Targeting Past Customers with Job Changes in Apollo.io

Why Target Past Customers Who Changed Jobs?

The best prospects to reach out to are people who have already bought from you before - but are now working at a new company. They already know your product, they had a positive experience, and they may need the same solution at their new organization.

Rather than using dedicated third-party tools, you can set up an internal system in Apollo.io using Plays and job change data to automate this entire reconnection process.

Step 1: Build a Customer Contact List

Start by creating a repository of current and past customer contacts within Apollo.io. You can do this through:

• CSV bulk uploads - Export your customer contacts and import them into Apollo.io
• CRM integration - Sync contacts at the contact level from HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar platforms

This foundation ensures Apollo.io knows which contacts represent past customers so it can watch for their job changes.

Step 2: Create a Play for Job Changes

Set up an Apollo.io Play with the following configuration:

• Trigger: Job change data detection - Apollo.io monitors when contacts update their employment
• Filter: Verify that the person appears on your customer contact list
• Actions: When conditions match, the Play can:
  • Add contacts to a dedicated “Past Customers - New Jobs” list
  • Create tasks for representatives to reach out
  • Enroll them in a targeted outreach sequence

Step 3: Design the Outreach Sequence

Your sequence for past customers at new companies should:

• Acknowledge their previous experience with your product
• Congratulate them on their new position
• Demonstrate relevance to their current organization
• Keep the tone warm and familiar rather than cold

This is not cold outreach. These people already know you. The messaging should reflect that relationship.

Step 4: Assign Outreach Ownership

You have two options for ownership assignment:

• Original contact owner - The rep who managed the relationship before
• New account owner - The rep responsible for the company they just joined

Defaulting to the original contact owner usually makes the most sense since they have the existing relationship.

Step 5: Automate and Run in the Background

Once configured, the Play operates on a recurring schedule (weekly is a good cadence) to:

1. Scan for job transitions among your customer contacts
2. Populate the dedicated list with new matches
3. Create tasks for the assigned representatives
4. Activate sequences automatically

This runs in the background with no manual intervention required.

Why This Strategy Works

Targeting past customers with job changes is one of the highest-yield outbound strategies you can run because:

• You are leveraging existing relationships rather than starting cold
• You penetrate new accounts through warm introductions
• You maintain visibility as professionals advance in their careers
• Conversion rates are significantly higher than standard cold outreach

The combination of Apollo.io Plays and job change data turns what used to be a manual, hit-or-miss process into an automated pipeline that works continuously.