Introduction
High-performing B2B Sales and Marketing teams understand that efficient growth requires focusing on a select set of target accounts. With the right account prioritization, teams can supercharge their pipeline and revenue generation activities and get one step closer to achieving their goals.
In selecting these target accounts, there are two complementary mechanisms to rely on for prioritization: Intent and Buyer Readiness. In this post, we will discuss how you can use Buyer Readiness and Intent signals together for account prioritization.
Defining Buyer Readiness and Intent
Focusing on prospects that are most in need of your solution is the safest path to success for GTM teams. This is buyer readiness. Buyer readiness is a measure of the company characteristics that make a prospect a great fit for your solution right now. Companies with a high buyer readiness score are those that have active pains, needs, or initiatives where your solution could help the most right now. You can learn more about the signals that make up Buyer Readiness here.
Buyer Readiness is based on the prospect’s motivations and the current situation. Developing an understanding of these signals gives you critical information about the “why” of a prospective company. It is this context that you can then use to develop targeted Marketing and Sales campaigns to increase your chances of success.
Intent data is data about a user’s intentions or future actions based on analyzing their online activity and behavior. It is used to understand the interests of potential customers and to gain insights into the types of products they are likely to purchase or engage with. Intent data is often collected from Internet search activity, social media activity, website visits, email campaigns, and other online activities.
Using Buyer Readiness and Intent Data Together
Pairing Buyer Readiness and Intent data together can give you good pipeline generation results. Here’s a 2×2 that breaks down how you can use Buyer Readiness and Intent data in combination to identify the right accounts to work.
Work First: Highest Value: High Intent + High Buyer Readiness
Accounts that show both high Buyer Readiness and high Intent are the highest priority accounts for you to focus on. These accounts have both a great “why” that maps to your product and they’re exhibiting behavior that might indicate that they’re actively looking for a solution right now.
Work Next: High Buyer Readiness but No Intent
Accounts that show high Buyer Readiness but no Intent are the ones that you should focus on next. This segment is particularly important if you’re in a brand new category or if you’re looking to create your own category because intent data may not be available for you. This segment is also important if you’re in a crowded space where there are multiple solutions for a similar problem. Finally, this segment is highly fertile ground for you to target for your Outbound efforts. Targeting accounts with high Buyer Readiness will often lead to them visiting your website and doing additional research, which will then get reflected in your Intent data.
Work Last: High Intent but low Buyer Readiness.
A word of caution. Accounts that have high Intent but low Buyer Readiness can be a distraction. We often hear from frustrated sales teams that have prioritized accounts purely on the basis of Intent, who after investing a lot of energy realize that the buyers are not really interested in “buying” their product. For instance, these are accounts that might just be researching your solution without having a good fit for what you offer. Working accounts in this bucket will likely yield the lowest conversion rates and ROI. When doing more with less you cannot afford to invest in accounts that have a very low likelihood to convert.
Ignore: Low Buyer Readiness and low Intent
Accounts that have low Buyer Readiness and low Intent are clearly neither a good fit for your solution nor in the market. You can safely ignore these accounts and not waste your time or money targeting them.
Your Most Valuable Buyer Readiness Signals
Do you know your most valuable Buyer Readiness signals? Would you like to find out? Drop me a note here and we can do a session to help you and your team focus on your highest-value prospects.