expansion-signal-spotter

Expansion Signal Spotter

Find expansion revenue hiding in your existing customer base. Monitors accounts for signals that indicate they're ready to buy more — before they ask or before a competitor gets there first.

Built for: CS teams and founders at early-stage companies where expansion revenue is the fastest path to growth. You already have the relationship — this skill finds the timing.

When to Use

• "Which customers are ready to expand?"
• "Find upsell opportunities in our accounts"
• "Run the weekly expansion signal scan"
• "Who should I pitch [new feature/tier] to?"
• "Monitor customer accounts for growth signals"

Phase 0: Intake

Account Data

1. Customer list — CSV or sheet with: company name, domain, primary contact LinkedIn URL, current plan/tier, MRR/ARR, seats/usage
2. Product tiers — What plans exist? What triggers an upgrade? (e.g., "Pro → Enterprise at 50+ seats")
3. Cross-sell products — Any add-ons or adjacent products you can sell?

Signal Configuration

4. Expansion triggers — What signals mean "ready to buy more" for your product?
   • Team growth (new hires in relevant roles)
   • Funding announcement
   • Usage hitting plan limits
   • New department/use case interest
   • Champion promoted (more budget authority)
5. Key contacts to monitor — LinkedIn URLs of champions, decision-makers per account (if available beyond primary)

Filters

6. Minimum account value — Only scan accounts above $X MRR? (Focus effort)
7. Accounts to exclude — Any accounts in active churn risk, paused, or in dispute

Phase 1: Signal Detection

1A: Team Growth Signals

For each customer, search for hiring activity:

Search: "[company name]" hiring OR "we're hiring" OR "join our team"
Search: site:linkedin.com/jobs "[company name]" [relevant role keywords]
Search: "[company name]" "head of" OR "director of" OR "VP" [your product's domain]

Signals to detect:

Signal	What It Means	Expansion Play
Hiring in your product's domain	Growing the team that uses you	More seats / higher tier
New leadership hire	Budget holder arrived, will evaluate stack	Executive alignment meeting
Hiring in adjacent team	New department could use your product	Cross-sell / new use case
Rapid headcount growth	Scaling fast, needs to scale tools too	Volume upgrade

1B: Funding & Financial Signals

Search: "[company name]" funding OR raised OR "series" OR investment 2026
Search: "[company name]" revenue OR growth OR expansion

Signal	What It Means	Expansion Play
New funding round	Cash in bank, expanding everything	Premium tier / annual contract
Revenue milestone	Business doing well, likely investing in tools	ROI-focused expansion pitch
Acquisition	New parent company = new budget	Enterprise plan / multi-team

1C: Product Usage Signals (if usage data available)

From internal data, flag:

Signal	Threshold	Expansion Play
Approaching plan limit	>80% of seats/usage quota	Proactive upgrade offer
New feature adoption	Started using a feature in higher tier (via trial/beta)	Convert trial to paid
Power user emergence	1+ users with 3x average usage	Champion for internal expansion
Multi-team usage	Users from 2+ departments	Department-level deal
API usage growth	API calls trending up month-over-month	Usage-based tier upgrade

1D: Public Signal Monitoring

Search: "[company name]" launch OR "new product" OR partnership OR expansion
Search: "[company name]" "[your product category]" OR "[related use case]"

Signal	What It Means	Expansion Play
New product launch	May need your product for the new line	New use case pitch
Geographic expansion	Growing into new markets	Multi-region / additional seats
Partnership announced	Business growing, more complexity	Higher tier for scale
Competitor of yours mentioned	Evaluating alternatives	Retention + upgrade pre-empt

1E: Champion & Stakeholder Signals

If monitoring champion LinkedIn profiles:

Search: "[champion name]" promoted OR "new role" OR "excited to announce"

Signal	What It Means	Expansion Play
Champion promoted	More authority, bigger budget	Propose expansion aligned to new scope
Champion left	Risk + opportunity (new person = fresh pitch)	Onboard new contact, re-pitch value
New exec joined	Potential new sponsor	Executive briefing

Phase 2: Opportunity Scoring

Score each expansion opportunity:

Expansion Score = Signal Strength × Account Value × Timing

Signal Strength (1-5):
  5 = Approaching plan limit + funding + team growth (multiple signals)
  4 = Strong usage signal + one external signal
  3 = One strong external signal (funding, hiring)
  2 = Usage trending up, no external confirmation
  1 = Weak or single minor signal

Account Value (multiplier):
  2.0x = Top 20% accounts by MRR
  1.5x = Mid-tier accounts
  1.0x = Smaller accounts

Timing (multiplier):
  2.0x = Signal detected this week (fresh)
  1.5x = Signal detected this month
  1.0x = Signal older than 30 days

Opportunity Tiers

Tier	Score	Action
Hot	15+	Schedule expansion call this week
Warm	8-14	Send value-add touchpoint, plant expansion seed
Watch	3-7	Add to next QBR agenda, monitor

Phase 3: Talk Track Generation

For each Hot and Warm opportunity, generate:

ACCOUNT: [Company Name]
CURRENT PLAN: [Plan] — $[MRR]/mo
EXPANSION TYPE: [Upsell / Cross-sell / Volume increase]
ESTIMATED EXPANSION: $[additional MRR]/mo

SIGNALS:
- [Signal 1] — [Source + date]
- [Signal 2] — [Source + date]

EXPANSION OPPORTUNITY:
[2-3 sentences: What should they buy and why now?]

TALK TRACK:
"[Opening line — connects the signal to their business goals, not your quota]"

"[Value bridge — how the expansion directly helps with what they're already trying to do]"

"[Soft ask — suggest next step without pressure]"

TIMING: [Why now is the right time — tied to signal]

RISK: [What could block this — budget freeze, champion change, etc.]

Phase 4: Output Format

# Expansion Signal Report — Week of [DATE]
Accounts scanned: [N]
Total expansion pipeline identified: $[X] additional MRR

---

## Summary

| Tier | Opportunities | Potential MRR |
|------|--------------|---------------|
| 🔥 Hot | [N] | $[X]/mo |
| 🟡 Warm | [N] | $[X]/mo |
| 👀 Watch | [N] | $[X]/mo |

---

## 🔥 Hot Opportunities

### [Company 1] — Current: $[X]/mo → Target: $[Y]/mo (+$[Z])
**Signals:** [list]
**Expansion type:** [Upsell to Enterprise / Add 20 seats / Cross-sell analytics]
**Talk track:** "[scripted opener]"
**Next step:** [Specific action + date]

### [Company 2] — ...

---

## 🟡 Warm Opportunities

### [Company] — Current: $[X]/mo | Signal: [brief]
**Recommended touchpoint:** [What to do — e.g., "Send case study of similar customer who expanded"]

---

## 👀 Watch List

| Account | Signal | Next Check |
|---------|--------|------------|
| [Name] | [Signal] | [Date] |

---

## Trends

- [N] accounts showing team growth signals (potential seat expansion)
- [N] accounts approaching usage limits
- [N] accounts with new funding (potential tier upgrade)

## Expansion Playbook Priority

This week, focus on:
1. **[Account]** — [Why: highest value + strongest signal]
2. **[Account]** — [Why]
3. **[Account]** — [Why]

Save to clients/<client-name>/customer-success/expansion/expansion-signals-[YYYY-MM-DD].md.

Scheduling

Run weekly:

0 8 * * 2 python3 run_skill.py expansion-signal-spotter --client <client-name>

Cost

Component	Cost
Web search (hiring, funding, news)	Free
LinkedIn monitoring (if using linkedin-profile-post-scraper)	~$0.50-1.00
Job posting detection (if using job-posting-intent)	~$0.50
All analysis and talk tracks	Free (LLM reasoning)
Total	Free — $1.50

Tools Required

• web_search — for funding, news, hiring signals
• fetch_webpage — for career pages and announcements
• Optional: linkedin-profile-post-scraper for champion monitoring
• Optional: job-posting-intent for structured hiring signal detection

Trigger Phrases

• "Find expansion opportunities in our accounts"
• "Which customers are ready for an upgrade?"
• "Run the expansion signal scan"
• "Weekly expansion opportunity report"