# Research and signals

Account and person research with cited sources, enrichment that fills only empty fields, and signals that say why an account is worth a look now. Facts quote their source; what the agent infers is labelled as inference.

A note in italics after an item says when it's off by default, or needs your own account with another service. Every area: the [product overview](https://www.closefinch.com/product).

## Research and enrichment

- Waterfall enrichment for email, phone and firmographics: free steps (CRM, website, email patterns) first, then paid providers charged only on a hit, with per-field provenance. *(Paid providers need your own key; the free steps run without one.)*
- Search for companies and people beyond your CRM through People Data Labs, previewed with sources and CRM matches before a person imports them. *(Needs your own People Data Labs key; without one, the same filters run over your CRM.)*
- Email verification before send (valid, invalid, catch-all, risky or unknown) from in-house checks, MillionVerifier and your own bounce history. *(Catch-all detection needs a MillionVerifier key.)*
- Phone-number validity states (valid, invalid, unknown) with manual add. *(Carrier lookups need your own Telnyx account.)*
- Picks the phone number most likely to connect, with the reason, and flags dead numbers. *(Off until set up.)*
- Cost-disciplined enrichment: fill only missing fields from an approved provider under a cost and source policy; paid lookups need approval; no re-billing of fields already enriched.
- Per-prospect and per-account deep research with citations and custom research prompts. *(Web search needs your own search provider key; without one, research uses the company's own site and news.)*
- Natural-language research agent that plans sources and returns structured findings with evidence, ranked by fit and recency (minutes to hours), with a visible trace.
- Live web re-check of facts just before a message is sent.
- Public-records research: SEC filings and UK Companies House officers and filings, as dated findings with sources.
- Niche-source lists from online stores, job boards, GitHub and a plugin marketplace, with quoted values and a fit verdict per row. *(Off until set up. Google Maps and other marketplaces use your own Apify account.)*
- Web scraping as an agent tool on the built-in reader, honouring robots.txt and your allow and block lists. *(Off until set up. Uses your own Apify account.)*
- Department headcount by function, tracked per quarter. *(Estimated from People Data Labs when keyed; otherwise counted from your CRM.)*
- Living account plan or dossier: priorities, pain, people, tools, risks, next move.
- Buying-committee map with each person's role and stance.
- Business understanding from a pasted website URL (offer, ICP and proof points), refreshed as the business changes.
- Brand and sender voice learned from website, emails, scripts and recorded calls.
- Case-study miner: reads closed-won calls and notes for quantified outcomes and files proof points under business logic.
- Competitive intelligence and battlecards kept current.
- Research output that labels facts, inferences and unknowns separately.
- Customer discovery-interview synthesis.
- Individual briefs on stakeholders (background, past deals, how they review contracts) generated on request from Slack.

## Signals

- Custom signals defined in plain English, for CRM changes or public events, with a category (intent, hiring, growth, events, engagement, champions or risk), a cadence and a strength score.
- Signal monitor list with feed and all views, activity counts per monitor, and schedules in your time zone.
- Company-level website visitor identification from network data and signed email links; raw IP addresses are never stored.
- First-party page intent: visits to pages you tag (such as pricing and security), return visits, time on page, and several people from one account visiting within an hour.
- Product signups and PLG usage signals, including a new user from an existing customer opening an expansion opportunity.
- Job-change and champion-move tracking, including title change and email bouncing on known people.
- Funding-round signals from SEC Form D filings and news, alerting the account owner as each round is found.
- Hiring signals from an account's own careers pages and public job boards, with time filters and posting language matched to your pains.
- Leadership and executive hires, new CFO, promotions.
- Tech-stack change (from job posts, DNS and site) and competitor churn (a competitor logo leaving a customer page; a renewal that didn't happen).
- Headcount growth by function, flagging teams that outgrow the rest of the company. *(Uses People Data Labs when keyed; otherwise your CRM's counts, if you opt in.)*
- New office or location detected from postings and filings.
- Social engagement signals: likers and commenters on your posts, competitor and influencer post engagers, viral posts, keyword posts. *(Off by default. Needs your own Unipile account.)*
- LinkedIn profile viewers you import by hand, as signals. *(Off by default.)*
- Recent-poster targeting: prospects who posted about their work in the last 7 days. *(Off by default. Needs your own Unipile account.)*
- Explicit-need social listening on LinkedIn, X and Reddit that never infers intent from likes or views alone. *(Off by default. Needs your own Unipile account; X and Reddit need your own API keys.)*
- Conference, event and webinar attendee or speaker lists matched to accounts and ICP roles.
- Podcast-guest detection with the quote that opens the conversation.
- Review-site signals from reviews you paste or upload as CSV: named pains, roles and company size, with quotes.
- Third-party intent data from Bombora, G2 and 6sense. *(Off by default. Needs your own Bombora, G2 or 6sense account.)*
- Partner, agency or investor mentions of an account.
- Developer-community signals: activity on your GitHub repositories, mapped to accounts.
- Email-engagement signals (repeated opens, link clicks) as triggers. *(An owner turns tracking on, and each sequence opts in.)*
- Former- and past-customer detection (read-only Stripe key; past customers and lost deals re-located).
- Shared-background signals (alma mater, same city, mutual history).
- CRM- and deal-derived signals (stage changes, stalled deals, reply events, engagement drops) as agent triggers.
- Real-time signal alerts to a Slack channel or owner DM with drafted action attached.
- Signal stacking: open a play only when two or more signals coincide.
- Signal analytics: which signals convert to meetings and revenue.
- Dated why-now evidence attached to each account and prospect.
- Customer spend trends: who is spending more and who is spending less.