B2B Intent Data: How to Use It for Cold Outreach in 7 Steps

In B2B sales, for example, sales teams typically have an idea of which firms would be ideal for them. The real challenge is determining which accounts to reach out to first.

Teams use intent data to prioritize accounts based on their research activity and 83% of ABM programs say they're using it to create target account lists.

The next step is to understand how to use those signals to decide what to say when reaching out to these accounts.

Throughout this guide, we'll use Lumora, a fictional 250-person SaaS company, to show how you can turn an intent signal into a relevant cold email.

Intent data tracks what people at a company read, search for, and compare online. Providers group this activity by topic and link it to the company, showing you which companies are interested in what.

The majority of B2B buyer intent signals are generated on:

The types of signals available vary by provider, so teams should focus on sources that are relevant to their sales process.

Account-level intent signals are linked to a company rather than an individual buyer.

In essence, a signal shows that a company is investing more time and money into email verification research. This does not necessarily give you the answer to which employee is involved, or if the company has an active buying project.

This is a vital thing to remember as you go from research to prospecting.

There are thousands of possible accounts that you can begin targeting within your ICP. Intent signals provide even more prioritization by indicating which accounts are currently interested in topics that are related to your product. That can then be used by teams to understand which prospects to investigate and reach out to first, based on data in ICP fit as well as other account information gathered.

For B2B lead generation, monitor research of articles related to your product and compile a list of companies that match your ICP, locate the right contacts in these companies, and filter out invalid emails before sending.

Assume, for instance, that you're a data-quality software vendor. Monitoring research in email verification, lead validation and CRM data quality would be helpful. If a company is interested in these topics, see if the company fits your ICP as well before reaching out.

If you're a good fit for the company's ICP, seek further context. Are they starting to hire SDRs, grow their outbound lineup, or switch their CRM? The evolution of this may pose data quality issues.

Now determine who is responsible for that problem. Depending on the company, this can be someone in the RevOps or Marketing Ops team. First, you can use the Clearout prospecting tool to conduct some research on companies and job titles, and check emails before contacting.

What they're reading also tells you how to start the conversation. If they're going through basic guides on bounce rates, they're still early. Send them something helpful. If they're comparing tools on review sites, they're further along, and it's fine to be more direct.

Sales teams can combine intent signals with account-level information to decide which prospects deserve attention first:

Even a list of companies that match your ICP might be too big for a sales team to work through efficiently. Intent data gives teams another way to narrow down that list, especially when combined with the account and prospect data they already use.

Here are 4 practical ways sales and marketing teams can use it.

Intent should not be the only reason an account moves up the list. First check whether the company fits your ICP, then look at whether its recent activity is relevant to what you sell.

For example, a SaaS company that matches your target market and is researching a problem your product solves is worth investigating. A company outside your target market showing the same activity probably is not.

This keeps the sales team from chasing every account that happens to show an intent signal.

A sudden increase in activity can give sales reps a reason to take a closer look at an account. Check what changed, whether the activity is relevant to your offering, and whether the account still matches your ICP. This helps separate useful sales intent signals from activity that may not justify outreach.

So a company is showing interest. Great, but who do you actually email?

Intent data won't tell you that. You'll need to find the people who handle the problem you solve, whether that's a Head of Sales, someone in RevOps, or a marketing manager.

This is the gap sales prospecting fills. Your intent data provider points you to the account. Clearout helps you get to the people inside it.

Say the account is a mid-sized SaaS company. In Clearout Prospect, you can search that company and filter by role to pull up their RevOps or Sales Ops team. Already know who you want? Add their name and company domain into the Email Finder, and you'll get their work email.

One last step before you hit send. Run the list through the Email Verifier. People move jobs all the time, and an email that worked a month ago might bounce today. A quick check now saves you from that.

The best way is to look at all the details.

An account that matches your ICP, shows research activity, and has identifiable decision-makers is a stronger prospect than one that shows intent alone. Combining these signals with firmographic data helps sales teams decide which accounts deserve attention first.

Let's return to Lumora, our fictional 250-person SaaS company. You sell a data-quality tool, and Lumora matches your ICP.

First, make sure you know what kind of audience you are targeting when you are selling. In this example, we're targeting B2B SaaS companies in the U.S. that have between 100 and 500 employees. They need to do outbound sales and use a CRM system (HubSpot or Salesforce).

Keep the topics as narrow as possible such as email bounce rate, email deliverability, and CRM data cleanup. You'll get a lot of traffic from a general term such as "sales software," and very few of them will be actual leads.

The account should be aligned to your ICP in terms of company size, location, and CRM.

Intent data helps in the identification of the account. At Lumora, first look for positions that are closely related to email deliverability and CRM data quality.

Go to " Clearout Sales Prospecting" and type Lumora in the search field and then filter by job role. If you are already viewing Lumora's employees on LinkedIn, then you can use this Clearout Chrome extension to pull the same employees and their emails.

This is the part that makes or breaks your email. The research topic should decide which problem you should talk about during cold email outreach.

So don't write things like:

Most prospects don't expect their research to be tracked, and calling it out feels intrusive. Instead, ask what problem would lead someone to research this topic, and write about that.

Lumora's increased research around deliverability suggests that email performance may be a concern, although it doesn't confirm the cause. You also notice three SDR job openings posted this month. That public hiring activity gives you another reason to start a conversation about scaling outbound.

Intent data tells you which companies may be looking for a solution. However, it's not enough to know the company. You need to know how to interact with them. You still have to determine how you will be able to contact the responsible teams. Clearout can help you.

You can add respective employees name and company domain into the Clearout tool and get their work email addresses through its Email Finder.