The short answer
Sales intent signals are clues that an account is researching a purchase. First-party intent comes from your own channels, like site visits and email replies. Second-party intent comes from another company's platform, such as G2 or TrustRadius review activity. Third-party intent is research aggregated across many sites, like Bombora's Company Surge. Public signals, such as hiring and funding, are free and verifiable.
On this page
- Sales Intent Signals: The 4 Sources Compared
- First-Party Intent: Your Own Data
- Second-Party Intent: Review Sites and Partners
- Third-Party Intent: Topic Surges Across the Web
- Public Signals: Free, Specific and Quotable
- Accuracy and Cost of Intent Data
- How to Act on Sales Intent Signals
- Find companies with public buying signals in three steps
- FAQ
Key takeaways
Know whose data it is: First-party is yours, second-party is a partner's platform, third-party is aggregated across the web. Accuracy and cost follow that order.
Intent ranks, it doesn't explain: A topic surge says an account is reading. It doesn't say why, who or what to say to them.
Public signals fill the gap: Hiring, launches and new leaders are free, specific and quotable. Pair them with intent to write the message.
Never quote the tracking: Use intent to decide who and when. Lead your message with something public, never 'I saw you were researching'.
Sales Intent Signals: The 4 Sources Compared
Intent data comes from three places, and public signals make a fourth. They differ in who owns the data, how much it covers and how far you can trust it. Know which one you're looking at before you act on it.
| Source | What it measures | Examples | Level | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-party | Activity on your own channels | Website and pricing page visits, email replies, product usage, event attendance | Account, sometimes person | Timing follow-ups with engaged accounts |
| Second-party | Activity on a partner's platform | G2 Buyer Intent, TrustRadius downstream intent | Account | Spotting accounts comparing you with competitors |
| Third-party | Research across many websites | Bombora Company Surge, intent inside ABM platforms and sales databases | Account | Ranking accounts that haven't found you yet |
| Public signals | Visible changes at the company | Hiring, funding, launches, new leaders | Account and person | Writing a specific, quotable reason to reach out |
Intent and signals are different tools. Intent data tells you who might be shopping, and public signals tell you why, which is what your message needs. The full taxonomy is in buying signals.
First-Party Intent: Your Own Data
First-party intent is the activity you can see on your own channels. It's the most accurate kind because it's your data, but it only covers accounts that have already found you.
- Website visits. Especially pricing, comparison and integration pages. Visitor identification tools match IP addresses to companies, which works best for office networks and less well for remote workers and VPNs.
- Email engagement. Replies and forwards are strong. Opens are weak, because privacy features in mail apps can register opens that never happened.
- Product usage. For free trials or freemium products, usage spikes and team invites are some of the best signals you'll ever get.
- Events and content. Webinar attendance, downloads and repeat views of a shared link.
Respond fast, but don't reveal the tracking. A pricing-page visit is a reason to send something useful today, not a line in your email.
Second-Party Intent: Review Sites and Partners
Second-party intent is another company's first-party data that you buy or access. In B2B sales, it mostly means review sites, where buyers research software late in the process.
- G2 Buyer Intent turns research on G2, such as viewing your profile, your category or comparisons with competitors, into account-level signals for vendors who buy it.
- TrustRadius, an HG Insights company, sells what it calls downstream intent data from buyers researching products on its review site.
Strength: it's specific. An account comparing you with a named competitor is likely evaluating now.
Limit: it's narrow. You only see accounts that research on that platform, so many real buyers never show up.
Third-Party Intent: Topic Surges Across the Web
Third-party intent is aggregated from many websites by a data provider, then sold or bundled into other tools. It's the broadest way to flag accounts that have never visited your site or a review site.
How it works. Bombora, which describes itself as "a data company, not a platform", collects content consumption from a co-op of B2B publishers and brand sites. When an account reads more than usual about a topic compared with its baseline, its Company Surge data flags a surge on that topic.
Where you'll find it. Bombora data is sold directly and through partners, ABM platforms such as 6sense and Demandbase build intent into their products, and sales databases such as ZoomInfo and Apollo include buying signals in their data. Compare the options in account based marketing tools.
Know its limits. It's account-level, so it can't tell you who is researching, topics can be ambiguous and smaller companies generate too little activity to surge reliably. Treat it as a ranking input, not proof of a buying cycle.
Public Signals: Free, Specific and Quotable
Public signals are changes anyone can see: job posts, funding, launches, new executives, expansions and tool changes. They're not intent data, but they often do the job intent data can't.
- They explain why. A surge on "freight pricing" says Halden is reading. Three pricing analyst job posts say why: quoting is outgrowing the team.
- You can quote them. "Saw you're hiring three pricing analysts" is a legitimate opener. "Saw your intent score spike" is not.
- They're free and checkable. Careers pages, newsrooms and press are open to everyone and easy to verify, which is why they sit at the center of good prospect research.
Use both together. Intent to rank the list, public signals to write the message. The list of sales trigger events shows which public changes are worth acting on.
Accuracy and Cost of Intent Data
Each source trades coverage for accuracy. None of them is a guarantee, so judge them by how you'll use them.
| Source | Accuracy considerations | Cost model | Can you mention it in outreach? |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-party | Most accurate; IP matching is imperfect | Mostly tools you already own | No, use it for timing |
| Second-party | Specific to your category; narrow coverage | Paid product from the review site | No, use it for timing and topic |
| Third-party | Broad but noisy; account-level and topic-based | Bundled into platforms or sold on quote | No, use it for ranking |
| Public signals | Verifiable; you check the source yourself | Free, or included in research tools | Yes, lead with it |
Test before you trust. Pull last quarter's closed-won deals and check whether your intent source flagged them before the first meeting. If it didn't flag most of them, it won't flag next quarter's either.
How to Act on Sales Intent Signals
Intent data is only useful if it changes what your team does this week. Use it in three steps: prioritize, pick the topic, then find a public reason to write.
- Prioritize. Move accounts with intent and a good fit to the top of the list. Score them with your lead qualification criteria.
- Pick the topic. Let the surge or review-site activity tell you which problem to lead with.
- Find a public reason. Look for a hiring push, launch or new leader you can name in the message.
Hi [First name], saw [Company] is [public signal: hiring 3 pricing analysts].
Teams adding [role] usually hit [problem tied to the intent topic].
We help [peer type] [outcome]. Worth comparing notes on [day]?
Edithly covers the public side, not the tracking. It isn't an intent data provider. Edithly's buying signals research reads each prospect's website and public signals when it writes, lists the facts it used with sources, and Suggested Prospects shows why each company fits with a signal and a source, so your outreach leads with something you can stand behind.
How Edithly does it
Find companies with public buying signals in three steps
Edithly isn't an intent data provider. It finds companies that fit your ICP, each with why it fits, a signal and a source, and reads each prospect's website and public signals when it writes your outreach.
- 1
Click Generate all in Strategy
In your playbook's Strategy tab, click Generate all. Edithly drafts your TAM, Potential ICP, Customers, Markets and Outreach angles from your website.
- 2
Click Find prospects
Open Suggested Prospects, choose 3, 5, 8 or 10 companies and add an optional focus, such as 'hiring pricing analysts'. Each company comes with why it fits, a signal and a source link.
- 3
Click Use in Generate
Pick the companies you want and generate Email Outreach for each. Its personalization basis lists the facts used with sources.
Website
Ready
- Personalization basis
- Fact + source link
- Recent move
- Hiring signal
- Do not say
- By hand
- 30 to 60 minutes to find and check a handful of signal-backed accounts
- With Edithly
- A few minutes per batch, sources included
Frequently asked questions
What are sales intent signals?
Sales intent signals are data points suggesting a company is actively researching a purchase in your category. They include visits to your own website and pricing page, research on review sites such as G2 or TrustRadius, and spikes in content consumption on related topics across many B2B websites. Teams use them to decide which accounts to prioritize and when.
What is the difference between first, second and third party intent data?
First-party intent comes from your own channels: website, emails, product and events. Second-party intent is another company's first-party data that you buy or access, such as review-site activity from G2 or TrustRadius. Third-party intent is aggregated from many websites by a data provider, such as Bombora's publisher co-op, and covers accounts that haven't visited you yet.
How accurate is intent data?
It varies by type. First-party data is the most accurate because it's your own, though matching visitors to companies by IP address is imperfect, especially with remote work. Second-party data is specific to your category but only covers people researching on that platform. Third-party data covers more accounts but is account-level, topic-based and noisier, so treat it as a ranking input, not proof.
How much does intent data cost?
First-party intent is largely free if you already run analytics, email and a CRM. Second-party intent from review sites is sold as a paid product, and third-party intent is usually bundled into ABM platforms and sales databases or sold by providers on quote. Check each vendor's site for current packaging, because pricing is rarely published.
Is Edithly an intent data provider?
No. Edithly doesn't track website visitors or sell intent data. It reads each prospect's website and public signals, such as hiring and launches, when it writes outreach, and lists the facts it used with sources. Suggested Prospects returns companies that fit your ICP, each with a reason, a signal and a source.