If you run a sales team, you know the drill: endless lists of “leads” that mostly go nowhere, and too much guesswork on which accounts actually want to buy. This guide is for sales teams and operators who are tired of chasing ghosts and want a practical way to focus on high intent accounts—the ones that are genuinely likely to close. I'll walk you through how to do this with Factors, what signals matter, and how to avoid getting lost in data for data’s sake.
Why “High Intent” Actually Matters
Not all pipeline is created equal. Some accounts are just window shopping; others are ready to buy. High intent accounts save you time, quota pressure, and headaches. When you know which accounts are serious, you can:
- Prioritize follow-ups that actually move the needle
- Personalize outreach with less guesswork
- Forecast more accurately (and not get burned at the end of the quarter)
- Spend less time on dead ends
But spotting high intent isn’t magic. It’s about spotting the right signals—digital body language, if you will—and acting on them before your competitors do.
Step 1: Get Real About What Signals Actually Mean “Intent”
First, let’s clear something up: not every “signal” is a buying signal. Just because someone downloads your ebook doesn’t mean they’re whipping out the company credit card. Here’s what’s actually useful:
- Repeated engagement: They’re coming back to your site, opening emails, or requesting demos more than once.
- Bottom-of-funnel actions: Things like pricing page visits, adding teammates to a trial, or asking technical questions.
- Involvement of decision makers: Not just interns poking around—real buyers are in the mix.
- High-value behaviors: Uploading real data, integrating with their own systems, or customizing a trial account.
Ignore vanity metrics like social media likes or webinar signups. They’re nice for your marketing team, but they don’t close deals.
Step 2: Set Up Factors to Track What Matters
Factors is built for this kind of work. It pulls together signals from your CRM, website, email, and product to help you spot intent that matters. Here’s how to make it work for you:
- Integrate the right data sources
- Connect your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) so you’re not duplicating work.
- Plug in website analytics and marketing automation—think Google Analytics, Marketo, or HubSpot.
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If you’ve got a SaaS product, integrate product usage data. This is where the gold is.
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Define your high intent signals
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Don’t just accept default settings. Sit down with your sales and success teams and agree on 3–5 behaviors that actually predict closing. Examples:
- Multiple pricing page visits in a week
- Inviting additional users to a trial
- Requesting a security review
- Scheduling a call with a technical resource
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Build your intent scoring model (and keep it simple)
- Assign more weight to the behaviors you know matter.
- Don’t overcomplicate it. You’re trying to surface real buying signals, not write a research paper.
Pro tip: If you’re new to this, start by looking at 10 deals you closed last quarter and 10 you lost. What did the closes do that the losses didn’t? That’s your starting point.
Step 3: Cut Through the Noise—Don’t Track Everything
It’s tempting to throw in every possible data feed and hope the answers will pop out. In reality, more signals = more noise unless you’re ruthless. Here’s what to ignore:
- One-off actions: Somebody fills out a form once, then disappears? Ignore.
- Passive engagements: Email opens are unreliable. Focus on clicks or replies.
- Generic content consumption: Watching a webinar replay doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy.
You want to build a system that flags accounts when there’s a pattern of meaningful activity, not just blips. Too many false positives and your team will stop trusting the whole thing.
Step 4: Put High Intent Accounts Front and Center
Once Factors is set up and your scoring is dialed in, make sure your sales team sees high intent accounts (and knows what to do next):
- Create a daily or weekly “hot accounts” report: Don’t bury it—make it the first thing reps see when they start their day.
- Set up alerts for key activities: If an account hits multiple high intent triggers, notify the account owner right away—don’t wait for the weekly review.
- Share context, not just a score: “This account visited pricing 3 times and invited their CTO” is more actionable than “intent score: 75.”
Pro tip: Have reps quickly sanity-check the list. If a supposedly “hot” account doesn’t look right, fix the criteria. Trust in the system is everything.
Step 5: Personalize Your Outreach Based on Actual Signals
Now that you know who’s showing intent, don’t send the same tired email blast. Use the context from Factors to tailor your approach:
- Reference the specific action (e.g., “Saw you invited your CTO to the trial—let me know if you want to talk security.”)
- Offer help that matches their stage (e.g., “You’ve looked at pricing a few times—want to walk through options together?”)
- Skip generic check-ins. Make every touch feel relevant.
The goal isn’t to be creepy, but to be helpful and timely. If you’re actually solving their problem, people appreciate the attention.
Step 6: Iterate—Don’t Set It and Forget It
Intent scoring isn’t a one-time project. Your market, product, and buyer behavior will change. Every quarter (or even monthly, if you're moving fast):
- Review which signals actually led to deals
- Cut signals that create noise
- Add new behaviors if you spot patterns in recent wins
Bring your sales and marketing teams into the loop—what looks like intent to one team may not matter to the other.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
Let’s be real:
- What works: Combining product usage and website behavior, focusing on repeated and deep engagement, and getting buy-in from sales.
- What doesn’t: Tracking vanity metrics, overcomplicating your scoring, or relying on a black box “AI” intent score with no transparency.
- Ignore: Anything that doesn’t tie back to real buying behaviors. If you wouldn’t bet your quota on it, leave it out.
You don’t need a PhD in data science to make this work. The hard part is getting everyone to agree on what matters—and sticking to it.
Keep It Simple and Keep Moving
Spotting high intent accounts isn’t about chasing the latest trend or cramming in more data. It’s about being honest about what really predicts a sale, setting up Factors to flag those signals, and then acting fast. Start simple, adjust as you learn, and don’t get distracted by noise. That’s how you win more deals—and waste less time.
If you’re overwhelmed, just pick one or two signals and start there. You’ll be surprised how quickly clarity (and closed deals) follow.