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How to create a Signal agent for competitor new connections

Use the Competitor connections signal in Signal Agents to see when your competitors’ sales reps add new LinkedIn connections. This helps you spot who they’re actively prospecting so you can react quickly with timely, relevant outreach.

Learning objective

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to create a Signal Agent that monitors competitors’ new LinkedIn connections, define who should be included or excluded, control daily volume with a cap, and decide how identified signals should be processed in your workflow.

Why this matters

New connections are a strong intent signal: they often indicate active prospecting into new accounts, territories, or personas. Monitoring these connections helps you prioritize outreach while the competitor’s activity is still fresh.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to Signal Agents and can create a new Signal Agent.

  • You have the competitor’s LinkedIn company URL (required for setup).

  • You have enough credits available (billing is based on identified signals).

Core lesson — Step-by-step workflow

Phase 1: Create a new Signal Agent and choose the right signal

  1. Go to Signal agents, then click Create signal agent.

    Signal agents page with Create signal agent button highlighted

  2. In Create signal agent, expand Buyer intent and select Competitor connections. This tells lemlist to track when competitor reps expand their LinkedIn network with new connections.

    Create signal agent modal with Buyer intent expanded and Competitor connections selected

Phase 2: Configure the competitor(s) to monitor

  1. Add an Agent name, then enter one or more LinkedIn company URLs for the competitors you want to monitor. Add one URL per line.

    Configure your signal step showing the agent name field and LinkedIn company URLs input

  2. Click Add company URLs to validate and add the competitor company pages to the agent.

    Configure your signal step showing a company URL added and validated

Phase 3: Define the scope and control volume

  1. In the Scope step, keep All segments if you want to retrieve all contacts that trigger the signal. You can also narrow results using filters such as Personas, Locations, Industries, and Company sizes.

    Scope step showing All segments selected and available filter criteria

  2. If needed, use Exclusion criteria to exclude connections from specific companies or entire company lists.

    Scope step showing exclusion criteria with company URL and list exclusions

  3. Set the Maximum number of signals identified per day. This cap helps you control both volume and spend, and the estimated credit usage updates based on your selection.

    Scope step showing identification limit and daily signal cap selection

Phase 4: Decide what happens when signals are found

  1. In Signals processing, choose how you want to handle identified signals:

    • Review signals manually to assess them case by case

    • Auto-create tasks for identified signals

    • Auto-push to campaign for automated follow-up

    If you choose Auto-push to campaign, you can either generate an AI-powered outreach campaign or link the signal agent to an existing campaign.

    Signals processing step showing Auto-push to campaign selected and campaign configuration options

  2. Review the full configuration in the Summary step, then click Deploy agent.

    Summary step showing the configured signal, billing, signals processing, and scope before deploying the agent

How it works (behind the scenes)

  • You pick the Competitor connections signal type in Signal Agents.

  • You add the competitor’s LinkedIn company URL (required).

  • You define the scope, optionally exclude companies or lists, and set a daily cap to control volume.

  • lemlist ingests new connections and reconciles profiles with the People database.

  • Billing: 100 credits per identified signal.

Signal details (what you’ll receive)

Each identified signal can include:

  • Job title

  • Company

  • Headline (if available)

  • Location

  • LinkedIn URL of the new connection

  • Who they connected with (when available)

Practical application (example workflow)

If a competitor’s SDR connects with multiple heads of RevOps in one week, treat it as a persona focus shift:

  • Auto-create a task for each identified connection.

  • Task instruction example: “Check if this contact is in our ICP. If yes, add to the ‘RevOps—Competitive’ campaign and personalize the opener referencing their role.”

  • Prioritize by seniority (e.g., Director+ first) and region (match your territory).

Troubleshooting & pitfalls

  • Issue: No signals are being identified
    ​Root cause: Incorrect LinkedIn company URL format, or the competitor has low connection activity.
    ​Fix: Ensure you’re using the company page URL (e.g., https://www.linkedin.com/company/companyname/) and try monitoring additional competitors.

  • Issue: Too many signals per day
    ​Root cause: Daily cap is set too high for your team’s capacity or budget.
    ​Fix: Lower the Maximum number of signals identified per day and use the filters in the Scope step to narrow results.

  • Issue: Signals found but not acted on
    ​Root cause: Processing is set to manual without a follow-up routine, or tasks aren’t assigned clearly.
    ​Fix: Switch to Auto-create tasks, set Owner type, and define a fallback owner so nothing is missed.

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