What is Intent Data?
Intent data is behavioral information captured from digital activities—such as content consumption, keyword searches, and comparison research—that signals which B2B accounts are actively exploring a topic, product, or problem. In B2B sales development and list-building, SDR teams use both first-party (your own properties) and third-party (publisher networks and data providers) intent signals to identify, prioritize, and personalize outreach to in-market buyers.
Understanding Intent Data in B2B Sales
As B2B buying has shifted online-Gartner projected that 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers would occur in digital channels by 2025—traditional list-building based only on firmographics is no longer enough.gartner.com Buyers self-educate, consult third-party sources, and often avoid sales reps until late in the journey. For SDR teams, this means that simply calling down a static list produces diminishing returns; you need a way to see which accounts are "heating up" right now.
Intent data matters because it allows revenue teams to focus finite outbound capacity on accounts that are already signaling interest. Studies show that over 90% of B2B teams using intent data report success increasing lead volume and conversion rates from their lead generation programs.mixology-digital.com Instead of treating all prospects equally, SDRs can build lists around in-market accounts, prioritize them by surge level or score, and tailor messaging to the exact topics those accounts are researching.
Modern sales organizations typically combine first-party intent data (your own website, product usage, email engagement) with third-party intent data sourced from cooperatives and publisher networks like Bombora’s Data Co-op, which tracks billions of B2B content consumption events across thousands of domains.bombora.com Tools like Intentsify and other orchestration platforms aggregate multiple intent sources, normalize the signals, and push prioritized account lists into CRMs and sales engagement tools so SDRs always have fresh, intent-rich lists to work from.intentsify.io
Over time, intent data has evolved from simple IP-based web analytics and bidstream data to privacy-first, consent-driven, account-level intelligence enriched by AI and machine learning. Today, leading teams use it not only for top-of-funnel targeting, but also for pipeline acceleration and customer expansion-alerting SDRs and account managers when existing opportunities or customers spike on competitive or solution-related topics.forrester.com For B2B sales development specifically, intent data has become a core input to list-building: it tells you which accounts to add, in what order to work them, and what to say in each touch, turning generic outbound into timing- and topic-aware outreach.
Common Challenges
Signal Noise and False Positives
Not every spike in research activity reflects a real buying project-students, competitors, or casual readers can all generate signals. If SDRs chase every high-intent score without filters (ICP fit, role, region, deal size), they can burn time on accounts that were never going to buy, undermining trust in the data.
Measuring ROI and Business Impact
Many teams struggle to tie intent data back to closed-won revenue and SDR productivity. Studies show that more than a third of B2B marketers cannot accurately measure the ROI of their intent data investment, and over half report wasted staff time and missed revenue opportunities due to implementation challenges.mixology-digital.com
Fragmented Tech Stack and Poor Integration
Intent data is often purchased by marketing but never fully integrated into CRM, marketing automation, or sales engagement tools. Without clean routing rules, field mappings, and scoring, SDRs may see incomplete or conflicting signals, leading to low adoption and inconsistent use in day-to-day list-building.
Over-Reliance on Third-Party Signals
Teams sometimes treat third-party intent scores as a silver bullet and neglect first-party signals like website behavior, product usage, and email engagement. This can skew prioritization away from existing high-potential accounts and customers whose intent is better reflected in your own data.
Data Privacy, Compliance, and Trust
Different providers rely on different collection methods, and not all are equally transparent or privacy-first. If legal or security teams are skeptical about how data is sourced and consented, adoption can stall, or access may be limited to marketing instead of SDRs who need it for day-to-day prospecting.
Related Tools & Resources
Bombora
B2B intent data provider that aggregates content consumption across a large Data Co-op to surface account-level Company Surgeu00ae scores and topics for targeting and list-building.
6sense
Revenue AI platform that combines intent signals, website activity, and predictive modeling to identify in-market accounts and recommend which contacts SDRs should prioritize.
ZoomInfo SalesOS (with Intent)
Data platform offering firmographic and contact data plus intent and website visitor intelligence, enabling SDRs to build targeted prospect lists and trigger outbound sequences.
TechTarget Priority Engine
Intent-driven ABM and demand generation platform that provides named accounts and contacts actively researching specific technology topics across TechTarget's content network.
Demandbase One
ABX platform that unifies intent, engagement, and account data to score and prioritize accounts, orchestrate campaigns, and feed high-intent lists into SDR workflows.
RollWorks
Account-based platform that uses intent and engagement signals to build and prioritize target account lists for advertising and sales development.
Partner with SalesHive for Intent Data
Once the right accounts and contacts are identified, SalesHive’s US-based and Philippines-based SDR teams execute multi-channel outbound-cold calling, email outreach, and LinkedIn-to convert intent signals into qualified meetings. Using our AI-driven personalization engine eMod, we tailor messaging to the topics and pain points prospects are actively researching, while our playbooks ensure that calling and email cadences match the account’s intent level. With over 100,000 meetings booked for B2B clients since 2016, SalesHive can plug into your existing intent data stack, or help you stand one up, and immediately start turning buyer signals into pipeline.saleshive.com
Related Services:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is intent data in B2B sales development?
In B2B sales development, intent data is behavioral information that indicates which accounts are actively researching a problem, solution, or vendor related to your offering. SDR teams use these signals to build smarter prospect lists, prioritize daily outreach, and tailor messaging to what buyers care about right now, improving connect and meeting rates.
How do SDR teams use intent data for list-building?
SDR teams typically receive weekly or daily lists of accounts with high or rising intent scores for relevant topics. They filter those accounts by ICP criteria, pull in decision-maker contacts from data tools, and then load prioritized contacts into call and email sequences whose messaging matches the detected topics or buyer stage.
What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?
First-party intent data comes from your own properties and systems-website analytics, product usage, email engagement, webinar attendance-and reflects how accounts interact directly with your brand. Third-party intent data is collected from external publisher networks and data cooperatives, showing what accounts research across the broader web; most high-performing programs combine both for a fuller picture.
How accurate is intent data for predicting real opportunities?
Intent data is directional, not a perfect predictor-it highlights where to look, not guaranteed deals. Industry research shows that over 85% of companies using intent data report business benefits like better response rates and prospecting outcomes, but results depend on good ICP filters, realistic thresholds, and tight integration into SDR process and messaging.forrester.com
How should I choose an intent data provider?
Evaluate providers based on data sourcing (co-op vs. bidstream), privacy and consent standards, topic coverage for your niche, geographic and company-size coverage, and integrations with your CRM and sales engagement tools. It's common to pilot two vendors, compare pipeline and meeting outcomes from each, and then either consolidate on the top performer or run a multi-source strategy with normalized scoring.
Is intent data only useful for marketing and ABM?
No-while intent data is heavily used in ABM and digital marketing, a growing share of teams use it directly in SDR workflows for prospecting, pipeline acceleration, and expansion plays. By pushing intent-qualified accounts and contacts into SDR queues with clear playbooks, you can turn what was once a marketing-only signal into a day-to-day driver of meetings and pipeline for sales.
