It’s easy to assume that someone engaging with your content is automatically ready to buy. But here’s the catch, not all interest equals buying intent. And if your team is treating every click, download, or visit the same way, you’re likely wasting time and budget on leads that just aren’t there yet.
To really move the needle, you need to distinguish between interest and intent, and more importantly, know how to act on each one.
Interest ≠ Intent
Let’s break it down:
Interest is curiosity. It’s when a prospect is loosely exploring a topic, researching options, or simply educating themselves. They might read a blog, browse your site, or even follow you on social media – but they’re not ready to talk sales just yet.
Intent, on the other hand, signals a much deeper level of engagement. This is when a buyer is actively in the market, evaluating solutions, and preparing to make a decision.
In simple terms: interest is the spark, intent is the fire. And knowing the difference is what separates good sales teams from great ones.
Why This Distinction Is Crucial
According to Gartner, only 10% of your total addressable market (TAM) is actively in-market to buy at any given time. That means a staggering 90% are not ready to make a purchase, yet many sales and marketing teams treat every lead as if they are. By approaching all engagement equally, you risk wasting resources on buyers who aren’t ready and missing the moment with the few who are.
This is where traditional lead scoring often falls short. A contact might match your ideal persona and show some early-stage interest like reading a blog or attending a webinar, but without the context of buying intent, they’re simply not sales-ready.
How Lead Onion Identifies Intent, Not Just Interest
At Lead Onion, we go beyond surface-level engagement to uncover true buying intent, not just interest that fizzles out. Our platform is purpose-built to help you distinguish between casual curiosity and high-conversion potential by using real-time behavioral intelligence, powered by 24 unique sources of intent data.
These intent sources span across the web, from content consumption and ad engagement to third-party reviews, industry research, and topic-level surges. This diverse, multi-source approach ensures you’re not relying on a single signal, but on a holistic view of buyer behavior.
With intent data available at the account, person, and website level, you can pinpoint not just which companies are in-market, but who within those companies is actively researching, and what pages or topics are drawing their attention.
1. Intent Streams: Real-Time Insight, Real-Time Action
Intent Streams delivers a live, filterable feed of all inbound intent signals. That means you can monitor prospect behavior as it happens, from researching key topics to engaging with buying groups. Whether you’re powering outbound workflows or automating nurture tracks, you’ll have the most relevant and up-to-date activity at your fingertips.
Think of it as your buyer’s digital body language – who’s researching, what they’re researching, and when.
2. Active Accounts: The Buyer Journey, Mapped
Our Active Accounts view highlights which companies are actively moving through the buyer journey. But here’s the game-changer: it’s not just account-level data. We provide person-level insight into exactly who within the organization is triggering those intent signals.
This allows your team to:
- See which accounts are escalating from interest to intent
- Identify key decision-makers or influencers behind the activity
- Align messaging with where each prospect is in their buying journey
With intent signals sourced from 24 trusted data streams, you’re not guessing who to contact or when to reach out, you’re guided by precision signals that separate true intent from passing interest.
The result? A sharper focus, faster sales cycles, and stronger ROI.
What to Do With Interest vs Intent
The key isn’t to ignore interest, it’s to nurture it appropriately.
Lead Onion’s multi-layered approach to buyer intent helps you segment and act based on where the buyer is in their journey, so you can serve value at every stage, not just chase the finish line.
Final Thoughts
Interest may open the door – but intent walks through it.
If your marketing and sales teams are still treating all engagement equally, you’re leaving revenue on the table. With Lead Onion, you can separate window shoppers from serious buyers and focus your efforts where they’ll count the most.
Stop guessing. Start targeting real intent.
Let ai.mee, our AI-powered intent agent separate casual interest from true buying intent. She scans billions of signals across 24 sources, pinpointing not just accounts, but the actual people who are ready to buy, right now.
Just enter your website domain and let ai.mee do the work.
No setup. No guesswork. Just precise intent signals and smarter sales prioritization.
Ready to go beyond interest? Try ai.mee today.
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