[GTM glossary](/glossary.md) Intent data

Signals & Intent

# Intent data

In short

Intent data is information about the actions a company or person takes that suggest an active interest in a product category. Examples include reading comparison articles, visiting a pricing page, or posting jobs for a role your product supports.

GTM teams use it to decide who to contact first and what to say. Instead of working a static list, reps prioritize accounts that are already in a buying cycle.

## Types of intent data

* **First-party:** Signals from your own site, product, and emails: pricing page visits, demo requests, repeat logins.
* **Third-party:** Research activity across other sites, collected by data vendors and mapped to accounts.
* **Signal-based:** Public events such as job postings, funding rounds, leadership changes, and tech stack changes.

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## Key benefits

* **Timing:** Reach accounts while they are evaluating, not after they have signed with a competitor.
* **Relevance:** Open with the signal ("I saw you are hiring three SDRs") instead of a generic pitch.
* **Efficiency:** Concentrate rep time on accounts most likely to convert.

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## Best practices

* **Layer intent on top of fit:** A high-intent account outside your ICP is still a poor deal. Filter by fit first, then rank by intent.
* **Combine signals:** One signal is noise. Two or three together, such as a new VP of Sales plus a hiring push, are a pattern.
* **Act within days:** Signals decay quickly. Route them straight to the owner with the context attached.

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## Common challenges

Third-party intent is often account-level only, so you still need to find the right people. It can also be noisy, since one analyst researching a topic can flag a whole company. Validate any vendor by checking whether flagged accounts convert at a higher rate than your baseline.

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## Intent data FAQs

**What is intent data?**

Intent data is behavioral information that indicates a company or person is researching or preparing to buy a product category. Sales and marketing teams use it to prioritize outreach.

**What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?**

First-party intent comes from your own properties, like your website and product. Third-party intent comes from external sources that track research behavior across the web.

**How accurate is intent data?**

Accuracy varies by vendor and signal type. First-party signals and concrete events like job postings are usually more reliable than inferred topic interest. Test any source against your own conversion rates.

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## More related phrases

* [Buyer intent data](/glossary/buyer-intent-data.md)
* [Intent-based leads](/glossary/intent-based-leads.md)
* [Topic intent](/glossary/topic-intent.md)

## Similar phrases

* [Fit and intent matrix](/glossary/fit-and-intent-matrix.md)  
A fit and intent matrix plots accounts by how well they match your ICP and how actively they are showing buying signals, to decide the right next action.
* [Waterfall enrichment](/glossary/waterfall-enrichment.md)  
Waterfall enrichment queries multiple data providers in a fixed order and stops at the first valid result, so you get higher coverage without paying twice.
* [Buying signals](/glossary/buying-signals.md)  
Buying signals are the collection of behaviors and events that, taken together, indicate a prospect or account is moving toward a purchase, and they power signal-based prioritization.
* [B2B intent data](/glossary/b2b-intent-data.md)  
B2B intent data tracks the online research behavior of companies and buyers to show which accounts are actively exploring a topic or solution, so teams can time outreach better.
* [Job change signals](/glossary/job-change-signals.md)  
Job change signals are alerts that a contact has started a new role or company, which sellers use to reopen past conversations, find champions, and reach new decision makers.