Signal-Based GTM (Framework)
The overlooked infrastructure powering modern B2B GTM
👋 Hey, I’m George Chasiotis. Welcome to GrowthWaves, your weekly dose of B2B growth insights—featuring powerful case studies, emerging trends, and unconventional strategies you won’t find anywhere else.
This GrowthWaves note is brought to you by Restartt.
Most CEOs want to create content. Few actually do.
Not because they don’t have something to say, because they don’t have a system.
We’re running a workshop to fix that.
This is for busy founders who want to show up on LinkedIn but don’t know where to start (or how to keep going). We’ll walk you through:
The exact workflow we use to turn raw ideas into sharp posts
A proven framework for defining your content pillars and schedule
How to use AI to support your voice, not replace it
No fluff. Just what works, based on a real founder-led strategy.
Date: Thu Jul 24, 2025
Time: 4:00 PM GMT+1
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: Free
If you’re the face of your brand (or want to be), this will help.
See you there.
GrowthWaves is a weekly newsletter.
But last week, I didn’t send one.
The reason?
I’ve been too busy!
Things at our new agency, Restartt, are picking up faster than expected.
Of course, this is a great thing, but it’s also a challenge to write GrowthWaves.
I’m back this week, with something important. (Written Sunday afternoon.)
It’s a framework for how to think about signals.
More specifically, I’ll introduce you to the world of signal-based GTM.
Let’s dive in.
What are signals?
Let’s start with the basics.
Roughly speaking, there are three types of signals:
Website
External
Engagement
Here’s what each of these types is about:
1) Website
Example: Qualified visits on your pricing page
2) External
Example: A champion from an inactive account got a new position
3) Engagement
Example: A prospect from a target account engaged with your LinkedIn post
Your job as a marketer is to:
Set up and monitor the *right* signals
Create touchpoints that will trigger these signals
Facilitate the progression of prospects throughout their journey
Touchpoints are interactions your brand has with the prospective buyer.
If engaging with a LinkedIn post is an engagement signal, the post is the touchpoint.
You can’t get signals without touchpoints, and touchpoints without signals are vanity.
Many companies struggle with this.
In my experience, the main reasons for that are:
Conflicting priorities: Signal-based infrastructure is usually not a priority
Lack of focus: Marketers wear many hats and juggle many responsibilities
Lack of expertise: Signal-based infrastructure isn’t easy to set up or maintain
Signal-based infrastructure isn’t a ‘nice to have’ anymore.
It’s table stakes.
Why are signals important?
I’m sorry for trying to take you from A to Z here.
But I think it’s important to familiarize yourself with the concept before we dive deeper into the world of signal-based GTM.
So far, we’ve discussed the different types of signals, their relationship to touchpoints, and why companies usually struggle with signals.
The question remains:
Why signals, and why now? A few important considerations:
Focus on intent
Increasingly, in GTM, there’s been a focus on intent instead of flying blind and shooting in the dark.
Companies are getting way more sophisticated in the way they approach buyers.
They have to because the game has changed.
Let’s illustrate this with a simple signal-based GTM workflow.
Here’s a workflow we currently run for one of Restartt’s clients:
The workflow starts by identifying visits on a specific page on our client’s website.
The page is a comparison page between our client and one of their most prominent competitors.
We drive traffic to this page through Google Search Ads.
We then enrich the identified accounts, score them, and, after ensuring ICP fit, route them to different SDRs from the company.
We also send notifications to a shared Slack channel to ensure prompt action and that things aren’t slipping through the cracks.
Lastly, we’ll reach out to the identified prospects (usually via email or on LinkedIn) and try to get them on a demo with one of the company’s AEs.
The key here is the touchpoint, a page that indicates buying (or at least commercial investigation) intent.
That informs us that some of these visits may indeed be in the market to buy, and thus, we need to connect with them and start building a relationship.
Channel saturation
I mentioned Google Search Ads earlier.
Let’s think about another channel companies use to go to market:
Cold Outbound
If you know anyone who’s doing it, they’ll tell you that response rates are constantly dropping.
That’s not to say the channel isn’t working.
It’s just not as effective as it used to be.
The problem with cold outbound is twofold:
Lack of intent (which we just covered)
The channel has matured
Especially if you’re in a more senior position, you know what I’m talking about.
The number of emails we all receive has become overwhelming.
The quality is bad, too…
So, as different channels reach different maturity levels, GTM professionals must find better or more targeted ways to connect with buyers.
Signal-Based GTM helps with precisely that.
Tech stack
A few years back, signals weren’t a thing.
Revenue professionals will tell you that they’d track things such as a ‘champion getting a job at a new company,’ but they’d do it semi-manually and not as consistently.
Needless to say, that has changed.
Companies nowadays have all the tools they need to set up sophisticated signal-based infrastructures that allow them to track signals of all kinds:
Visits back to specific website pages or page paths
Engagement with LinkedIn Ads on an account level
Product usage or other product-related notifications
Engagement with social media posts or brand mentions
Company funding news or other product announcements
Tools like Common Room and Clay allow you to monitor these signals, in some instances, without being super technical.
And the best thing is that this whole space is just starting.
If the tech of the now allows us to build sophisticated signal-based systems, imagine what we’ll be able to make in the next few months or years.
The possibilities are endless.
And with that, we’ve covered the why behind Signal-Based GTM.
Let’s see how you can build your signal-based infrastructure.
How to build a signal-based infrastructure
Building a signal-based infrastructure isn’t easy.
Which is why most companies won’t do it.
Which is why companies that do crack it win big.
Here’s what some of our signal-based infrastructures look like for Restartt’s clients:
And this is just the Miro board.
Imagine what goes into building and maintaining the backend.
I can tell you:
It ain’t pretty, and it gets complicated fast.
Which is why I don’t recommend building something super sophisticated unless you have professional help.
You can start small and go from there.
To do so, you can use the following framework:
Before you start, take the following for granted:
There’s no chance that you won’t add more touchpoints and signals as you move along
There’s no chance that things won’t break and that you won’t have to refine parts of your system
So, you’ve got to be prepared for a high-reward but also high-maintenance system.
As I said at the beginning of this section.
Most companies still don’t get any of these.
If you start today, you’re still in the early majority.
The upside is significant, and the downside is almost nonexistent.
Let’s bring this to a close.
Final thoughts
Building a signal-based infrastructure isn’t easy.
But, like everything new, it gets easier over time.
Seeing such systems' benefits to the companies we work with is mindblowing.
I can also understand, though, why the complexity of such a system may be a no-go for most companies.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how you will adapt to this ever-changing environment.
If you decide to try Signal-Based GTM, you have a framework from which to start.