Salespeople need all the help they can get when it comes to finding leads.
Unfortunately, most prospects don’t DM you to say that they desperately want to buy your product (we can dream though), so other methods are required. That’s where intent data comes in. Intent data is an extremely valuable tool for discovering potential customers and –together with your amazing sales skills– closing those deals.
What Is Intent Data in B2B?
Intent data is made up of the facts and figures that show if a prospect is likely to convert to becoming a customer – AKA buying signals. There are many types of purchasing intentions, and they all depend on the kind of product you are selling.
A classic example of buyer intent data is when an online customer goes to the checkout page of a website. They don’t always purchase something (AKA cart abandonment). But because they showed that intent signal (almost making a purchase), they could be put on a list for follow-up contact like a clever SMS that encourages them to visit the website again.
An important part of customer intent data is timing. Intent signals are useful because they can hint that a person is currently more open to contact, encouraging them to continue down the funnel.
B2C customers show intent shortly before they’re ready to purchase, because most consumers don’t wait half a year to buy something like a T-shirt. But B2B intent data is different. Businesses tend to do more research and take a lot more time when considering a purchase. Companies also follow a more complicated sales funnel as they go through all the stages of their official purchase process. They might check out your website a year before buying something and ask for a demo two months before they’re ready to sign a contract.
It’s up to the wise salesperson to understand what purchase intent data means about the prospect’s current priorities. Based on what the prospect is doing, sales should adjust their tactics to nurture the lead without drowning them in a premature, full-out sales pitch.
You can generate some types of intent data through your own systems, such as when a lead provides their contact information during sign-up for marketing content (i.e. “first-party” data). But, when buying from a good “third-party” vendor like Lusha, you tend to get much more information, and it usually comes packaged with sales intelligence tools that add capabilities to your sales efforts. Some third-party vendors will also “score” a company’s intent and give you that information, instead of someone on your team needing to search for it among different sources.
Why do we need intent data?
B2B buyer intent data enables you to discover essential details about possible customers, regardless of the kind of strategy you’re using. For example:
1. Inbound Sales
It’s not enough to rely on one channel for lead generation. We live in the era of omnichannel sales, where prospects have preferences for how they make purchasing decisions. Being able to access data from across the spectrum gives you the best chance of discovering the most leads. When leads come to you, intent data can help you prioritize. The leads whose companies show the highest intent should go to the top of the list for a nurture campaign.
2. ABM
If you are a B2B company with a SaaS go-to-market strategy, odds are that you will be using account-based marketing (ABM). One of the most crucial tools for ABM is a qualified list of contacts. This is because ABM targets entire companies, and knowing which companies have the strongest levels of intent can help with optimizing strategy and outreach priorities. In turn, this enables your sales team to find the people with the highest likelihood of conversion. This is especially valuable when combined with data insights that define effective steps in each case.
3. Prospecting
Finally, with the end of third-party cookies, prospecting will be more of a challenge. Data from related sources will become relatively limited, meaning that salespeople will need to rely on a wider range of methods to find leads. With intent data, you can find companies in your ICP that show high intent for a solution like yours and prospect from there.
Intent Data Types
One way of understanding the different types of intent data is to think of them like hits on a target. In the middle (closer to the bullseye), you get hits that are obviously and closely related to your company. Think of these as high scores. As you move outwards, the hits are further from the mark, meaning the connection to what you sell is less specific.
Here are the four basic types of intent-based targeting data and how they “score”:
Search intent
Search intent is created when somebody uses a search engine like Google or Bing to find a certain product or service. This is a high scorer because it can show a direct link to what you are selling. Of course, search terms might have different meanings (for example, a “mixer” can be found in the kitchen, hauling concrete, or in bars). That’s why we have brilliant SEO people to adjust tags and content according to all kinds of mysterious rules.
Engagement data
Engagement data also scores highly. It reflects events like when a lead browses your website, shares your content, or fills out a form to receive emails. Engagement data is also useful for finding areas to improve the lead conversion funnel.
Firmographic data
Now we’re getting away from the center of the target. Firmographic data is the information collected about various organizations and industries. By compiling a list of company types, number of employees, location, revenue, and other variables, salespeople can find signals that suggest that the company may be looking for what they are selling based on how well they fit a certain profile.
Technographic data
This is a tool mostly for B2B companies and is similar in intent level to firmographic data because it suggests prospects that have only a chance of being interested. Through surveys or information gathered on the clients of other technology vendors, technographics data provide a profile of the technologies that a company has bought. From this, it’s possible to come up with a list of prospects who might buy add-ons, replacements, or renewals.
How Is Intent Data Collected?
With every new technology, there are more ways for marketers and salespeople to gather information on prospects and leads. Still, each source will fit into one of these categories:
First-party
The data that your organization picks up directly from its own digital properties make up first-party sources. Activities that occur on a website, CRM, and blog all fall into this category. Note that not all engagement data is first-party information. For example, retweets are not generated directly by a company’s properties.
Second-party
This is a new form of intent data where Company A collects data about Company B based on information provided by public engagement with Company A. That’s a fancy way of describing companies like Glassdoor.com or G2.com. For example, users on G2.com (“Company A”) review various technology companies, and when users look for more information on a particular one (“Company B”), G2 captures that information.
Third-party
Firms like Bombora are third-party intent data providers that gather general information from a lot of sources to give a broad picture of a buyer’s intent. This data can be gathered from behavioral data across the web (like web searches and site visits regarding a certain topic) and bid stream data. To best use this information, an intent-based marketing initiative creates a large list of top-of-funnel prospects that show high intent that can then be boiled down through outbound sales techniques.
Bombora is actually the intent data provider for Lusha, which makes a winning combination. Bombora is a leading intent data supplier that uses AI and machine learning to provide information about the search behavior of a business. Lusha gives form to this information by enabling customers to select the most relevant topics and find potential prospects at a company that shows high intent. Put together, Lusha and Bombora turn intent signals into actionable insights.
How to Use Intent Data
There are tons of ways you can leverage intent data to find valuable sales opportunities, as long as you combine it with data insights. For example:
- Search – Start a Google Ads campaign based on relevant keywords that companies in your ICP show high Intent for.
- Engagement – Combine intent data with information from your email campaigns to segment subscribers and send them the most relevant content.
- Identify companies that would benefit from add-ons to their current marketing stack through an upsell or cross-sell (like a contact finder extension that works with LinkedIn, Salesforce, and more).
The problem is where to start. At times, a team can gather so much intent data that it becomes difficult to set priorities. This is when lead scoring techniques and/or prospect qualification can be used to figure out which targets have the highest potential.
Here’s how it works:
Let’s begin with the goal of intent data – to figure out which people at what companies are looking for your solution today. Intent data allows you to find companies that:
- Fit an ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Rate highly in a lead-scoring calculation
- Qualify for a “warm outbound” approach
For instance, Bombora intent data is based on the kinds of searches that companies are doing. If Bombora’s data shows that Company X is currently researching CRM systems, and you sell CRM systems, then you’re off to a good start. Integrated with Lusha’s platform, Bombora intent data will show up as an intent score for a particular topic. Lusha’s specialty kicks in at this point by supplying you with various kinds of data for Company X, such as up-to-date employee names, titles, and direct contact information.
Combining a strong intent signal and contact details equals success, with ROI reaching over 230% for sales teams that know how to leverage these assets. It also puts you ahead of 50% of sales leaders who can’t find the data they need for a timely and informed pitch.
Your Source for Actionable Intent Data
Lusha’s sales intelligence platform is your gateway to optimized intent data. Among its many features, Lusha gives you access to enriched and filtered intent data that you can use to find companies that fit your ideal customer profile with trending intent. You can then use that insight to find sales prospects and leads in your database.
Key Takeaways
- Intent data is information that shows the likelihood of a prospect becoming a customer and gives salespeople multiple ways to identify leads.
- Intent data types include search, engagement, profiles, and technologies which can be collected by first, second, and third parties.
- There are many ways to use intent data, and the value of specific prospects can be graded with lead scoring techniques.
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