How to Track Champions Without UserGems: A Complete Guide

UserGems has been a go-to tool for champion tracking in B2B sales, helping teams detect when former customers and advocates change jobs. But at $15K–$30K per year for SMB and $50K+ for enterprise — with no built-in execution tools — many teams are asking a fair question: can we track champions without UserGems?

The answer is yes. There are multiple ways to track champions, ranging from completely free manual methods to full-platform alternatives that deliver more value at lower cost. In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk through every option, with honest pros and cons for each, so you can choose the approach that fits your budget, team size, and growth goals.

Why Track Champions at All?

Before diving into the how, let's reinforce the why. Champion tracking matters because:

• Champions convert 3–5x better than cold outreach — they already know and trust your product
• Sales cycles shorten by 30–50% when you're selling to a known advocate
• Deal sizes often increase because champions push for broader adoption at their new company
• Your competitor is already doing it — if you're not tracking champions, someone else is reaching your former customers first

The question isn't whether to track champions. It's how to do it most effectively and cost-efficiently.

Method 1: LinkedIn Sales Navigator (Manual Tracking)

Cost: $79.99–$149.99/user/month ($960–$1,800/user/year) Best for: Individual reps, very small teams

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the most accessible tool for champion tracking. Here's how to set it up:

Step-by-step process:

1. Build a "Champions" list in Sales Navigator with all your key contacts — past buyers, power users, executive sponsors, and advocates
2. Enable job change notifications — Sales Navigator alerts you when saved leads change positions
3. Check alerts daily — Review notifications each morning and flag high-priority changes
4. Research the new company — Determine if the new company fits your ICP
5. Reach out via InMail or connection request — Send a congratulatory message with a soft pitch

Pros:

• Most reps already have Sales Navigator
• Largest professional network (900M+ profiles)
• No additional tool required
• Can combine with other Sales Nav features (lead recommendations, account tracking)

Cons:

• Entirely manual process — alerts can be missed or delayed
• No CRM automation — you have to manually create leads and log activities
• Job change alerts are not always timely (can lag days or weeks)
• Doesn't scale beyond 10–20 key contacts per rep
• No multi-channel outreach (no email, no phone)
• No intent signals or visitor ID
• InMail response rates are low (10–15%)

Verdict: Good starting point for individual reps, but completely impractical for teams of 5+ or companies tracking hundreds of contacts.

Method 2: Google Alerts + Boolean Searches

Cost: Free Best for: Bootstrapped startups, supplementary tracking

Google Alerts can monitor the web for mentions of your key contacts' names, combined with terms like "joins," "appointed," "named," or "new role."

Step-by-step process:

1. Create alerts for each champion's name: "Sarah Johnson" AND ("joins" OR "appointed" OR "new role")
2. Set delivery frequency to "as-it-happens" for speed
3. Monitor your inbox for alerts
4. Cross-reference with LinkedIn to verify

Pros:

• Completely free
• Catches press releases and blog announcements
• Can surface executive-level moves that make the news

Cons:

• Only catches changes that are publicly written about — most job changes have no press coverage
• Extremely noisy — name matches produce many false positives
• Doesn't scale at all beyond 20–30 contacts
• No CRM integration
• No execution tools
• Unreliable timing — could be weeks or months after the actual change

Verdict: Use as a free supplement, not as your primary tracking method. It will miss the vast majority of job changes.

Method 3: CRM Automation + Data Enrichment

Cost: $500–$2,000/month (data enrichment APIs) Best for: Revenue operations teams with technical resources

If you have a revenue operations team with some technical chops, you can build a semi-automated champion tracking system using your CRM and data enrichment APIs.

Step-by-step process:

1. Tag champion contacts in your CRM with a custom field (e.g., "Champion Status = Active Champion")
2. Use data enrichment APIs (Clearbit, People Data Labs, Apollo) to periodically re-enrich champion records
3. Set up automation rules in your CRM: If a champion's company changes, trigger an alert, create a task, and notify the account owner
4. Build a dashboard showing recent champion movements
5. Route high-priority changes to the right SDRs via workflow rules

Pros:

• Automated within your existing CRM
• Customizable to your specific workflow
• Can be cheaper than dedicated tools
• Data stays in your CRM

Cons:

• Requires technical resources to build and maintain
• Data enrichment APIs have varying accuracy (70–90%)
• Refresh frequency is limited (daily or weekly vs. real-time)
• No execution tools — still need separate dialer and email platform
• Breaks when APIs change or CRM is customized
• No intent signals or visitor ID
• Ongoing maintenance burden on RevOps

Verdict: A reasonable middle ground for teams with strong RevOps capabilities, but the maintenance burden is real and the accuracy lags behind purpose-built tools.

Method 4: MarketBetter (Recommended — Full Platform Alternative)

Cost: Transparent pricing on website Best for: Any B2B sales team that wants champion tracking plus execution

MarketBetter isn't just a UserGems alternative — it's a completely different approach to pipeline generation. Instead of offering alerts alone, MarketBetter provides champion tracking as part of a full SDR execution platform that includes everything you need to go from signal to closed deal.

What you get:

• Champion tracking with job change alerts — monitors your CRM contacts for role changes
• Website visitor identification — see which companies are visiting your site
• Intent signals — understand which companies are actively researching your category
• Smart dialer — call champions immediately from the same platform
• Email automation — trigger personalized sequences when champions move
• AI chatbot — engage website visitors 24/7, including returning champions
• Daily playbook — prioritized actions based on combined signal strength

Pros:

• All-in-one platform — no need for separate dialer, email tool, visitor ID, or chatbot
• Transparent pricing published on website
• Highest G2 rating in the category (4.97)
• Compound signals — see when a champion's new company also visits your website
• One login, one invoice, one data model
• Fastest time-to-value — start generating pipeline in days, not months

Cons:

• Does more than champion tracking (which some teams may not need immediately)

Verdict: The best option for teams that want to go beyond alerts and actually close deals from champion signals. You get everything UserGems offers plus visitor ID, intent signals, and full execution — at transparent pricing.

Compare directly: MarketBetter vs UserGems | See all UserGems alternatives

Method 5: Manual CRM Review

Cost: Free (but time-expensive) Best for: Very small teams as a temporary measure

The simplest approach: periodically review your champion list manually and check LinkedIn for job changes.

Step-by-step process:

1. Export your champion list from your CRM
2. Assign champions to reps — each rep owns 50–100 champions
3. Weekly LinkedIn check — reps spend 30 minutes each week checking their champions' LinkedIn profiles
4. Log changes in the CRM manually
5. Reach out when a change is detected

Pros:

• Zero cost
• No tools required
• Simple to understand

Cons:

• Extremely time-consuming (30–60 min/week per rep)
• Changes are often caught weeks or months late
• Human error — reps will miss changes
• Doesn't scale beyond 50–100 contacts per rep
• Time spent on manual checking is time not spent selling
• No automation, no execution tools

Verdict: Only acceptable as a temporary stopgap while you evaluate proper tools. The opportunity cost of manual tracking far exceeds the cost of an automated solution.

Comparison: All Champion Tracking Methods

Method	Cost/Year	Accuracy	Speed	Scalability	Execution	Setup Time
LinkedIn Sales Nav	$960–$1,800/user	Medium	Delayed	Low	None	Minutes
Google Alerts	Free	Low	Very Delayed	Very Low	None	Minutes
CRM + Enrichment APIs	$6K–$24K	Medium-High	Daily/Weekly	Medium	None	Weeks
MarketBetter	Transparent	High	Real-time	High	Full (dialer, email, chatbot)	Days
Manual Review	Free (time cost)	Low	Very Delayed	Very Low	None	Minutes
UserGems	$15K–$30K+	High	Near-real-time	High	None	Weeks
Champify	$6K–$12K	Medium-High	Near-real-time	Medium	None	Days

Which Method Should You Choose?

You're a solo rep or very small team with no budget: Start with LinkedIn Sales Navigator alerts. They're imperfect but accessible. Supplement with Google Alerts for executive-level moves. Plan to upgrade when your pipeline justifies the investment.

You have a RevOps team and existing data tools: Build a CRM-based solution with enrichment APIs. It won't be perfect, but it'll get you 70–80% of the value at lower cost. Plan for ongoing maintenance.

You want the best results with the least friction: Go with MarketBetter. You get champion tracking plus every other signal and execution tool you need, in one platform, with transparent pricing and the highest G2 rating in the category (4.97). No need to stitch together multiple tools.

You have a large budget and existing sales stack: UserGems is a solid alert layer if you already own Outreach, ZoomInfo, and a dialer. Just understand that you're paying $15K–$30K for alerts alone, on top of your existing stack costs.

The Real Question

The question isn't really "how do I track champions without UserGems?" The question is: what do I actually need to turn champion signals into closed deals?

If you just want alerts, there are cheaper ways to get them. If you want pipeline, you need signals + execution + prioritization in one platform. UserGems solves the first part. MarketBetter solves all three.

Read more: The Hidden Cost of Champion Tracking Tools | Champify Alternatives

Ready to Go Beyond Champion Tracking?

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