage %
  • Migration Funnel: Funnel: Job Changes → ICP Qualified → Outreach Sent → Reply → Meeting → Opportunity
  • Conversion by Champion Tier: Bar chart comparing meeting rates for Strong vs. Medium vs. Warm champions
  • Revenue from Migrations: $ pipeline and closed-won attributed to champion migration outreach

Want This Implemented End-to-End?

If you want this playbook configured in your stack without the learning curve:

  • Timeline: Fully configured in 1-2 weeks
  • Deliverables: Champion database build, UserGems integration, CRM workflows, 4 email templates, Slack alerts, reporting dashboard
  • Handoff: Training on relationship-based outreach + CS coordination protocol
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