In a market where inboxes are full and budgets are under pressure – sales teams face a familiar challenge: knowing which accounts to prioritize first.
Prospecting in the traditional sense relies on outdated methods like cold lists, generic outreach, and educated guesswork. In 2026, those methods waste time and dilute focus, especially when only a small fraction of your market is actively evaluating solutions at any given moment.
Search intent helps remove guesswork and bring timing back into focus.
With search intent signals, sales teams can add a timing layer to outbound. The result is a tighter focus, more relevant outreach, and a pipeline built around real buying momentum.
What is search intent in B2B sales, and why does it matter?
Search intent shows when a company is actively researching topics related to your solution, category, or alternatives. It’s a strong signal that the account may be moving into the evaluation phase.
These signals surface topic-level research patterns across verified online sources, highlighting when companies show a meaningful increase in interest around specific themes.
These signals originate from:
- First-party sources: Website analytics, CRM interactions, and email engagements.
- Third-party sources: Intent data tools and networks that track searches and content engagement across industry-related sites.
By using search intent, sales teams get a clearer view of which accounts are exploring solutions right now instead of guessing who ‘might be’ in market.
Search intent can be leveraged in multiple ways across a sales engine, some examples include:
- Prioritization (lead scoring and ICP lists): Use search intent signals to move the right accounts to the top, based on research activity like site visits, content engagement, and topic surges.
- Pipeline acceleration (net-new and in-flight deals): Identify ready-to-buy accounts across your market and engage earlier in the evaluation window, before competitors realize priorities are shifting.
- Account monitoring (segments and strategy): Track intent across key segments to spot emerging demand, competitive movement, and vertical-specific momentum, and adjust targeting or messaging accordingly.
Pro tip: Leverage buying signals and intent to prioritize ready-to-buy accounts.
What is a surge rating, and how should sales teams use it?
Each intent signal includes a surge rating – a simple way to understand how strong recent research activity is.
- High: 75%+ of tracked topics surging – prioritize first.
- Medium: 50–74% surging – monitor and follow up.
- Low: Under 50% surging – confirm fit before engaging.
This framework helps sales teams across SDR, AE, and leadership roles focus on daily activity with confidence, especially when time and attention are limited.
How does search intent improve outreach timing and messaging?
- Target key accounts: Pinpoint accounts showing increased interest in your core topics and reach out while momentum is strongest.
- Buying stage awareness: Not every prospect is ready to talk today. Tracking intent over time helps teams understand whether accounts are early, mid, or late stage, so outreach aligns with readiness.
- Context-led outreach: Search intent shapes how you open conversations and where you focus first.
- Expansion and retention: Intent isn’t just for the net-new pipeline. Research spikes can highlight upsell opportunities or early signs of competitive evaluation, enabling earlier action.
How to set up your search intent agent
Signal type
Intent signal: highlight topic-level research activity from companies in your ICP.
Each signal shows:
- Topics surging (e.g. “cashflow management”)
- Surge strength (high, medium, low)
- Date of last surge
Layering intent signals into your workflow on top of buying signals that surface company-level signals such as leadership changes or funding rounds, provides teams with a clearer view of accounts in motion.
- Navigate to the Signals module in the top menu bar.
- Click + Create agent to set up a new search intent agent.
- Enter a clear, action-oriented agent name.
- Select your company list(s) to monitor
- Select your company tailored intent topics to track.
- Select + Add condition.
- Choose your intent timeframe (e.g. 2 weeks)
- Choose your intent score (low, medium, high)
- Click Create to finalize your search intent agent.
Once live, your signal agent will surface new intent signals as research activity increases, helping sales teams act while timing is still strong.
How outbound teams use search intent in practice
Example: Lineer (APAC-focused outbound service)
Lineer helps B2B companies in APAC automate top-of-funnel activities to build relationships at scale. As the company grew and expanded their offering across the APAC region, inconsistent local data and limited visibility into account changes caused friction. Outreach efforts often became outdated as soon as they were sent.
By combining verified contact data with buying signals, Lineer shifted to a more context-led motion.
“Signals allow us to see timely updates for our accounts, so nothing we send is outdated. When a prospect steps into a new role, it changes the messaging, and signals help us lead with context in our outreach straight away.”
In practice, Lineer’s outbound function looks like:
- Monitoring intent and role changes across target accounts.
- Prioritizing accounts showing active research or leadership movement.
- Reaching out while timing is strong, using context aligned to the buyer’s current role.
- Using verified mobile and email data to convert relevance into real conversations.
The result: more live conversations, higher connect rates, and more meetings booked – without adding complexity for SDRs.
Start acting on real in-market buyer demand today
Conclusion
Search intent helps teams focus on accounts actively researching right now, so outreach lands at the right moment, with the right context.
Chat to us to learn how buying signals and search intent help sales teams act at the right moment or run the prioritize ready-to-buy accounts play with your team.
Frequently asked questions
On how to use search intent to spot B2B buyer demand
Search intent is the signal that shows when a company is actively researching a topic or solution. It reflects real research behavior across trusted online sources and helps identify which businesses are currently exploring options in your category.
Search intent highlights which accounts are looking for solutions right now. It helps sales teams prioritize warm, in-market buyers instead of relying on cold lists or broad outreach.
A surge rating shows the strength of a company’s current research activity. High surge means the company is actively exploring relevant topics, medium surge suggests ongoing interest and low surge indicates early or low-intent behavior.
Search intent adds a layer of topic-level research on top of company-level triggers such as funding rounds or leadership changes. Together, these signals give a clearer picture of which accounts are moving, researching and ready for contact.
Search intent shows when a company is moving from early curiosity to active evaluation. By tracking topic activity over time, sales teams can align outreach to buying stage and send relevant messages when interest peaks.
Yes. It helps with competitive intelligence, upsell opportunities and customer retention. Spikes in research around certain topics can reveal when customers are exploring alternatives or expansion paths.
Teams should monitor search intent for chosen accounts, filter lists by surge strength and prioritize high-intent companies for calls, sequences or campaigns. Search intent makes it easier to know who to call first and what message to lead with.
