In short: prospects who engage with your competitors on LinkedIn leave two traces. They connect with the competitor’s sales reps, and they react to posts from its teams. By hand, you can scroll through the reactions under a competitor’s posts. With Rodz, the Competitor sales team connections signal delivers every new first-degree connection of a competitor’s sales team (5 credits), and Competitor Post Reactions delivers the people engaging with the posts its teams engage with (2 credits). Both are filtered to your target and pushed into HubSpot, lemlist or your webhook.
Updated October 12, 2026.
Key facts
- Someone who connects with a competitor’s sales rep is often evaluating a solution in your category.
- Rodz has four competitor signals: Competitor sales team connections (5 credits), Competitor Customer Care Connections (5 credits), Competitor Post Reactions (2 credits) and Company Followers (0.5 credit).
- Every lead is filtered on your personas, company size, industry and location: off-target connections are neither delivered nor charged.
- Each lead says which competitor, and which person at that competitor, surfaced it.
- Native delivery to HubSpot, lemlist, La Growth Machine and the other connected tools, or by webhook and API.
- Rodz signals are already integrated by lemlist, Cargo, Bulldozer, Kalent, The Sales Engine, Overloop, Sinky and Extrovert, and used by teams such as Aircall, OpenClassrooms and JobTeaser.
Why engagement with a competitor is a strong signal
On LinkedIn, a buyer evaluating a solution connects with the rep who reached out, comments on the product team’s posts, follows the company page. These actions are public and dated. They say two things: the person has a need in your category, and they are looking at options now.
The right move is not to bash the competitor. It is to bring a different angle while the person compares: a use case the competitor covers poorly, a different pricing model, an integration. For the full method, read our article on competitor connections.
The methods, compared
| Method | What you get | Effort | Indicative cost | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading competitor posts by hand | People who like or comment | 30 minutes per competitor per week | Free | Reps’ new connections stay invisible, nothing reaches the CRM |
| Extraction tools on your own LinkedIn account | Lists of likers and commenters | Setup, watching usage limits | Tool subscription | Your LinkedIn account carries the risk, and the list is not filtered to your target |
| Rodz competitor signals | Filtered, enriched leads in your CRM | 10 minutes, then automatic | 2 to 5 credits per delivered lead | Usage-based: set a daily limit |
A note on the market: Trigify, a known tool for tracking LinkedIn engagement, says on its site that its team is joining HubSpot and that product access ends on October 22, 2026 (source). If you used it, now is the time to pick an alternative.
Method 1: reading by hand (free)
Open each competitor’s company page and the profiles of its most active reps. Under each post, the list of reactions and comments is visible. Note the people who fit your target. It is free and useful to understand who follows your competitors. But you cannot see the reps’ new connections, which are the strongest signal, and the work starts over every week.
Method 2: extraction tools
LinkedIn automation tools such as PhantomBuster can export the people who reacted to a post. They run on your own LinkedIn account: you have to watch usage limits, and the exported list is neither filtered to your target nor enriched.
Method 3: Rodz competitor signals
You provide your competitors’ LinkedIn pages. Rodz follows their teams and delivers every new person who fits your target, enriched, into your tools.
Set up the signal in Rodz (no code)
- Create an account at app.rodz.io (100 free credits at sign-up).
- Open the Signal Library, Competitor intelligence category, and pick:
- Competitor sales team connections (first-degree connections of the sales teams);
- Competitor Customer Care Connections (people connecting with their support or customer success teams, often current or future customers);
- Competitor Post Reactions (the posts their sales, customer success and founder teams react to, with the author and the other people engaging);
- Company Followers (new followers of a competitor’s page).
- Add your competitors’ LinkedIn page URLs (for example
https://www.linkedin.com/company/competitor-name). You can also follow specific people by their profile URL. - Filter to your target: personas, company size, industries, location. Exclude your current customers and the competitors’ own employees by their company URLs.
- Set the daily lead limit in Basic Settings and turn on email (0.5 credit, only if found).
- Choose the destination in the Integrations tab, then activate.
What it costs
- Competitor sales team connections: 5 credits per delivered lead, 5.5 with email, so €0.55 at the €0.10 base rate per credit.
- Competitor Post Reactions: 2 credits per delivered lead.
- Company Followers: 0.5 credit per delivered lead.
- Only leads that pass your filters are charged. Credits never expire.
Push these leads into lemlist
This is the most common use: a sequence dedicated to people who are looking at a competitor.
- Connect lemlist in Integrations with your lemlist API key.
- Turn on work email in the signal.
- Pick the lemlist campaign in the signal’s Integrations tab. Create one campaign per competitor if your arguments differ.
Do not write “I saw you connect with X”. Open on the problem the category solves, and bring the angle where you are different.
Push these leads into HubSpot
- Connect HubSpot once in Integrations (OAuth).
- Turn HubSpot on in the signal’s Integrations tab.
- Each lead is created or updated as a contact with its company, with no duplicates.
A useful HubSpot play: compare these contacts with your customers. A customer whose people keep connecting with a competitor is a churn risk to handle before renewal.
The API way
Authentication: an API key (app: Integrations → API) in an Authorization: Bearer header. Reference: api.rodz.io/docs.
1. Create the Competitor sales team connections signal
curl -X POST https://api.rodz.io/api/v1/signals/competitor-connections \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $RODZ_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"name": "Prospects engaging with our competitors, DACH",
"status": "active",
"dailyLeadLimit": 30,
"config": {
"linkedinCompanyUrls": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/competitor-a",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/competitor-b"
],
"targetPersonas": ["Sales Director", "Marketing Director"],
"companySizeFilters": ["51-200", "201-500"],
"locations": ["Germany", "Austria", "Switzerland"],
"excludedTitles": ["Intern"],
"getEmails": true
}
}'For post reactions, use POST /api/v1/signals/competitor-social-reactions with the same linkedinCompanyUrls (up to 50), engagementTypes (poster, likes, comments) and minEngagement.
2. Route to lemlist and HubSpot
curl -X PATCH https://api.rodz.io/api/v1/signals/$SIGNAL_ID \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $RODZ_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"destinations": {
"lemlist": { "campaignId": "cam_aBc123XyZ" },
"hubspot": { "enabled": true }
}
}'3. Know where each lead came from
Each delivered lead carries signal.tracked_company (the competitor page where the connection was detected) and signal.tracked_contact (the profile of the person at the competitor the lead connected with). For reactions, signal.post_url gives the post. You can segment your sequences by competitor. GET /api/v1/signals/{signalId}/leads re-reads delivered leads for free.
Limits to know
- Social signals are noisy. Many people who react to a post are not buyers (colleagues, candidates, partners). Your persona and company filters make the quality of the flow: start narrow, then widen.
- A person followed by profile URL only produces leads once they have accepted our connection request. Following the competitor’s company page has no such constraint.
- Visible connections depend on each LinkedIn member’s privacy settings.
- Volume depends on your competitors’ LinkedIn activity: a competitor whose reps are rarely active produces few leads.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I see who is interested in my competitors on LinkedIn?
Two traces can be used: new connections of the competitor’s reps and reactions to the posts its teams engage with. A Competitor sales team connections or Competitor Post Reactions signal detects them, filters them to your target and sends them to your CRM or sequence.
Is it legal to prospect people who follow a competitor?
The connections and reactions used are information made public on LinkedIn. In Europe, B2B outreach to a professional about a topic related to their role falls under the GDPR (legitimate interest, information and the right to object). Check your own legal basis with your DPO.
How much does a lead from a competitor’s connections cost?
5 credits per delivered lead with Competitor sales team connections, 5.5 with email. At the €0.10 base rate per credit, that is €0.55. Competitor Post Reactions costs 2 credits per lead.
Can these leads go straight into a lemlist campaign?
Yes. Connect lemlist once with your API key, turn on email in the signal, then pick the campaign in the signal’s Integrations tab. Every new lead is added automatically.
What is an alternative to Trigify for tracking LinkedIn engagement?
Trigify says product access ends on October 22, 2026. Rodz’s Competitor Post Reactions, Influencer Post Reactions and Social Mentions signals cover LinkedIn engagement tracking, with delivery into HubSpot, lemlist or by webhook.