Intent Data Providers: How to Find Buyers Ready to Purchase

Most B2B sales teams waste time chasing cold leads who have no intention of buying. Meanwhile, their ideal customers are actively researching solutions—and buying from competitors who found them first. Intent data providers solve this problem by revealing which companies are showing buying signals right now.

According to Gartner, B2B buyers spend only 17% of their journey with sales reps. The rest happens through independent research—content consumption, peer discussions, and comparison shopping. Intent data providers capture these hidden signals, giving you visibility into the 83% of the buying journey you would otherwise miss.

What Is Intent Data and Why Does It Matter?

Intent data is behavioral information that indicates a company or individual is actively researching a particular topic, problem, or solution. When someone downloads whitepapers about CRM software, reads comparison articles, or visits pricing pages, they're generating intent signals.

Think of intent data as a digital trail of buying behavior. Someone researching 'best project management tools for remote teams' is much more likely to purchase than someone who has never searched for related topics. Intent data providers collect, analyze, and score these signals so you can prioritize the accounts most likely to convert.

The numbers back this up. Organizations with strong intent data strategies achieve 68% higher account win rates than competitors, according to HubSpot. When you know who's actively looking, you can reach them at exactly the right moment.

First-Party vs Third-Party Intent Data Providers

Intent data comes from two primary sources, each with distinct advantages and limitations.

First-Party Intent Data

First-party intent data comes from your own properties—your website, app, or email campaigns. It includes page visits, content downloads, email opens, and product usage patterns. This data is highly accurate because you collected it directly from interactions with your brand.

Tools like Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) identify anonymous website visitors by matching IP addresses to company databases. When a visitor from Acme Corp browses your pricing page three times in a week, that's a strong buying signal you can act on immediately.

The limitation? First-party data only captures people who already know about you. You miss the vast majority of potential buyers who are researching solutions but haven't discovered your company yet.

Third-Party Intent Data

Third-party intent data providers aggregate behavior signals from across the web—thousands of B2B websites, publications, and review platforms. This gives you visibility into the entire market, not just people who visit your site.

Bombora, for example, operates a cooperative of 5,500+ B2B media websites that share anonymized content consumption data. When multiple employees at a company suddenly start consuming content about your category, Bombora detects the surge and flags that account as showing intent.

The tradeoff is accuracy. Third-party data can be noisy—87% of B2B teams report struggling with unreliable intent signals. The best providers combine multiple signal sources and use AI to filter out false positives.

Top Intent Data Providers for 2026

The intent data market has matured significantly. Here are the leading providers and what makes each one stand out.

Bombora

Bombora is the industry standard for third-party intent data. Their data cooperative model means 70% of their data isn't available anywhere else. They track content consumption across thousands of B2B websites and flag accounts showing unusual research activity in your topic areas.

Best for: Enterprise teams with ABM programs. Pricing ranges from $25,000 to $300,000+ annually depending on data volume and topics tracked.

6sense

6sense combines intent data with AI-powered predictive analytics. Rather than just showing who's researching, it predicts which accounts are most likely to buy and when. The platform orchestrates outbound, ads, and nurture campaigns around buying-stage signals.

Best for: Mature ABM organizations running coordinated multi-channel campaigns.

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo monitors research activity across 300,000+ topics and provides real-time alerts when prospects show buying signals. They track technology usage changes, hiring patterns, funding rounds, and content consumption patterns. The platform combines intent data with one of the largest B2B contact databases.

Best for: Sales teams that need contact data and intent signals in one platform.

Demandbase

Demandbase One offers global B2B intent signals from trillions of monthly online events. The platform identifies accounts actively researching relevant keywords and integrates intent data with advertising, sales intelligence, and account-based engagement tools.

Best for: Companies wanting an all-in-one ABM platform with native intent data.

G2 Buyer Intent

G2 captures intent signals from millions of buyers researching software on their review platform. When prospects visit your G2 profile, compare you to competitors, or read reviews in your category, G2 surfaces that account-level engagement. This is especially valuable for SaaS companies.

Best for: SaaS companies selling to buyers who research software on review sites.

Cognism

Cognism partners with Bombora to provide combined contact and intent data for targeted prospecting. The platform focuses on European compliance (GDPR) and provides accurate contact information for decision-makers alongside intent signals.

Best for: Teams selling into European markets who need compliant data.

How to Use Intent Data Effectively

Buying intent data is only half the equation. You need a process to act on those signals before they go cold. Here's how to operationalize intent data in your sales workflow.

- Combine intent with ICP scoring: Intent data tells you who's active, but ICP fit tells you who's worth pursuing. Score accounts on both dimensions and prioritize the intersection—high intent plus high fit.

- Set up real-time alerts: Intent signals decay quickly. Configure your tools to notify sales reps immediately when a target account surges in activity. Speed matters—the first vendor to engage often wins.

- Personalize outreach with intent topics: When you know someone has been researching 'remote team collaboration tools,' you can lead with that specific pain point instead of a generic pitch.

- Trigger targeted ads: Use intent data to create account-based advertising audiences. When an account shows research activity, serve them relevant display ads to stay top of mind during their evaluation.

Finding Intent Where Others Aren't Looking

Traditional intent data providers focus on content consumption—what articles people read and what resources they download. But some of the strongest buying signals happen in conversations.

When someone posts on Reddit asking 'anyone know a good CRM for small agencies?' or complains on LinkedIn about their current tool, that's extremely high-intent. These people aren't just researching—they're actively seeking recommendations. Yet most intent data providers miss these signals entirely.

This is exactly what we built Prediqte to solve. Rather than tracking passive content consumption, Prediqte scans Reddit and LinkedIn to find people actively expressing buying signals—recommendation requests, competitor complaints, pain points, and comparison questions. Every lead comes with an AI-scored relevance explanation so you know exactly why they're a match.

The pay-per-run model starting at $4.95 makes it accessible for startups and solo founders who can't justify enterprise intent data subscriptions. You get curated leads with real buying intent without the five-figure annual commitment.

How to Choose the Right Intent Data Provider

With third-party tracking declining and privacy regulations tightening, intent data accuracy has become the new battleground. Here's how to evaluate providers.

- Data sources: Where does the intent data actually come from? Cooperative models like Bombora offer exclusive data. Review platforms like G2 capture comparison behavior. Conversation-based tools like Prediqte find active buying discussions.

- Signal freshness: How quickly does the provider surface intent signals? Real-time is ideal. Weekly batches mean you're often too late.

- Integration capabilities: Can you push intent data into your CRM and sales engagement tools? Seamless workflow integration is essential for acting on signals quickly.

- Pricing model: Enterprise intent data platforms typically start at $25,000+ annually. Consider whether you need continuous monitoring or could benefit from on-demand intent discovery.

- Privacy compliance: With GDPR and other regulations, consent-based intent data offers a more sustainable approach. Verify how providers collect and anonymize data.

Start Finding High-Intent Buyers Today

Intent data providers have transformed how B2B companies identify and prioritize prospects. Instead of spraying cold outreach across your entire TAM, you can focus on accounts actively showing buying signals.

For enterprise teams with ABM programs, platforms like Bombora, 6sense, and Demandbase provide comprehensive intent coverage. For startups and lean teams, conversation-based intent tools like Prediqte offer a cost-effective way to find buyers who are actively asking for solutions.

The key is acting on intent signals quickly and contextually. When you reach out to someone who's actively researching your category, you're not interrupting—you're helping. That's the power of intent-driven sales.