How to Use Intent Data to Achieve Your Sales Goals: 5 Practical Ways

1. Expand your list of prospects

To make the most of your marketing and sales efforts, focus on building prospect lists with companies that match your ideal customer profile (ICP). Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to track and score high-intent leads from intent sources, including your website and marketing campaigns.

Leverage B2B intent data to build an ICP-based list of companies to target, expand your coverage and reach new buyers, as well as discover contacts that are most interested in your product or service. This will allow you to focus your marketing and sales efforts where they'll have the most impact and increase the speed and accuracy of your outreach.

3. Create competitive plays

Like most companies, you must have a few key competitors. And if you want to win, it's crucial to understand what your competitors are up to. Use intent data to scale your acquisition and expansion strategies. Also, execute sales plays using competitive intelligence (CI) to target customers actively researching your competitors’ products or services. 

4. Flag customers at risk for churn

Even if you're doing a great job at acquiring new customers using ABM and intent data, keeping an eye on potential customer churn is crucial. Intent data can help you identify customers at risk for attrition and take steps to prevent it. Look for telltale signs of disinterest, such as decreased web traffic from the customer account or low content consumption.

Once you identify a customer at risk for churn, reach out and check what's going on. It could be that the customer is having problems with your product or they are considering switching to another provider. Either way, addressing the issue head-on is the best way to retain a customer.

5. Find upsell and cross-sell opportunities

Once you have a customer, it's important to nurture that relationship and look for opportunities to upsell or cross-sell. Intent data helps you identify customers who might be interested in additional products or services.

Look for signals that indicate a customer is researching a new product or service, such as an increase in web traffic from their account or engagement with your content. If you see that a customer is interested in a new product, reach out and see if they have any questions. This is a great opportunity to introduce them to your other offerings and find upsell opportunities.

Make intent data your go-to source

Intent data should be the go-to source for planning your marketing and sales activities. Find a reputable intent data provider that can give you the intent insights you need to make better decisions, engage your best-fit prospects with buyer discovery and drive better results for your business. Then you'll be able to focus on what you do best — running and scaling your business.

Sarabeth McCarthy

Sarabeth McCarthy is a Senior Data Insights Client Relations Partner at Gartner Digital Markets. She helps companies gain market insights, expand prospect pools, and accelerate sales cycles through Data Insights offerings. When not at work, Sarabeth spends her time hiking around her adopted home of Washington DC and Northern Virginia. Connect with Sarabeth on LinkedIn.