Intent Signals: How to Identify the Right Potential Customers in Cold Outreach

What are intent signals in sales?

Intent signals are indicators that show how ready a potential customer is to make a purchase. They come in many forms, including website activity, social media engagement, and hiring trends, among others.

How can website activity indicate buying intent?

An extra amount of time spent on product-related pages or prices, downloads of case studies, and repeated visits to the site usually indicate an interest in the solution. Example: a visitor spends 10 minutes on the service page, exploring deliverability support.

How can social media activity signal intent?

The engagement of potential customers with content on social networking sites serves as evidence that they are observing the activities connected with your product or industry.Example: a user likes or comments on posts about product updates or new features.

How do hiring patterns indicate buying intent?

Hiring trends reveal in what area the company seems to be spending a lot of resources and if your solution fits in that growth model. Example: a company posts multiple job openings for marketing managers, signaling a potential need for marketing automation tools.

Are industry updates a buying intent?

Definitely! Structural changes like mergers, acquisitions, and new partnerships usually associate with new requirements or issues that your solution would help to address. Example: a new product launch might create a need for marketing or sales automation.

These intent signals allow sales teams to concentrate on leads who are currently in the mindset of considering solutions. Instead of casting very wide nets, sales resources can concentrate on leads that have shown serious signs of interest to save time and increase the probability of closing deals.