Introduction

Only 5% of your market is ready to buy. Intent signals help you find them so you can focus sales and close faster.

What's the problem it solves?

Most B2B teams waste time on cold outbound while warm, ready-to-buy prospects go unnoticed. Without an intent system, marketing and sales can’t tell who’s actively considering a purchase, leading to low ROI and slow sales cycles.

Quick Summary

In B2B, intent is a buyer’s readiness to purchase, shown through their actions. Intent signals are the clues - like a prospect visiting your pricing page or reading competitor reviews - that indicate interest. An intent gathering system collects and organizes these signals so you know where to focus.

There are two types of intent signals. External signals happen outside your brand (e.g., funding rounds, leadership hires, competitor research). Engaged signals happen inside your ecosystem (e.g., webinar attendance, pricing page visits, email clicks). Engaged signals are stronger and should be prioritized because they show direct interaction with your brand.

Content is the key to generating and tracking engaged signals. More touchpoints - LinkedIn posts, blogs, videos, emails - create more opportunities for prospects to interact and leave data trails. These interactions help sales teams focus outreach on high-intent leads, improving closing rates and sales velocity.

Key Takeaways

• About 5% of your market is in active buying mode
• Intent signals reveal which prospects are most likely to buy now
• Two types: external (market activity) and engaged (brand interaction)
• Engaged signals are more valuable than external ones for closing deals
• Content ecosystems both grow and capture buyer intent
• More touchpoints create more signals to prioritize leads

What to do

• Build an intent gathering system to track both external and engaged signals
• Prioritize outreach to leads showing strong engaged intent
• Use content across channels to create frequent brand touchpoints
• Monitor metrics like pricing page visits, downloads, and webinar attendance
• Combine content and outbound so sales works warm leads, not cold lists
• Regularly review and rank leads based on signal strength and recency

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