If you’re in B2B marketing or sales and you’re tired of chasing ghost accounts, you’ve probably heard about “intent data.” It’s supposed to tell you who’s actually interested in buying, not just who visited your website once by accident. But how do you actually track buyer intent signals in 6sense and use them to engage accounts—without getting lost in dashboards or buried in notifications?
This is for the hands-on marketer, the sales rep who wants signal over noise, and the ops folks who get stuck making it all work. We’ll get into the nuts and bolts, skip the fluffy talk, and call out what’s worth your time.
Step 1: Get Clear on What “Buyer Intent” Means in 6sense
First, let’s cut through the buzzwords. In 6sense, “buyer intent” boils down to data that suggests a company is in-market for your type of solution. It’s not magic. It’s a mix of:
- Anonymous website visits (from companies, not individuals)
- Third-party web activity (what content they read, what keywords they search)
- Engagement with your emails, ads, or events
- Firmographic data (industry, size, location)
6sense uses all this to guess which companies are researching your stuff. No system is perfect—intent signals are mostly “best guesses,” not proof someone’s ready to buy. Treat them as hints, not gospel.
Pro tip: Don’t expect the system to find secret buyers who’ve never touched your content or your competitors’. Intent signals work best with accounts that are at least somewhat active in your market.
Step 2: Set Up Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Segments
Before you chase intent signals, draw your lines. 6sense needs to know who you care about.
- Define your ICP: Industry, company size, region, tech stack, whatever matters to you.
- Create segments: In 6sense, segments are groups of accounts filtered by your ICP criteria and buying stage.
Why bother? If you don’t set clear segments, your dashboards will fill up with noise—random companies with no shot of buying.
What works: Spend real time refining your ICP and segments. Don’t let marketing or sales define them in a vacuum—do it together, or you’ll end up with lists nobody trusts.
What to ignore: Don’t try to get too cute with segmentation. If you have to explain your filter logic three times to a sales rep, simplify it.
Step 3: Understand the 6sense Buying Stages (and Don’t Overthink Them)
6sense sorts accounts into buying stages—Target, Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Purchase—based on the intent signals it picks up.
- Target: No real activity, just fits your ICP.
- Awareness: Starting to poke around your site or related topics.
- Consideration: Researching your solution, your competitors, or relevant keywords.
- Decision: Heavy activity, demo requests, pricing page visits.
- Purchase: Already buying (rarely flagged, honestly).
What works: Focus on Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. That’s where you’ll find accounts warming up to outreach, not just window shopping.
What doesn’t: Don’t waste cycles on “Target” accounts unless you have a long sales cycle or a big ABM budget. Most will never move.
Step 4: Monitor Key Intent Signals—But Don’t Chase Every Spike
So what should you actually track? Here are the intent signals in 6sense that matter:
- Spike in keyword research (topics or keywords tied to your solution)
- Surge in website visits (especially to key product or pricing pages)
- Engagement with emails or ads (clicks, not just opens or impressions)
- Comparisons with competitors (visiting competitor pages, searching for alternatives)
- Event attendance or webinar signups
You can set up notifications or dashboards for these, but resist the urge to follow every little blip. Look for patterns—a company that takes multiple actions over days or weeks.
What works: Weekly reviews of top intent signals by segment. Focus on accounts moving up in buying stage, not just random activity.
What doesn’t: Don’t let your team pounce on every alert. You’ll burn out fast, and so will your prospects.
Step 5: Use 6sense’s Dashboards and Alerts—But Customize Ruthlessly
6sense comes with dashboards and alert systems galore. Use them, but set them up to minimize noise.
- Dashboards: Filter by your key segments and buying stages. Set up views for sales, marketing, and execs—they care about different things.
- Alerts: Start with weekly summaries. Only move to real-time alerts if you have a team ready to act fast (and not annoy prospects).
- Integrations: Push relevant intent data into your CRM or sales engagement tools, so sales doesn’t have to jump between systems.
Pro tip: Less is more. A handful of focused alerts beats a flood of daily “insights” nobody reads.
Step 6: Turn Intent Signals Into Actionable Playbooks
Intent signals mean nothing if nobody acts on them. The real trick is turning data into outreach that doesn’t feel creepy or random.
- For Marketing: Prioritize accounts in Consideration or Decision for targeted nurture campaigns, ads, or event invites.
- For Sales: Share specific intent insights (e.g., “This account looked at our pricing page twice this week”) in sales huddles. Use this info to personalize outreach.
- For SDRs: Combine intent with other signals (like job changes or tech installs) before reaching out. One signal alone is rarely enough.
What works: Joint reviews of “hot” accounts between marketing and sales each week. Agree on who owns outreach and what the next step is.
What to ignore: Don’t just hand sales a list of “high intent” accounts and call it a day. Nobody likes spam, and intent data isn’t a silver bullet.
Step 7: Measure, Adjust, and Don’t Get Too Precious About the Data
Intent data isn’t perfect. Sometimes 6sense will flag an account as “hot” and nothing happens. Other times, a deal comes in with no warning. That’s life.
- Track engagement: Are your outreach and campaigns actually moving accounts to the next stage?
- Get feedback: Ask sales which intent signals led to real conversations, and which were duds.
- Tweak segments and alerts: If you’re getting too much noise, tighten your filters. If you’re missing deals, loosen them up.
- Don’t give up: It takes a few months to see patterns and results. Skip the weekly panic if things don’t pop right away.
Real talk: If you rely only on intent data to drive pipeline, you’ll be disappointed. Use it as one tool in your kit, not the whole toolbox.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Fast
You don’t need a PhD in predictive analytics to get value from 6sense intent data. Start with clear segments, focus on the handful of signals that actually move the needle, and set up simple processes to act on what you find. Don’t be afraid to adjust or even ignore features that just add noise.
Buyers are people, not algorithms. Use intent data to start smarter conversations, not to automate away all the work. Keep it simple, test what works for your team, and don’t buy the hype that “intent” alone will fill your pipeline.