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Sales and marketing leaders’ obsession with “intent” is undermining their Account-Based GTM strategy. Here are the 3 biggest mistakes GTM teams are making on intent (and how to use intent effectively): 1. Intent is not magic Unfortunately, intent has been marketed as if it’s magic. As if it can 100% accurately identify ALL companies that have a qualified opportunity. It cannot. Intent is simply an indication of interest and engagement on a *topic* related to the product you sell. At its best, vendors should utilize good sources and strong algorithms so that the level of confidence in the signal is clear. But often, in the interest of showing huge volumes of intent, vendors end up stretching the signal to cast as wide a net as possible and generate a large amount of false positives. 2. Intent is not your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) I see this every day. Sales and Marketing teams get a list of high intent accounts and then “go after them.” This is counterproductive and wasteful because not all high intent accounts are in your ICP. The whole purpose of an account-based GTM is to align Sales and Marketing resources to accounts that have the highest LTV and thus generate the greatest enterprise value. This means being ultra clear on your ICP and avoiding the “intent temptation” of going after accounts that are interested in your solutions but are not in your ICP. Just because someone WANTS something doesn't mean they can or should buy it. 3. Intent should not be used in isolation from other data sets Intent only becomes powerful when it’s focused on your ICP and combined with other important data sets. Used in isolation, without other signals, you will never maximize your investment in intent. If tech companies want to increase the power and benefit of intent, they first need to combine intent with technographic data. Overlay the list of high-intent accounts with a list of companies that have the technologies your customers need to have and your hit rate on demand gen will improve significantly. The more robust solution to integrating intent into your broader GTM is to model it, with all other relevant data (firmographics, technographics, website engagement, Sales and Marketing engagement, etc) against closed won opportunities over the last 2 years. This will give a relative weighting for each data feature and intent keyword such that intent can be integrated into a more accurate score to represent propensity to buy soon. TAKEAWAY: Addressing the above issues are intended to arm you against what we’ve all heard many times, “This intent is BS, I called an account and they’re not ready to buy!” Don’t expect magic. Intent can't make a bad account great. But if you understand how intent relates to your ICP, and then use it in conjunction with other data sets, it becomes a powerful part of your account-based go-to-market strategy.
This is a fantastic summary of intent. And why I typically don't recommend the purchase of intent leads. They might be researching a topic, but you need to combine it with other data. Has that company been visiting your website, consuming your content as well? It needs to be a component of the intelligence you gather, not the sole source of it.
At a former company we used stand alone intent from a vendor as our benchmark for MQLs (I know, I tried...). We received a glut of intent leads that didnt convert mostly bc they weren't ready. At another company we used vendor intent + G2 data + our 1st PTY data and that performed significantly better than any one signal alone. This also gave us the ability to tweak and evolve.. Talking to others, I say triple down on #3 all day long :)
Great insights, Gabe Rogol! I’ve always been cautious with intent data for the reasons you’ve outlined. In my experience, I only use intent data after seeing consistent engagement across multiple channels and touchpoints within a campaign. It’s not until I’ve analyzed engagement and behavior data that I consider intent worth factoring in. For me, It lacks the nuance to differentiate casual research from actual intent to engage with solutions. Without understanding the why behind the exploration, it’s easy to misinterpret its significance. Also, it is time-sensitive. It’s a brief indicator of curiosity, not a long-term buying interest. Treating it as anything more can lead to misguided efforts. Ultimately, intent data is useful when combined with deeper engagement analysis and aligned with your ICP. But relying on it as a sole driver of GTM strategy? That’s where the trouble starts.
Interest is not the same as intent. True intent is not one source but a combination of sources that you review ensemble and uncover if real intent exists or it is just interest. I show great interest in vintage Porsche 911s - but I have zero intent as I have zero ??. So if anyone judged me on what I am doing online they would believe I am an eager and potential buyer - I ain't! ??
I wrote this Article yesterday about Intent. I'm sure you wouldn't agree with my thoughts but would love to hear your opinion. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/problem-intent-data-one-talks-amir-reiter-deevc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via
Intent is a signal, and without context i.e. more data, the signal is impossible to decipher. So many firms have treated intent data as if its a customer asking for a meeting….
put #3 on a postcard and an email and a billboard and a t shirt and a notebook and a hat
Gabe Rogol why don't intent providers offer a product that reviews the intent journey during time periods of the funnel for the closed won opps over a 2 year period? My experience tells me that instead of paying for the storage and compute that it takes to maintain years worth of billion+ daily intent datasets, intent providers spend money on other activities to grow their own revenue. It's a shame that intent providers don't help their customers analyze closed won and lost opps to identify positive and negative clusters they should track for future topic creation and scoring.
Fix your Data before jumping on AI | Co-founder & CEO at Nektar.ai | Data Leakage Today is Revenue Leakage Tomorrow! Follow me to learn how to run a data-driven efficient GTM engine.
2 个月Great post Gabe. I couldn't agree more that intent data alone isn't a magic bullet for Account-Based GTM. From our experience at Nektar.ai, what often gets overlooked in this discussion is the power of first-party data, especially when it comes to understanding and navigating complex buying groups. Intent signals are important, but they’re often external indicators. The true gold lies within your own organization’s interactions and data — the emails, meetings, and conversations that happen across the entire customer journey. By unlocking, organizing, and analyzing first-party engagement data—which often gets lost or buried in silos—and capturing key interactions across sales and customer success teams, companies can gain a holistic view of the buying group. This includes everyone from decision-makers to influencers, enabling teams to not only identify the right accounts but also tailor their engagement strategies more effectively. Combining intent with robust first-party data gives GTM teams a much clearer picture of who’s truly engaged and ready to move forward, reducing those frustrating false positives and helping teams focus on high-value opportunities.