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
- Customer list — CSV or sheet with: company name, domain, primary contact LinkedIn URL, current plan/tier, MRR/ARR, seats/usage
- Product tiers — What plans exist? What triggers an upgrade? (e.g., "Pro → Enterprise at 50+ seats")
- Cross-sell products — Any add-ons or adjacent products you can sell?
Signal Configuration
- 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)
- Key contacts to monitor — LinkedIn URLs of champions, decision-makers per account (if available beyond primary)
Filters
- Minimum account value — Only scan accounts above $X MRR? (Focus effort)
- 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"
Claude
ChatGPT
OpenClaw