It’s no secret that we’re all about intent signals right now (have you seen our blog lately?). It’s such a powerful tool we even hosted a webinar about it with our very own US Director of Sales and Business Development, George Nammour, and two powerhouses from our intent partner Bombora: Erin Scheller, Senior Director of […]
It’s no secret that we’re all about intent signals right now (have you seen our blog lately?). It’s such a powerful tool we even hosted a webinar about it with our very own US Director of Sales and Business Development, George Nammour, and two powerhouses from our intent partner Bombora: Erin Scheller, Senior Director of Demand and Revenue Marketing, and Jo Reyes, Vice President of Segment Marketing.
If you couldn’t make it to the webinar – and we can’t blame you; end of Q1 is a tough time to swing anything besides closing deals – we’ve got a wrap-up for you. And even if you did attend our webinar, this refresher will help you keep the important takeaways at the top of your mind.
Let’s get into it.
Why intent data is important right now
There’s a reason we’re talking so much about intent signals right now.
Across the board, companies are trying to do more with less. There’s drive to reduce money spent on platforms and technologies and lean into what is most cost-effective and brings in revenue. With cost reductions – including reduced headcounts– how can companies best optimize to receive ROI and gain more market share and revenue (here’s a hint… It’s intent)?
Intent gives companies the opportunity to optimize their outbound efforts and overall go-to-market motions. There are lots of ways to increase efficiency with the power of buying signals.
But the benefit of intent is not just about making things work through tough economic times. It’s also about planning for future growth.
Secrets to capitalizing on GTM possibilities with intent
By this point, you probably know what intent means (but in case you need a refresher: Lusha’s Intent – or buying signals – shows you which companies are searching for certain topics that relate to your product or service).
But what do you actually do with it? It’s no use to have all that information at your fingertips if all you do is sit on it.
Well, we’ll let you in on a little secret. Five of them, in fact. Here are some (potentially unexpected) ways you can use intent to level up your go-to-market strategy.
1. Monitor for churn with buying signals.
Erin Scheller
Okay, so we just said your customers already know and love you. But what about the customers who are about to say, “it’s not you, it’s me”?
Would you believe us if we said that Intent can also help you from being blindsided by a breakup and allow you to sweep them off their feet all over again? Well, the woo-ing is all on you, but intent will help. Here’s what Erin Scheller has to say about it:
“One of the places where I’ve seen a lot of success is looking at using intent data to monitor churn. So you have your existing customers – are they starting to look at your competitors? What are they doing? What’s their activity and how is that shifting over time can be a real good indicator of: there might be a problem here. We might need to send a CSM – customer support person – to do another account review. Let’s figure out what’s going on.”
If you see that your current customers are searching for terms related to what you offer (think: searching for a CRM solution when you’re already using one) or even worse, one of your competitors, then you have a pretty good idea that they’re not 100% satisfied. Intent gives you the opportunity to step in before it’s too late and figure out what they need from you to stick around and make their experience with your company more satisfactory.
2. Use intent to find opportunities to upsells and cross-sell.
George Nammour
Intent isn’t just about finding new customers when you’re ready to buy; George Nammour recommends using it to help you sell to your existing customers.
“Leveraging intent is like a predictive analytic tool, not only to mitigate churn, but also use that as an opportunity for upsells and cross-sells. When you do see certain signals, leverage those to get in front of your customers.”
If your current customers are searching for terms related to other packages you offer, that means you have an opportunity to start a conversation with them about other ways they can use your product. They already know and love you, so they’ll be more open to hearing your pitch about how it could benefit them even more.
It can be hard to know exactly when to cross-sell or upsell to your customers; you don’t want to come on too strong all at once. Instead of blindly guessing, you can leverage Intent to find the customers who are ready to hear that message.
3. Intent can help map your customer journey and enhance persona personalization.
Jo Reyes
It’s important to understand your buyer’s journey in order to market and sell successfully. Intent data can be that secret sauce that gives you extra insight into what a customer journey looks like specifically for your product or service and what success signals are at your company. Here’s how that works, according to Jo Reyes.
“It’s a two-way street. So when we’re looking in that customer journey, we can say, ‘what are the signals that actually happen right before the surge?’ We need to catch them at that point in time because that is going to give us our competitive advantage to get in front of those digital buyers.
The percentage still goes up and up every day of how many people actually do their own digital research before they actually buy. So you can actually catch them right before that wave and you can get really specific with the personalization by persona.
Normally what happens is the first surge comes from someone that’s doing the research, that has bought in on this technology or this product that’s going to help them increase their efficiency. And then the second one is normally where more decision makers are coming in. Now they’ve heard what the research said. Now they’re doing their research and perhaps aligning it to the overall company goal. And then normally that last piece of surge happens with all of the departments that need to cross the t’s and c’s – the legal, the finance. I think it’s really important to align your marketing efforts to a historical look-back.”
This journey might look slightly different for you depending on what a buying cycle looks like for your product, but mapping your customer journey with intent gives you the opportunity to personalize your messaging to prospects depending on where they are on that map.
4. Figure out (or confirm) your ICP.
Jo Reyes
Is your product new to the market or looking to be a disruptor? You’re going to need some predictive data to really find your place in the market. Intent can help you validate your ideal customer profile (ICP). Jo Reyes has some insight to share:
“ I worked with some hyper growth companies. Some of their products were new to market or they were trying to be the disruptor in the marketplace. However, they were lacking closed-won data. They were lacking some data to do predictive modeling. So what intent data helped them do is really validate their ICP. Who they think is their ideal customer – is that true? IS the data showing that? And is their product relevant? And if so, where is it relevant? That geoscape of where you should actually focus your efforts. So it’s really that go-to-market strategy for those hyper-growth companies to actually help them mold not only their go-to-market strategy, their content, but actually geolocation as well.”
Check what companies are searching for the kind of product you offer. Does the data support who you think your ideal customer is? Where are they located? The buying signals will show you where you can best focus your efforts and where your product or solution is actually most relevant.
5. Use intent data to connect with audiences offline and online.
Erin Scheller
Sales and marketing teams want as many different touchpoints with potential customers as possible. One cool thing about the power of intent is that it can help you find connections with prospects out in the wilds of the real world too – not just online or on the phone.
Erin Scheller recommends intent data for event marketing: “Use it to find the right audience to bring to events. So your customer has a big event coming up and they want to know who’s interested. Looking either topically or at are a couple different ways that would be a little different and people might not think about.”
If you’re hosting a conference, a networking event, or any other event where you can connect with prospects offline, you’re going to want the most engaged attendees. When it comes to seeing who’s interested, intent data is a planner’s best friend. Who’s searching for topics related to your event’s theme? Cross-reference that with which companies are a geographic fit for where your event will take place, and there you have it: a solid list of potential attendees. Now you can advertise your event to that audience and expect successful engagement.
In addition to those five unique ways you can use intent data, our webinar also covered the basics like using intent to prioritize your outbound efforts or find the customers who are actively in the market. And believe it or not, that’s only scratching the surface of the many, many ways you can use intent signals.
And speaking of scratching the surface, this post only covers some of the valuable takeaways from our webinar. Be sure to give it a watch to get all the buying signal secrets:
The discussion around intent is a conversation we’re going to be having for a long time – and not just at Lusha, but across the sales intelligence industry as a whole as intent becomes more of an industry standard.
Key Takeaways
- Intent is a boost to efficiency that helps you make the most of your sales intelligence tools.
- Buying signals can be used across the GTM org, with multiple use cases in both sales and marketing.
- With intent you can not only find new customers, you can also sell to your current customers, prevent churn, map your customer journey, define your ICP, and find event audiences.
We'll help you understand if Lusha can solve your business needs.
