Sales and marketing teams are chasing the same north star: find in-market buyers faster, engage them earlier, and convert them efficiently. But here’s the hard truth – traditional funnels weren’t built for how B2B buyers actually behave today.
Buyers ghost. They research anonymously. They binge content in silence and reappear when budget’s ready. Most of their journey happens before your team ever knows they exist – and well before they fill out a form.
To compete in this environment, your GTM strategy needs a model that’s flexible, signal-driven, and built on real-time intent.
Enter: The Research Quadrant™ – Lead Onion’s proprietary framework for interpreting buyer readiness, powered by real signals from across the web.
Why Traditional Funnels Fail Today’s Buyer
Funnels are tidy. But real buyer journeys? Anything but.
- A Head of IT might be digging into competitor comparisons while their CTO is still reading top-of-funnel blogs.
- A key decision-maker might never fill out a form – but could be your highest-intent buyer.
- Your CRM may be scoring leads on demographics while missing out on the signals that actually indicate readiness.
Intent data helps. But without a way to qualify and act on that intent, it’s just noise.
What Is the Research Quadrant™?
The Research Quadrant™ is Lead Onion’s intent intelligence model that tracks and maps accounts (and the people within them) across four dynamic stages of buying readiness – using real, multi-source intent data.
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Here’s how it breaks down:
- Initial: Light content engagement. Passive awareness. Early signs, but no solid buying indicators.
- Interested: Signal clusters emerge. Multiple touchpoints suggest deeper research is underway.
- Active: Intent surge across several channels and personas. High-volume engagement. Mid-funnel behavior.
- In-Depth: Late-stage buying signals. Shortlist creation. Sales-ready and primed for outreach.
Rather than forcing prospects into a rigid funnel, the Research Quadrant™ evolves with your buyer – helping you:
- Score and re-score accounts in real time
- Track movement across research stages
- Route the right plays at the right moment (nurture, SDR outreach, or direct sales)
- Prioritize revenue-ready accounts and reduce wasted effort
Why It Works for GTM Teams
Let’s be real, most teams are overloaded with cold leads and underwhelming conversions. The Research Quadrant™ flips that on its head by helping you focus only where it counts.
Marketing teams can direct budget and messaging toward accounts already deep in research mode.
Sales teams can pinpoint buyers showing late-stage intent and engage when timing is right.
RevOps can automate smart workflows that respond to real signals – not static lead scores.
And because Lead Onion integrates 24+ intent sources – including Delivr.ai, Bombora, G2, PharosIQ, content engagement, web visits – this isn’t guesswork. It’s a real-time, multi-source view of buyer behavior.
From Noise to Next Step
Here’s the difference in action:
❌ Traditional lead scoring: Based on titles, company size, and a single form fill
✅ Research Quadrant: Based on signal surge, activity volume, and cross-channel buyer behavior
❌ Funnel stage: Decided by your CRM rules
✅ Research stage: Revealed by how buyers actually behave
When you know exactly where an account is in their research journey, and who’s leading the charge – you can strike while intent is hot.
The Bottom Line
B2B buyers don’t move in funnels anymore. And your pipeline shouldn’t either.
The Research Quadrant™ gives your go-to-market team a dynamic, signal-first model to identify real opportunities – and engage with them before your competitors do.
Want to find the 3% of your market that’s ready to buy today – and stop wasting time on the 97% that’s not?
Let’s show you how it works here.
