Intent and Signals Data: Is It Really Worth the Hype?

In the ever-expanding world of sales tech, “intent data” and “signals” have become buzzwords. Providers promise that these tools will tell you exactly which accounts are ready to buy and who your sales team should prioritize. For SDR leaders under pressure to generate pipeline, it sounds like a silver bullet. But is intent data really all it’s cracked up to be?

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First-Party vs. Third-Party Intent

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Not all intent data is created equal. Broadly, there are two categories:

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• First-Party Intent
  This comes directly from your own ecosystem: website visitors, form fills, product trials, content downloads, email engagement, or even repeat visits to pricing pages. First-party intent is powerful because it’s unique to your business. These people have taken actions in your funnel, and while not every visitor is ready to buy, their behavior is a strong signal of interest.
  
  
• Third-Party Intent
  Third-party providers like 6sense or Bombora claim to aggregate buyer research happening elsewhere across the web. By tracking cookies, IP addresses, and content consumption, they attempt to flag when a company is “in market” for your category. In theory, this gives you a head start on accounts researching competitors. In practice, the accuracy is mixed. IP matching is harder than ever, signals often come too late, and context is missing.
  
  

What About “Signals”?

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You’ll also hear SaaS providers talk about “signals data.” This is often a blend of intent and broader buying cues:

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• Job changes (champion moves, new executives in seat)
  
  
• Company growth (hiring surges, funding announcements, geographic expansion)
  
  
• Engagement (likes/comments on LinkedIn, event attendance, email replies)
  
  

Signals data is useful because it highlights change. Outbound teams know that moments of change (a new budget, a new leader, or a new strategy) are when conversations are easiest to start.

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The Pros and Cons

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First-Party Intent
✅ High accuracy, directly tied to your funnel
✅ Can be acted on immediately (real-time alerts from tools like Warmly or Clearbit Reveal)
❌ Limited volume, you’re constrained by the size of your own traffic and database

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Third-Party Intent
✅ Broader reach, can flag accounts outside your funnel
✅ Can layer into ABM strategies for enterprise-scale targeting
❌ Accuracy challenges (IP match, timing, relevancy)
❌ Expensive, often bundled with long-term contracts
❌ Risk of chasing “false positives” instead of real buyer engagement

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Signals Data
✅ Timely triggers (job changes, hiring, funding, etc.)
✅ Adds context to account research, especially when layered with enrichment tools like Clay or LoneScale
❌ Not all signals are created equal (a champion job move may matter more than a LinkedIn like)

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Our Take: First-Party Wins

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For most sales teams, first-party intent and simple, verifiable signals are more valuable than the promises of third-party intent. Knowing who’s already visiting your website, trialing your product, or engaging with your content is a clearer path to pipeline than chasing a vague “in-market” badge from a third-party vendor.

That’s not to say third-party intent is worthless. For enterprise ABM plays with long sales cycles, layering it in can help marketing align with sales. But for most SDR teams, investing in tools that surface first-party intent and actionable signals will deliver higher accuracy, lower costs, and better conversations.

At the end of the day, intent and signals data are only as good as the humans behind them. Tools can surface the “when,” but it’s up to your SDRs to deliver the “why” in every conversation.

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🔧 Build with Stakki

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Here are some of our top picks for intent and signals data:

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• Clay – multi-source enrichment and custom signals
  
  
• LoneScale – champion tracking + CRM hygiene
  
  
• Warmly – website visitor alerts (first-party intent) to automatic engagement sequencing
  
  
• TeamFluence – social engagement signals
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• Upcell - contact-level enrichment to act on signals like web visitors and job changes