Signs a company is switching software: 8 signals (2026)

The clearest public sign that a company is switching software is a job ad that names the move, such as "migrate to Salesforce", "experience implementing HubSpot" or a first Salesforce admin hire. Seven more signals add weight: a new executive in the buying role, new scripts on the website, changed DNS records, review-site research, procurement notices, funding or acquisitions, and the company's own engineering posts. Most take minutes to check for free, but none proves a purchase alone: in Bloomberry's analysis of about 1 million software purchases in 2025, companies that hired a VP made 28% more purchases, a correlation rather than proof of cause.

Checked on 15 October 2026. Revexa builds Leo, a buying-signal agent that watches several of these signals, so read with that in mind. Strength ratings are our judgement unless a source is named; tools are listed alphabetically.

The 8 signals at a glance

The signals one by one

1. A job ad names a migration or a new tool

A company that writes "migrate to Salesforce" into a job ad has usually chosen the tool and is paying to roll it out (our judgement), and a first RevOps hire or a Salesforce admin role at a company on another CRM points the same way. "Evaluate" means the decision is open; "implement" or "migrate" means it is made, which suits implementation partners more than rival vendors.

Free check: search careers pages and LinkedIn Jobs for the tool names.

Tools: TheirStack builds tech data from job postings and flags when a company "starts or stops mentioning a technology" (50 free credits at sign-up). LinkedIn's Sales Navigator alerts you when a saved account posts more jobs: volume, not content.

Evidence: in Bloomberry's data, a 20% rise in job openings went with only 7% more software purchases, and the author suggested it "might be too early of an indicator". That counted ads, not content; no study we found covers ads that name a tool.

2. A new executive in the buying role

The buyer depends on what you sell: a CRO, CMO or CFO. In Bloomberry's analysis, companies with 200 to 1,000 employees that hired a VP between March and September 2025 made 3.12 software purchases on average, against 2.44 for those that did not: 28% more, a correlation in one vendor's data. In 6sense's 2025 survey of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, buyers had direct experience with the vendor in 85% of successful purchases, so a new leader's past tools matter.

Free check: the company's LinkedIn page, press releases and the person's own post. Then look up their previous employer's stack: a CMO who ran Marketo for years may bring it along (our judgement).

Tools: Sales Navigator alerts when a saved account hires at director level or above, and UserGems tracks "New decision-makers joining your target companies". No primary source we found supports a fixed "90-day" window; watch the first months.

3. New scripts, forms or chat on the website

Scripts, forms, chat widgets and the CMS leave code on a website. When one vendor's script gives way to a rival's, the switch is live: strong evidence, but late news for a competitor.

Free check: in the page source or your browser's Network tab, search for vendor hostnames: js.hs-scripts.com (HubSpot tracking), js.hsforms.net (HubSpot forms), munchkin.marketo.net (Marketo) or widget.intercom.io (Intercom). Date a change with an older copy in the Wayback Machine.

Tools: BuiltWith crawls the public web for the "signals" technologies leave. Single-site lookups are free, and the detailed view with first and last detection dates is an Advanced account at $144 a year. Wappalyzer's free extension "inspects HTML, scripts, cookies, network requests, and certificates", and a free account gets 50 lookups a month.

Limits: both see only what a browser loads, so a CRM behind a login stays hidden unless it leaves a form or script; server-side technologies are "easier to hide", Wappalyzer notes. Detection lags: Wappalyzer aims to re-verify sites "at least once a month", and BuiltWith calls a missing re-detection "only a mild warning sign, not proof the technology is gone".

4. Changed DNS records

MX records show where a domain's email goes: smtp.google.com (or "aspmx" values on some older setups) for Google Workspace, and a host ending in mail.protection.outlook.com, or mx.microsoft on domains with DNSSEC turned on, for Microsoft 365. A move between them usually belongs to a wider IT project (our judgement). The SPF record lists who may send mail for the domain, such as include:_spf.google.com, include:spf.protection.outlook.com or include:_spf.salesforce.com for mail sent from Salesforce (Google, Microsoft), so a new include often means a new sending tool.

Free check: run nslookup -type=mx example.com or dig MX example.com, or use Admin Toolbox Dig or MXToolbox; ask for TXT to see the SPF record.

Tools: SecurityTrails sells historical DNS by record type, MX and TXT included.

Limits: security gateways hide the mailbox behind them: MX hosts at mimecast.com mean Mimecast, and Proofpoint's own domain uses pphosted.com. Verification records such as Microsoft's MS=ms value can outlive the tool.

5. Research on review sites

G2 Buyer Intent fires when people at a company view your G2 profile or pricing page, a category page that lists you, comparison or alternatives pages, or a competitor's pages in a shared category, and it covers Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp too. G2 captures it "at the company level": you learn that an organisation is researching, not who. It is an add-on to the Professional and Enterprise plans, and G2 offers "a free, retroactive look" at the companies that researched your software and category over the past 30 days.

Free check: none for other companies' research; ask prospects which tools they compared.

Strength: medium: comparing vendors is evaluation, but visitors include students, analysts and current customers.

6. A public procurement notice

Public buyers must advertise larger purchases, so their switches are the easiest to see. Above the EU thresholds from 1 January 2026 (€140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government, €216,000 for other public bodies), notices go on TED, the EU's free database. Norway uses Doffin, run by DFØ and open without a login. Sweden has no national database; notices go through registered private databases such as e-Avrop and Mercell.

Free check: search TED by CPV code, such as 48445000-9 for CRM software or 48000000-8 for software packages. A prior information notice announces a planned purchase, a contract notice states the duration including options and renewals, and a contract award notice, due within 30 days of signing, names the winner (Directive 2014/24/EU, eForms). A TED account adds email alerts.

Strength: strong, because the purchase is formal and dated. You win it by bidding, not outreach, and small purchases may never get an award notice: in Sweden, those under the 700,000 SEK direct-award limit.

7. Funding, acquisitions and reorganisations

Money and mandates enable a switch without saying what will be bought. In Bloomberry's data, startups with a 2025 funding round made 25% more software purchases in the following six months than startups whose last round was earlier (2.5 against 2.0). The author rated funding "Medium" and found no category that funded startups favoured: he "didn't view" the 7% difference for website builders or the 4% for SEO tools as statistically significant. Bloomberry publishes no significance tests for its headline figures. After an acquisition, two companies often run overlapping tools, and a reorganisation can give a system a new owner (our judgement).

Free check: press releases, news and company registers. In the US, companies raising money under Regulation D file a Form D "within 15 days after the first sale", and EDGAR is free to search. Revexa lists this week's funding rounds.

Tools: Crunchbase tracks funding rounds and acquisitions, and Sales Navigator alerts on funding and acquisitions at saved accounts.

8. Engineering blogs, changelogs, status pages and integration listings

An engineering post about a migration confirms a switch after the fact, and a changelog or integrations page shows which ecosystems the company is joining. Atlassian Statuspage lets a company show "third-party components", the outside services it depends on. Sub-processor lists are the most precise: under GDPR Article 28(2), a processor with a general authorisation must tell its customers of "any intended changes concerning the addition or replacement of other processors", so a new name on a SaaS company's list usually means a new vendor handling personal data (our reading).

Free check: searches such as site:example.com migrated, RSS feeds, and a page monitor on the status or sub-processor page. Google Alerts is free, and Visualping's free plan covers 5 pages with 150 checks a month.

Strength: medium, and strong when a post names the move; most useful when you sell to software companies.

Timing: renewals decide when a switch can happen

Most switches wait for a contract to end. Data from Vendr, a software pricing and negotiation service now part of Vertice:

• Annual terms dominate. Only 18% of renewals in Vendr's 2023 data were multi-year, and among new purchases in early 2024 "single-year contracts reigned supreme".
• Renewals take weeks: 51 days on average in Q3 2023, 15% longer than new purchases.
• Notice periods close the door. Vendr advises starting "90-120 days in advance" (guide), notes that many contracts require "30 or 60 days' notice" (guide), and writes that "Most buyers still renew 60 days out instead of 90" (2025 report).

So a rival vendor's window is roughly the quarter before renewal (our judgement); outside the public sector, you usually have to ask for the date.

False positives: when a signal misleads

Common innocent explanations, in our experience:

• Job ads: evergreen ads, recruiters posting for clients, and "experience with Salesforce" usually meaning they already run it.
• Website scripts: old tags outlive the tool, agencies add test scripts, and a HubSpot script shows tracking or forms, not that HubSpot is the CRM.
• DNS records: one SPF include can serve a single team's tool.
• New executives: interim roles and internal promotions usually change less than outside hires.
• Funding: money for hiring or runway may never reach your category.

One signal is a reason to look closer; two independent signals that agree, such as a Salesforce admin ad and a new Salesforce SPF include, are a reason to reach out (our judgement).

Where Leo fits

Leo by Revexa watches hiring (including Sweden's public job board, Platsbanken), funding, new executives, engagement with competitors' and industry voices' LinkedIn posts, and competitors' tools on a company's website. It judges each company's business model, finds the right person and drafts LinkedIn and email messages in your voice, and in the default review mode you read every draft before it is sent. It is the wrong choice if you want a database to export lists from, phone outreach, or DNS, review-site or tender signals.

Related: 30 B2B buying signals, buying signal tools compared, the intent data guide and the free signals page with live hiring and funding lists.

Common questions

How can you tell if a company is changing its CRM?

Look for signals that agree: a job ad naming the CRM ("Salesforce admin", "migrate to HubSpot"), new CRM scripts or forms on the website, and a new SPF include if the CRM sends email, as Salesforce does. The ad usually comes first; a script or DNS change means the switch is live.

What are technographic signals in sales?

Data on which technologies a company uses, collected from its website, DNS records and job ads. The sales signal is the change: a tool added, removed or advertised for shows a decision being made.

Is it legal to track these signals?

Job ads, DNS records, websites and tenders are public. Once you store a named person, such as a new VP, GDPR applies: legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) can be a legal basis after a balancing test, and Article 14 requires informing the person at the latest at your first communication. In Germany, UWG §7 requires prior express consent for email advertising. This is not legal advice.