Intent signals

A cold list of 10,000 people in your ICP has maybe 200 people actively thinking about your category right now. The other 9,800 aren't wrong, they're just not in-market. Intent signals help you find the in-market 200 before the competition does. It's the highest-leverage targeting upgrade available.

What counts as intent

Any observable event that suggests a prospect is thinking about the problem you solve. Categories:

Hiring signals

• Hiring a VP Sales → pipeline / sales tech needs likely
• Hiring a Head of Marketing → martech decisions coming
• Hiring engineers with specific stack expertise → they may need tools in that stack
• Recent executive hire → new leader making decisions, fresh priorities

Funding signals

• Series A/B/C raised in last 90 days → budget released, hiring + tools
• Specific round sizes that signal specific stages

Technology signals

• Just added tool X → needs complementary tools (BuiltWith, Wappalyzer data)
• Just removed tool Y → evaluating alternatives
• Job postings listing specific tools → commitment to a stack

Content / research signals

• Looking at review sites (G2, Capterra), Bombora, G2 data
• Downloading research about your category
• Attending industry events / webinars

Public signals

• Launch announcements
• Press coverage
• Quarterly earnings mentioning pain points
• Job postings mentioning specific metrics they want to improve

Behavioral signals on your site

• Visited pricing page
• Downloaded content
• Signed up for newsletter
• Visited from specific company domain (IP-based, tools like Clearbit Reveal)

Where to get signals

Public web

Job boards (scrape or API), press releases, Crunchbase, LinkedIn activity, company websites. Free but manual or scripted.

Commercial intent data

• Bombora: B2B intent surges based on content consumption
• G2 Buyer Intent: who's researching specific tools on G2
• 6sense: account-based intent and engagement
• Demandbase: similar, enterprise ABM focus

Platform-specific

• LinkedIn activity (posts, engagement)
• Twitter/X mentions
• Reddit / forum discussions

Tooling that packages signals

Clay pulls many of these together. Userled, Common Room, Koala compile signals for you.

How to act on signals

Signal-triggered outreach

Instead of blast campaigns to the whole ICP, build automations:

1. Monitor signal source (job board, funding news, tool change)
2. When a company matches your ICP + shows signal, auto-add to outreach
3. Reference the signal in the first line

Example:

Generic cold opener: "Saw you're VP of Sales at Acme. Thought I'd reach out about our pipeline tool."

Signal-triggered opener: "Saw you posted a VP Sales role last week. Usually when companies expand sales leadership, there's pipeline pressure. Here's how [similar company] handled the exact same moment."

The second gets dramatically higher reply rates because it's timely and relevant.

The signal quality hierarchy

From strongest to weakest:

1. Direct behavior on your site: visited pricing 3 times in a week = hot
2. G2 / review site research: actively comparing tools
3. Specific role hiring: named function expansion
4. Funding + strategic announcement: money + intent
5. Tech stack changes: specific dependency triggers
6. Generic company growth signals: hiring, press, etc.

Top-tier signals are ~5-10x higher conversion. Bottom-tier still better than pure cold ICP filter.

Signal-based sequence pacing

Hot signals (top 2-3 tiers): email immediately, keep sequence tight (3-4 touches over 7-10 days). The window closes fast.

Warmer signals (4-6 tiers): normal sequence pacing (5-7 touches over 14-21 days).

Common mistakes

Signal without relevance

"I saw you got funded" → "Anyway, let me pitch my generic tool." The signal opens the door; the offer still has to match.

Stale signals

Funding news from 8 months ago isn't a signal anymore. Time-bound signal reach. Usually 30-90 day window.

Too many signal categories at once

Building "perfect" signal-triggered automations for 10 different signal types at once. Start with one or two that matter most. Scale from there.

Ignoring signals that don't fit tools

The best signal might not be in any commercial database, it might be a specific event in your industry. Build monitors (Google Alerts, RSS feeds, custom scrapers) for the signals no one else is watching.

The quality-over-quantity shift

Traditional cold email: 5,000 emails/week to a broad ICP.
Signal-based: 500 emails/week to prospects with active signals.

Same or better pipeline, lower volume, much higher reputation, less infrastructure needed. This is where advanced cold operators are heading.

Next: Segmentation strategy.