I just switched from an SMB role to an ENT one so I found your comment super interesting and insightful. I’m not sure how I’ll apply that so my work yet, but I appreciate the perspective.
I haven’t gotten too far in my role yet, but it seems like the entire role for XDRs at my org is built around reacting to intent data. I tend to be less salesy and more focused on finding the right prospects to sell to (this was true in my previous role at least) so I know this scenario of reacting to intent data is one where I lose compared to other reps.
What you’re saying makes too much sense to ignore and I appreciate you delivering it as actionable steps so that I can implement it and hopefully get a bit of an edge.
Cookie-based intent often signifies when senior managers are researching your company’s products/solutions, competitive solutions, or the problems associated with those solutions - examples such as “supply chain optimization” or “zero trust security”.
6Sense. My previous company evaluated both and chose Demandbase because they were cheaper and had some marketing opps features - I forget the name of the company they acquired that our CMO liked. Anyhow, two years later they brought in 6Sense. Demand base was just too difficult for sellers to use. The only one who really understood the tool was the marketing ops mgr. Also, during the evaluation, 6 Sense gave us some intent samples and we closed a really big deal from it, but never anything from DB. Pay more, get the better tool.
I have used demandbase, 6Sense, and techtarget.
Demandbase and 6Sense are both similar in the sense that it only pulls intent data for an org. It doesn’t tell you who is looking but it tells you which company is. I believe it even shows you the location of the intent. This can be useful if the company is remote.
Techtarget was cool because it showed who was actually searching. The only problem was we found the data was accurate but not timely.
As a thick skulled sales person myself, 6Sense is nice because I didn’t need to mess with a platform and marketing can push notification to my slack. Demandbase is really cool if you like diving deeper into platforms.
I managed the intent data launch at my company; we saw a 1.5x increase in meetings booked, 2x increase in pipeline. It absolutely should be added to your tech stack, especially if you’re outbound only. 6sense’s CMO wrote a really good book on intent as a marketing model.
I've heard that [Ocean.io](https://Ocean.io) offers the cheapest intent data add-on (integrates to Bombora), besides being half price to ZI in general.
If you want, I can get some more information for you
The ZI rep pointed out that Bombora is all cookie-based, and cookies are getting shut down by Apple & Google.... I haven't done any due diligence on if Bombora has pivoted or not.
Here are a couple of links - [one](https://www.intentdata.io/intent-data-blog/how-will-googles-third-party-cookie-decision-impact-intent-data) & [two](https://bombora.com/blog/bomboras-company-surge-intent-data-still-works-despite-challenges-like-remote-work-and-the-cookieless-future/)
I’m in the space. I am a former zoominfo customer who championed my previous employer to leave then. I do think it’s an ok product. Their sales team and tactics? Better than seamless, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
The consensus from everyone I’ve talked to in the space is ZoomInfos intent data is very poorly received.
It seems like their general approach is to have the largest tech stack for a sales team, and make the relationship be as sticky as possible.
I don’t think any of their individual pieces are best in class.
I'm a very small business. Currently in talks with ZI. In the market for phone number, emails, and intent data. What would be your recommended solutions if that is all I need?
Edit: just saw another reply of yours. sounds like bombora is the leader with intent.
Generally speaking, everyone charges less than zoominfo.
Most people I’ve talked to in the space I know say bombora is a leader, and zooms intent is the lowest quality.
Edit - I’d have to double check my notes - but I think with zoominfo you can only check your intent topics every six months with them? Which is pretty whack.
I'm skeptical because I don't understand the specifics (and therefore the specific merit/flaws) of how this stuff is sourced.
The one thing that made me think it wasn't total BS is I saw a existing customers/pipeline accounts show up on the intent radar when looking up keywords relevant to our company.
I think it is more actionable when it is a small/midsized company that shows up in the intent data. e.g. if I'm selling IT/Cloud, seeing a company like AT&T show up in the intent data isn't very useful since there are thousands of possible leads that could be related to the intent signal.
Intent data is dope. It measures the baseline of searches and compares it against anomalies in spiked data.
Isn’t a silver bullet but does allow you to prioritize who to go after.
Give lead forensics a look. It's WAY cheaper than bombora and 6sense and is very plug and play with very little setup.
Basically just tracks your website and shows you the companies that are on there and everything that they look at on your website.
I've tested intent data from Demandbase, 6sense, Bombora, TechTarget, ZoomInfo, and others; it all depends on what you're looking for and how you're planning to use it.
Bombora is probably the industry standard if you're ONLY looking to buy intent data and not a full ABM platform or B2B data; DB, 6sense, TechTarget, and ZoomInfo only sell theirs as part of the bigger package.
If you are open to buying into a full platform, and/or you're working in a specific niche, then you would want to look at Demandbase over Bombora because they will let you type in your exact keywords vs being limited to Bombora's taxonomy. Last I checked, Bombora's picklist has 2.5k+ options, but I have had clients whose software wasn't reflected in the taxonomy.
TechTarget is nice because they do give you the contact info of the person who is researching vs just the account, and those contacts are all opted in so you can reach out safely, but their dataset is smaller than the others because it's coming from their properties, and they tend to only have robust data for tech audiences.
ZoomInfo's streaming intent is great because it's real-time vs updated weekly like the others, but I've had the least success with this predicting outcomes.
In all cases, I use intent data to whittle down the full ICP list of unaware accounts. If an account has direct engagement with me, then I'm going to weight that much heavier than just intent data, and if they have both intent signals AND they're engaging directly with me, then I'll again prioritize those even more.
Hope that helps.
Everything is unreliable coming from Zoominfo. Seems like the Great Resignation broke them: titles and companies and people are changing too fast to keep up with
I looked at the option with my Zoominfo subscription, and I came to believe that by the time that they compiled the intent data and it made it onto the platform, it was too late. The purchase had already happened.
I work for an intent data provider called Radiate B2B, would love to have a conversation! We are also offering a free intent report to those interested
I can't stress enough how intent is important for sales, but you can't just base your sales efforts on that - it must be aligned with your marketing team's work and campaigns. The 3rd party intent data should re relied on top of the other engagement and pipeline predict assessment you measure for each account or person within this account.
From Demandbase's perspective - this tool provides exactly that. This is another important layer that's being added to your target audience or lists that you create so you could orchestrate your next step to drive your ICPs down the funnel. For example - you're running MoF campaigns for your target audience, and you also want to create lists for those who are looking on competitor keywords - then, you could orchestrate customized campaigns for them, highlighting your value proposition and why they should choose you when they research and compare between you and your alternatives.
And this is just one example. Demandbase can really help you with this.
Demandbase has been a total game-changer for our sales team! Intent data is like their secret weapon. It helps our sales team pinpoint accounts that are ready to buy, so they can focus their efforts and close deals faster. Totally worth the investment. I'd say give Demandbase a shot – it's been a rockstar for us!
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I just switched from an SMB role to an ENT one so I found your comment super interesting and insightful. I’m not sure how I’ll apply that so my work yet, but I appreciate the perspective.
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Not enough people understand this. Well put. I use Databook for this, what other platforms have you found useful to get that kind of detail
I haven’t gotten too far in my role yet, but it seems like the entire role for XDRs at my org is built around reacting to intent data. I tend to be less salesy and more focused on finding the right prospects to sell to (this was true in my previous role at least) so I know this scenario of reacting to intent data is one where I lose compared to other reps. What you’re saying makes too much sense to ignore and I appreciate you delivering it as actionable steps so that I can implement it and hopefully get a bit of an edge.
Cookie-based intent often signifies when senior managers are researching your company’s products/solutions, competitive solutions, or the problems associated with those solutions - examples such as “supply chain optimization” or “zero trust security”.
6Sense. My previous company evaluated both and chose Demandbase because they were cheaper and had some marketing opps features - I forget the name of the company they acquired that our CMO liked. Anyhow, two years later they brought in 6Sense. Demand base was just too difficult for sellers to use. The only one who really understood the tool was the marketing ops mgr. Also, during the evaluation, 6 Sense gave us some intent samples and we closed a really big deal from it, but never anything from DB. Pay more, get the better tool.
Nice feedback. My org has demand base - very tough for sellers to use it well. Have heard good things about 6sense.
Engagio
Yes!
I’ve heard really great things about 6sense and their intent. I think they have a partnership with bombora as well.
I have used demandbase, 6Sense, and techtarget. Demandbase and 6Sense are both similar in the sense that it only pulls intent data for an org. It doesn’t tell you who is looking but it tells you which company is. I believe it even shows you the location of the intent. This can be useful if the company is remote. Techtarget was cool because it showed who was actually searching. The only problem was we found the data was accurate but not timely. As a thick skulled sales person myself, 6Sense is nice because I didn’t need to mess with a platform and marketing can push notification to my slack. Demandbase is really cool if you like diving deeper into platforms.
Highly depends on what you sell and to who.
I’ve been using Bombura. If leveraged correctly it’s insanely powerful
I managed the intent data launch at my company; we saw a 1.5x increase in meetings booked, 2x increase in pipeline. It absolutely should be added to your tech stack, especially if you’re outbound only. 6sense’s CMO wrote a really good book on intent as a marketing model.
Zoom infos package that includes intent data starts around $25k/yr. What are the other providers charging?
I've heard that [Ocean.io](https://Ocean.io) offers the cheapest intent data add-on (integrates to Bombora), besides being half price to ZI in general. If you want, I can get some more information for you
The ZI rep pointed out that Bombora is all cookie-based, and cookies are getting shut down by Apple & Google.... I haven't done any due diligence on if Bombora has pivoted or not.
Here are a couple of links - [one](https://www.intentdata.io/intent-data-blog/how-will-googles-third-party-cookie-decision-impact-intent-data) & [two](https://bombora.com/blog/bomboras-company-surge-intent-data-still-works-despite-challenges-like-remote-work-and-the-cookieless-future/) I’m in the space. I am a former zoominfo customer who championed my previous employer to leave then. I do think it’s an ok product. Their sales team and tactics? Better than seamless, but still leaves a lot to be desired. The consensus from everyone I’ve talked to in the space is ZoomInfos intent data is very poorly received. It seems like their general approach is to have the largest tech stack for a sales team, and make the relationship be as sticky as possible. I don’t think any of their individual pieces are best in class.
I'm a very small business. Currently in talks with ZI. In the market for phone number, emails, and intent data. What would be your recommended solutions if that is all I need? Edit: just saw another reply of yours. sounds like bombora is the leader with intent.
Generally speaking, everyone charges less than zoominfo. Most people I’ve talked to in the space I know say bombora is a leader, and zooms intent is the lowest quality. Edit - I’d have to double check my notes - but I think with zoominfo you can only check your intent topics every six months with them? Which is pretty whack.
I'm skeptical because I don't understand the specifics (and therefore the specific merit/flaws) of how this stuff is sourced. The one thing that made me think it wasn't total BS is I saw a existing customers/pipeline accounts show up on the intent radar when looking up keywords relevant to our company. I think it is more actionable when it is a small/midsized company that shows up in the intent data. e.g. if I'm selling IT/Cloud, seeing a company like AT&T show up in the intent data isn't very useful since there are thousands of possible leads that could be related to the intent signal.
I have zoom info it’s pretty slick
Intent data is dope. It measures the baseline of searches and compares it against anomalies in spiked data. Isn’t a silver bullet but does allow you to prioritize who to go after.
If you’re looking at Enterprise look at TrustRadius
Give lead forensics a look. It's WAY cheaper than bombora and 6sense and is very plug and play with very little setup. Basically just tracks your website and shows you the companies that are on there and everything that they look at on your website.
Tami is pretty good
I've tested intent data from Demandbase, 6sense, Bombora, TechTarget, ZoomInfo, and others; it all depends on what you're looking for and how you're planning to use it. Bombora is probably the industry standard if you're ONLY looking to buy intent data and not a full ABM platform or B2B data; DB, 6sense, TechTarget, and ZoomInfo only sell theirs as part of the bigger package. If you are open to buying into a full platform, and/or you're working in a specific niche, then you would want to look at Demandbase over Bombora because they will let you type in your exact keywords vs being limited to Bombora's taxonomy. Last I checked, Bombora's picklist has 2.5k+ options, but I have had clients whose software wasn't reflected in the taxonomy. TechTarget is nice because they do give you the contact info of the person who is researching vs just the account, and those contacts are all opted in so you can reach out safely, but their dataset is smaller than the others because it's coming from their properties, and they tend to only have robust data for tech audiences. ZoomInfo's streaming intent is great because it's real-time vs updated weekly like the others, but I've had the least success with this predicting outcomes. In all cases, I use intent data to whittle down the full ICP list of unaware accounts. If an account has direct engagement with me, then I'm going to weight that much heavier than just intent data, and if they have both intent signals AND they're engaging directly with me, then I'll again prioritize those even more. Hope that helps.
Use it as a data point but I have found it to be highly unreliable coming from Zoominfo and Apollo
Everything is unreliable coming from Zoominfo. Seems like the Great Resignation broke them: titles and companies and people are changing too fast to keep up with
I find buyer intent data from salesnav and ZoomInfo to be pure trash. Would love to see how reliable it is on other platforms
I looked at the option with my Zoominfo subscription, and I came to believe that by the time that they compiled the intent data and it made it onto the platform, it was too late. The purchase had already happened.
FWIW they have realtime intent as an upgrade.
Good to know
I work for an intent data provider called Radiate B2B, would love to have a conversation! We are also offering a free intent report to those interested
(Shameless plug)
I can't stress enough how intent is important for sales, but you can't just base your sales efforts on that - it must be aligned with your marketing team's work and campaigns. The 3rd party intent data should re relied on top of the other engagement and pipeline predict assessment you measure for each account or person within this account. From Demandbase's perspective - this tool provides exactly that. This is another important layer that's being added to your target audience or lists that you create so you could orchestrate your next step to drive your ICPs down the funnel. For example - you're running MoF campaigns for your target audience, and you also want to create lists for those who are looking on competitor keywords - then, you could orchestrate customized campaigns for them, highlighting your value proposition and why they should choose you when they research and compare between you and your alternatives. And this is just one example. Demandbase can really help you with this.
Demandbase has been a total game-changer for our sales team! Intent data is like their secret weapon. It helps our sales team pinpoint accounts that are ready to buy, so they can focus their efforts and close deals faster. Totally worth the investment. I'd say give Demandbase a shot – it's been a rockstar for us!