Do you struggle to prioritize accounts? Is your outbound motion struggling to show results?
If these resonate, you might want to switch your attention to buying signals.
In today's competitive business landscape, sales representatives face an uphill battle to reach potential customers, qualify leads, and close deals.
Traditional sales methodologies are ineffective, leaving reps struggling to identify the right accounts to prospect and engage them in meaningful conversations.
In the B2B world, everyone dreams of having the sales team begin their day with:
- A list of top accounts to prospect within Salesforce or HubSpot
- The right contacts already identified and accessible
- Unique selling points tailored for each contact
- The marketing team targeting ads at these top prospects
This ideal scenario is the result of a perfectly synchronized sales and marketing strategy, streamlining efforts and maximizing efficiency.
That's where buying signals, also known as intent data, come into play: they serve as the secret weapon of top-performing go-to-market (GTM) teams. By utilizing intent data, sales and marketing can unify their efforts, targeting the same accounts simultaneously to boost pipeline.
Buying signals: A must-have for outbound sales success
The rise of intent data in sales strategies
Buying signals are a game-changer for sales teams, providing valuable insights to create more prospects and close more customers. This game-changing information can empower outbound activities and targeting efforts to focus on the leads that are most likely to convert.
Understanding the impact of intent data
The benefits of buyer signals are undeniable. Studies have shown that companies that use intent data experience:
- 55% increase in sales pipeline visibility
- 32% increase in close rates
- 27% decrease in sales cycle length
These statistics highlight the effectiveness of sales trigger events in streamlining sales processes and in optimizing overall sales performance. Moreover, intent data helps sales reps build stronger relationships with prospects by allowing them to personalize their outreach and provide relevant solutions.
⚠️ Important note: For buying signals to actually work, you need a proper strategy. A signal alone doesn’t perform. You need to define next steps and the right framework to reach out at the right time, with the right message.
How intent data fuels sales performance
Enhancing lead prioritization and scoring with signals
Traditional lead qualification methods often fall short because they do not account for the prospect's current buying mindset. Intent data fills this gap by providing insights into the prospect’s recent activities and interests, allowing sales reps to prioritize the account with the right message at the right time.
Personalization at scale
One of the strongest advantages of intent data is the ability to personalize outreach on a larger scale. Sales reps can customize their communications based on the specific interests and needs of each prospect, making each interaction more relevant and effective.
Streamlining sales efforts
By focusing on leads that exhibit buying signals, teams can allocate their resources more efficiently, prioritizing interactions with the most promising prospects.
Different types of outbound signals
There are two kinds of buying signals for outbound:
1. Blackbox intent data for spray and pray
Example: You should contact Gong.io to sell them something today!
✅ Pros:
- Easy to use and read
- Simple to activate (on paper)
❌ Cons:
- Why?
- Which message related to the intent can I use?
- Is it relevant?
- Do I contact all the companies? My personas?
2. Precise buying signals
Precise buying sales signals can trigger various actions by all GTM teams (sales and marketing).
Examples of precise intent triggers:
- Competitor used
-> 1st openers and prioritization criteria for 30% of sales reps - Job movements (Job changes + new hires)
-> Increase "meetings to closed deals" conversion rate from 1.5% to 9.5% for a software company - Job postings / Hiring
-> Job postings are a great source of company intel, such as priorities, tools, objectives, etc. - Downloaded content (ebook, webinar)
-> The response rate from evangelized contacts who downloaded content increased by 20% - In a community (slack, etc)
-> The connection acceptance rate for contact sharing a community is 70% higher - Attended at an event
- Social selling (like, comment, post)
- Fundraising
- Website traffic
- Tech stack changes
Example: My champion from the Segment deal we lost 7 months ago changed jobs to Orum.
✅ Pros:
- it's a signal that I understand and use daily as a Sales
- I write relevant sequences for my past champions (sequence playbook here)
- it's actionable for me and my marketing team. We work closely to book more meetings
❌ Cons:
- hard to capture at scale
- difficult to activate for GTM teams (sales and marketing) when I save it manually
- I lose time daily to capture
Outbound signals—a game changer for generating pipeline
Outbound signals offers a competitive edge to revenue teams like sales and marketing:
- Increase Pipeline: Outbound intent data uncovers hidden opportunities, expanding the sales pipeline with qualified leads that are actively considering a purchase
- Improve Close Rates: By focusing on high-intent leads, sales reps engage with prospects who are most likely to convert, leading to improved close rates and increased revenue
- Shorter Sales Cycles: Intent data-driven outreach eliminates wasted time and effort, shortening the sales cycle and accelerating deal closures
- Enhance Personalization: Understanding a company's buying intent allows sales reps to personalize their messaging, addressing specific pain points and offering relevant solutions
- Align GTM teams: The marketing team works closely with Sales, targeting accounts with ads to reinforce awareness, while Sales initiates conversations to create opportunities. Lowering CAC, increasing win rates, and qualified pipeline.
Use cases for leveraging outbound buying signals
To effectively leverage outbound intent for targeted sales success, consider these strategies:
- Identify Key Intent Signals: Prioritize the intent signals that align with your business objectives and target audience. For instance, focus on job postings, competitor activities, tech stack changes, and job changes if these factors align with your sales goals.
- Segment and Prioritize Accounts: Utilize intent data to segment accounts into tiers based on their buying intent. Focus outreach efforts on high-intent accounts, where the likelihood of conversion is highest.
- Personalize Outreach and Messaging: Tailor your outreach to individual prospects based on their unique intent signals. Address specific pain points, highlight relevant solutions, and demonstrate how your company can address their needs.
- Utilize Intent Data for Sales Enablement: Equip sales reps with intent data-driven insights to improve their conversations and increase their chances of closing deals.
- Identifying New Opportunities: Identify companies actively needing and researching your solutions.
Outbound intent data isn't just a signal but a must-have for outbound performance in 2024.
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