Most flop because they're aimed at people who were not going to buy anyway.
(Too) many companies still run outbound like so:
- Pull a lead list from their CRM or a generic B2B database
- Fire off 100 cold emails/week to “hit quota”
- Hope and pray something sticks
And they have no idea why prospects are on their list in the first place.
If you’re not starting with the right inputs, it doesn’t matter how good your cold email is.
It’s still a shot in the dark.
One way to fix this is through intent data:
For example, here are some signal plays we run for ColdIQ and our clients:
1. First-party intent: Who’s visiting your website
Not everyone fills out a form, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested.
We use tools like Instantly.ai and Vector đź‘».
They track anonymous visitors and identify who’s checking out our content, landing pages, or product pages.
This gives us a warm list of people who are already aware of us.
Even if they haven’t raised their hand yet.
First-party intent can also come from:
- Product usage (e.g: Common Room, Pocus)
- Social engagement (e.g: Teamfluence™, Trigify.io)
2. Second-party intent: Champion job changes
Let’s say someone loved your product at their old company.
They just switched jobs.
Now they’re in a new buying position, possibly with budget and urgency.
Tools like Common Room and Unify help us track job changes across our network and historical CRM contacts.
We can re-engage with a hyper-relevant message, right when they’re getting settled in.
Second-party intent can also come from:
- Review sites (e.g: G2, Capterra)
- Affinity signals (e.g: Crossbeam, WorkSpan)
3. Third-party intent: Research at scale
Most often, you need to go outbound into entirely new territory.
That’s where third-party data comes in.
Pulling insights from:
- hiring trends (e.g: LoneScale, Mantiks, PredictLeads)
- tech stack changes (e.g: BuiltWith, Similarweb)
- funding rounds (e.g: PitchBook, Crunchbase)
or from custom AI agents (e.g: Relevance AI, Claygent)
We use Clay to build many of these workflows:
- Filter for buying signals
- Enrich contacts in real-time
- Score and segment dynamically
- And combine multiple data sources
The result?
You’re increasing your odds of reaching out to the right person, with the right message, at the right time.
Better targeting = better reply rates = better pipeline.
Whenever your outbound is underperforming, start by reviewing your data strategy.
What intent signals are you tracking in your GTM motion right now?
Would love to hear what’s working for you 👇
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