There’s magic hidden in your intent data.

What's inside

This Blueprint shows you how to extract, connect, and use that gold dust to finally reap the rewards of your intent investment.

No wand waving required.

Built from practitioner conversations with ABM and demand gen leaders.

Foreword

From Kerry Cunningham, Head of Research & Thought Leadership, 6Sense

Preface

From Nick Mason, CEO & Co-Founder, Turtl

All signals are go. But then what?

Why intent data isn’t making its full impact

Executive perspective

From Rachel Truair, CMO, Demandbase

Intent activation maturity

The four stages and what’s involved in each

Where are you actually starting from?

Get a baseline of where your intent setup’s at

How to transform intent into action

Six steps to make serious impact with signals

Turtl is trusted by the world's most ambitious GTM teams

Intent data is the most polarizing technology in B2B. Miracle cure
or massive flop, I’ve heard both verdicts, loudly, for the better
part of a decade.

It’s been eight years since we produced the Intent Data Framework at SiriusDecisions, and the argument is still somehow unresolved. Intent providers are pilloried on B2B social media one day and celebrated the next. Demand teams are simultaneously oversold on what the data can do and under-equipped to act on it.

The thing is, both sides are right.

Good intent data works. It identifies patterns of account-level activity that revenue teams would otherwise miss. It flags active buying groups – often just as they are forming. Used properly, it allows revenue teams to focus their resources where they’ll produce the best outcomes. The promise the technology made was real, and it has often fulfilled that promise.

But not always. And when it doesn’t seem to, the first thing people say is “the data is bad.” Sometimes, more pointedly: “this data sucks.”

That’s not quite right. What’s usually missing isn’t “better data”. What’s missing is a coherent framework for what to do when the signals fire.

Our research consistently shows that roughly 60% of a well-defined ICP is not in-market at any given time. Of the remaining 40%, about three-quarters are in early journey stages, months or quarters from buying, or even from taking a meeting. These are high-fit accounts actively assessing their options, but still unlikely to take your call or respond to your emails.

If your outreach to these early-stage buyers helps them make sense of the problem, the category, and the choices, you’re increasing the odds of the buying group moving toward a purchase and putting you at the top of their list. You’re shaping preference, even when the buyer doesn’t respond.

But if you send BDRs and sellers after them with the sole purpose of booking meetings, those attempts are going to fail most of the time, and the “give me a meeting” communications do nothing to develop buyer preference.

Kerry Cunningham

Head of Research & Thought Leadership,
6Sense

Foreword

And when the buying group member who dared to fill out a form receives the “break-up” email from your BDR at the end of their sequence, they are still in the midst of weighing your merits against other vendors. You’re chalking up another intent data failure, while the subject in question is still evaluating you.

The signals aren’t wrong. We’re just not interpreting them correctly. Most intent data isn’t a near-term buying signal in the traditional sense. It’s not a buyer saying pitch me, we’re about to decide. But it’s something just as valuable: the signal of a buying group in the early stages of building preference, when they are most persuadable.

This is the misconception that has divided the field. Teams that treated intent as a sales trigger got burned. Teams that learned to treat it as an early-warning system – a buying group development signal – got results. Same data, completely different outcomes, because the framework for activation was different.

That is why this blueprint matters. What Nick and the team have built here is exactly what has been missing: a structured, stage-aware approach to turning signals into experiences that help buying groups align, build confidence, and decide.

The playbook that follows is practical, but don’t mistake it for merely tactical. At its core, it is an argument about how buyers buy, what intent signals really mean, and what it takes to show up in a way that actually helps drive preference and revenue.

Kerry Cunningham

Head of Research & Thought Leadership,
6Sense

Foreword

I’ve had a version of the same conversation dozens of times in
the last few years.

A seasoned marketing leader tells me they’re running intent-driven motions, doing everything right, yet getting almost nothing back. The pipeline didn’t move. Sales wrote off the signals. The CFO circled, concerned about big investments with small results.

When I’m having these conversations, it strikes me every time that the blame lands on bad data, false signals and poor processes.

But none of those really gets to the heart of the problem. The real cause is a fundamental misinterpretation of what an intent signal is – and what we should do with it.

There’s a persistent myth in B2B that somewhere out there, our perfect buyer is ready to purchase, just waiting to be found and tapped on the shoulder. Intent data was sold as the technology to root them out. But the promise of “signal to meeting in minutes” is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how enterprise B2B buying actually works.

Think about the last significant purchase your company made. Was it made by a single buyer who started researching, got pitched soon after, and then signed on the dotted line? I’d wager no (and if it’s a yes - call me).

An intent signal is the first sign a buying group is coming together to weigh up a problem and decide if it’s worth solving. And absent that buying group consensus, there is no deal to be won or lost in the first place.

It is not a smoking gun for sales readiness. It is a spark to be observed, understood, supported and added to.

The disconnect between intent and commercial growth is fixable. And it must be fixed. Not with more technology, faster follow-up, or better copy - but by rethinking how we use signals to help buying groups align, build confidence and - ultimately - decide.

That’s what this Blueprint shows you how to do.

Nick Mason

CEO & Co-Founder, Turtl

Preface

I've had a version of the same conversation dozens of times in the last few years. A seasoned marketing leader tells me they're running intent-driven motions, doing everything right, yet getting almost nothing back. The pipeline didn't move. Sales wrote off the signals. The CFO circled, concerned about big investments with small results.

When I'm having these conversations, it strikes me every time that the blame lands on bad data, false signals and poor processes. But none of those really gets to the heart of the problem. The real cause is a fundamental misinterpretation of what an intent signal is - and what we should do with it.

For tech businesses, the instinct is to move fast. Signal fires, get Sales on it, close the loop. But enterprise buying groups don't move at that pace and don't respond well to being rushed. In this industry, speed wins in a lot of places. Consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals are not one of them.

Think about the last significant purchase your company made. Was it made by a single buyer who started researching, got pitched soon after, and then signed on the dotted line? I'd wager no (and if it's a yes - call me).

There's a persistent myth in B2B that somewhere out there, our perfect buyer is ready to purchase, just waiting to be found and tapped on the shoulder. Intent data was sold as the technology to root them out. But the promise of "signal to meeting in minutes* is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how enterprise B2B buying actually works.

An intent signal is the first sign a buying group is coming together to weigh up a problem and decide if it's worth solving. And absent that buying group consensus, there is no deal to be won or lost in the first place. It is not a smoking gun for sales readiness. It is a spark to be observed, understood, supported and added to.

The disconnect between intent and commercial growth is fixable. And it must be fixed. Not with more technology, faster follow-up, or better copy - but by rethinking how we use signals to help buying groups align, build confidence and - ultimately - decide.

That's what this Blueprint shows you how to do.

Nick Mason

CEO & Co-Founder, Turtl

Preface

I've had a version of the same conversation dozens of times in the last few years. A seasoned marketing leader tells me they're running intent-driven motions, doing everything right, yet getting almost nothing back. The pipeline didn't move. Sales wrote off the signals. The CFO circled, concerned about big investments with small results.

When I'm having these conversations, it strikes me every time that the blame lands on bad data, false signals and poor processes. But none of those really gets to the heart of the problem. The real cause is a fundamental misinterpretation of what an intent signal is - and what we should do with it.

In financial services, trust is the entire game. Buying groups are risk-averse and slow to commit. An intent signal here is an early sign a group is building the internal case for change - which means the first step on a long road ahead. Launching into a pitch the second a signal fires is a waste of time, both theirs and yours.

In this industry, speed wins in a lot of places. Consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals are not one of them. There's a persistent myth in B2B that somewhere out there, our perfect buyer is ready to purchase, just waiting to be found and tapped on the shoulder. Intent data was sold as the technology to root them out.

But the promise of "signal to meeting in minutes* is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how enterprise B2B buying actually works.

Think about the last significant purchase your company made. Was it made by a single buyer who started researching, got pitched soon after, and then signed on the dotted line? I'd wager no (and if it's a yes - call me).

An intent signal is the first sign a buying group is coming together to weigh up a problem and decide if it's worth solving. And absent that buying group consensus, there is no deal to be won or lost in the first place. It is not a smoking gun for sales readiness. It is a spark to be observed, understood, supported and added to.

The disconnect between intent and commercial growth is fixable. And it must be fixed. Not with more technology, faster follow-up, or better copy - but by rethinking how we use signals to help buying groups align, build confidence and - ultimately - decide.

That's what this Blueprint shows you how to do.

Nick Mason

CEO & Co-Founder, Turtl

Preface

I've had a version of the same conversation dozens of times in the last few years. A seasoned marketing leader tells me they're running intent-driven motions, doing everything right, yet getting almost nothing back. The pipeline didn't move. Sales wrote off the signals. The CFO circled, concerned about big investments with small results.

When I'm having these conversations, it strikes me every time that the blame lands on bad data, false signals and poor processes. But none of those really gets to the heart of the problem. The real cause is a fundamental misinterpretation of what an intent signal is - and what we should do with it.

In professional services, buying groups are evaluating much more than suitability; they’re trying to decide whether they can stake their own credibility on choosing you. Intent signals are your earliest window into that process starting –and misstepping here could leave you struggling to make the shortlist.

In this industry, speed wins in a lot of places. Consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals are not one of them. There's a persistent myth in B2B that somewhere out there, our perfect buyer is ready to purchase, just waiting to be found and tapped on the shoulder. Intent data was sold as the technology to root them out.

Nick Mason

CEO & Co-Founder, Turtl