Buyer Intent Tracking: The Sales Intelligence Your Competitors Are Using (And You're Not)

Your marketing team is running ads. Your SDRs are cold calling. Your pipeline looks full.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: you have no idea which companies are actually researching services in your industry right now.

Meanwhile, leading companies in your industry are tracking exactly which businesses are showing buying intent and reaching them before you even know they exist.

In this comprehensive guide, you'll discover the buyer intent signals that drive pipeline, how to track them effectively, and why most teams sit on this data without using it.

What is Buyer Intent Tracking?

Buyer intent tracking is the process of identifying and monitoring companies that are actively researching solutions like yours often before they ever contact you.

Unlike traditional lead generation that waits for prospects to fill out forms or request demos, buyer intent tracking identifies companies in the research phase, when they're comparing options, reading content, and building their shortlist.

Why It Matters: The 95/5 Rule

Only 5% of your total addressable market is actively buying at any given time. The other 95% are either:

Not yet aware they have a problem
Aware but not actively looking for solutions
Researching but not ready to engage

Buyer intent tracking helps you identify exactly which companies are in that critical 5% before your competitors reach them.

6 Buyer Intent Signals Leading Companies Track

1. Website Visitor Identification (With Company Data)

What it tracks: Which companies visit your website, including firmographic data like company size, industry, and location.

Why it matters: 70% of B2B website visitors are companies researching solutions. Without visitor identification, you're blind to who's showing interest.

Example: A 50-employee SaaS company visits your pricing page three times in one week. That's a buying signal, but only if you can see it.

2. High-Intent Page Visits

What it tracks: Companies visiting specific pages that indicate buying intent: pricing pages, product demos, case studies, comparison pages.

Why it matters: A company visiting your "About Us" page is browsing. A company visiting your pricing page multiple times is evaluating.

Buying signals to watch for:

Pricing page visits (especially multiple)
Demo request pages (even without form submission)
Product feature pages
Case study/testimonial pages
Integration documentation
"Contact Sales" pages

Pro tip: Add these to your visitor intent criteria and set up automated adding to your CRM and automated alerts when high-fit companies meet the visitor intent criteria.

3. Research Activity

What it tracks: Companies actively searching for services in your industry or the topics that matter most to your business (For example, these could be topics related to your target SEO/Google Ads commercial and transactional keywords) even if they haven't visited your website yet.

Why it matters: This identifies prospects in the decision stages, before they've shortlisted vendors.

How it works:

Define your target keywords (commercial and transactional intent)
Track which companies are researching those terms
Identify buying intent based on topics around the keywords type

4. ICP Match

What it tracks: Which website visitors and researchers match your Ideal Customer Profile based on firmographic criteria.

Why it matters: Not all traffic is equal. A 500-employee enterprise visiting your site matters more than a 5-person startup if you sell to mid-market.

ICP criteria to track:

Company size (employee count)
Industry
Location/geography
Revenue
Technology stack (what tools they use)
Web technologies
Companies that match a specific keyword or term

HubSpot tip: Set up custom properties and workflows to automatically score and flag high-fit companies.

5. Pre-CRM Prospect Identification

What it tracks: Companies showing buying intent that aren't yet in your CRM. Prospects you haven't engaged with but are actively researching.

Why it matters: These are net-new opportunities your sales team doesn't know about yet. Early engagement = competitive advantage.

The opportunity: Most B2B buyers complete 70% of their research before contacting vendors. If you wait for inbound, you're already behind.

Example scenario:

Company researching "HubSpot implementation" (transactional keyword)
Visits your website, views pricing page
Matches your ICP (50 employees, B2B SaaS, UK-based)
Not in your CRM
Your SDR gets automated alert → Personalised outreach → Early pipeline entry

6. Real-Time Buying Signal Alerts

What it tracks: Automated notifications to your sales team when high-intent activities occur.

Why it matters: Speed matters. Responding to buying signals dramatically increases conversion rates.

Best practice: Route alerts based on territory, industry, or company size to the right SDR automatically.

The Problem: Most Teams Have the Data But Don't Use It

Here's the frustrating reality:

Two types of B2B teams exist:

Type 1: No Tracking (Flying Blind)

Can't identify website visitors
Don't know which companies are researching
No visibility into buying signals
Relying entirely on inbound forms and cold outreach

Type 2: Have the Data, Don't Use It

Buyer intent data sitting in HubSpot
No alerts configured
SDRs unaware of high-intent prospects
Data unused instead of driving pipeline

The result?

High-intent companies matching your ICP, visiting your pricing pages, showing clear buying signals... and your SDRs have NO idea. Meanwhile, their pipeline is full of random prospects showing zero buying intent.