Intent-to-Action Case Study: 40 Accounts, Zero Research Time

Case Study: Intent-to-Action by IMC One-Off Implementation Service

How I Used My Own Service to Build a 40-Account Pipeline with Zero Manual Research As A Solo Business Owner.

The Challenge

I launched Intent-to-Action by IMC, a service that automates sales (SDR/BDM/AMB) research for buyer intent leads and needed to validate it worked as promised.

Rather than wait for client implementations, I used it on my own business during the service pre-launch and launch campaigns.

The question: Could the Intent-to-Action by IMC implementation and automated process identify high-intent accounts from campaign traffic and deliver a research-ready pipeline for (ABM/SDR 1-2-1 outreach) without form submissions and without manual work?

The Approach

  • Pre-Launch & Launch Campaigns (3 weeks).

  • Objective: Brand awareness for Intent-to-Action by IMC Service pre-launch and launch.

  • Investment: £290 across LinkedIn Message Ads and web traffic campaigns.

  • Target: UK B2B SDRs, BDMs, ABMs, Sales Managers.

Intent-to-Action by IMC Service Implementation

Data Source: HubSpot buyer intent tool automated monitoring 3-week campaigns period.

Criteria Set:

  • ICP fit (firmographic)

  • Visitor intent (pages visited)

  • Research intent

  • Source (paid social, paid search, organic, email, direct, referral, etc..)

  • Time frame

  • In my CRM VS not in my CRM

  • Lifecycle stage

  • Deal stage

  • Owner

Automation:

1.     HubSpot buyer intent tool flagged and automatically added companies meeting my qualification criteria to the CRM as per my setting and the credits limit set to auto add high fit accounts to my CRM.

2.     Accounts auto added were enrolled into the automated sales research flow I have set up.

3.     System identified the 2 senior personas I was targeting per account and generated:

  • Sales insights for each persona.

  • Sales note (summary of research findings) ready for outreach.

Quality control routing:

  • Searches meeting all conditions → Insights pushed directly to CRM.

  • Searches not meeting conditions → Insights delivered to Google Sheet.

4.     Research-ready accounts surfaced with zero manual work.

Overall Results

Pre-Launch & Launch Paid Campaigns Performance

  • Message Ad Open Rate: 52% (vs. 40-50% benchmark). About 7% above industry average.

  • Web Traffic CTR: 1.17% (vs. 0.5-1.0% benchmark). About 17% above industry average.

  • Total Engaged: 1,730 decision-makers opened and read messages.

  • Website Visits: 210 qualified visits (40 high fit companies identified).

  • Brand Impressions: 18,000 total reach.

  • Awareness objective: Achieved with a budget of £290.

Intent-to-Action by IMC Pipeline Output

During the same 3-week period, HubSpot buyer intent tool identified companies showing my defined intent criteria from campaign activity (filtered visits by source from the intent tool).

  • Accounts identified by HubSpot: Companies meeting my intent criteria.

  • Enrolled into automation: 40 accounts.

  • Research completed: 40 accounts (100% automated).

  • Manual research required: Zero.

Result:

  • 40 research-ready accounts in sales pipeline.

  • Zero manual research time.

  • About 13+ hours saved (vs. 10-30 mins per account manually. Most SDRs skim accounts for 10 – 30mins and even that adds up quickly. The problem is the quality is inconsistent, and the best reps do more while others skip it entirely. The Intent-to-Action service automates better than skimming research and delivers it consistently before outreach starts.).

  • About £650-1,000 research cost eliminated.

  • Immediate outreach capability - accounts ready from day one.

How It Worked

HubSpot Buyer Intent Tool Identified:

  • Companies visiting my website during campaigns period.

  • Which pages they viewed.

  • Engagement signals (multiple visits, time on site).

  • ICP match.

  • Companies with research intent (if they have researched my target topics/keywords.

Intent-to-Action by IMC Service Automated:

  • Enrollment of qualified accounts into the research flow.

  • My 2 target personas identification per account.

  • Recent company news/developments.

  • Pain points and challenges research.

  • Conversation starters.

  • Sales notes summary of key findings the sales team should be aware of before starting outreach. 

Everything delivered automatically - zero manual research

The Process Comparison

Without Intent-to-Action by IMC one-off implementation service

  • HubSpot flags company showing my target intent signals.

  • SDR receives company name with firmographic insights and useful HubSpot data enrichment about the company to align with your credits limit (more insights could be unlocked if you pay more credits).

  • SDR spends 10-30 mins researching:

  1. LinkedIn (the 2 target personas).

  2. Website.

  3. Google and multiple sites.

  4. Find conversation starters/ice breakers.

  • SDR finally starts outreach.

Time per account: 10-30 minutes
40 accounts: 13+ hours total
Cost: About £650-1,000 or more in SDR time

With Intent-to-Action by IMC one-off implementation service

  1. HubSpot flags company showing your target intent signals.

  2. Automation enrolls account into a research flow.

  3. System completes research automatically.

  4. SDR receives research-ready account.

  5. SDR starts outreach.

Research time per account: Zero minutes
40 accounts: Zero hours total
Cost: £0 in SDR time

What Was Automated

For each of the 40 accounts, the automated research workflow delivered:

  • My 2 target persona profiles per account (names, Job titles, LinkedIn Link for each persona).

  • Conversation starters (personalisation hooks aligned with what have been found about each account online and the service I provide, ice breakers).

  • Outreach readiness (key talking points ready).

  • A sales notes with a summary of key findings about each account, personalised and aligned with the service I provide. (Request a sample of the sales notes>>)

Everything an SDR needs to personalise outreach. Delivered automatically before account assignment.

The Impact

Time Savings

  • 13+ hours of manual research eliminated across 40 accounts

  • Equivalent to: 1.5 full working days saved

 Cost Comparison

  • Manual research: £650-1,000 in SDR time (13+ hours @ £50-75/hour)

  • Automated research: API/credit costs (significantly lower than manual labour)

Note: While automation incurs API costs, these are fractional compared to SDR hourly rates and scale efficiently with volume.

 Speed & Delivery

  • Daily pipeline refresh - SDRs log in each morning to newly researched accounts ready for outreach

  • Batch processing efficiency - system handles volume automatically on scheduled runs

  • No manual bottleneck - research completes without SDR intervention

Scalability

  • Handles volume systematically - processes multiple accounts per run

  • Cost scales with usage - API costs increase with volume (why rigorous qualification criteria matters)

  • Quality maintained at scale - consistent insights whether processing 5 or 40 accounts or more

  • Key consideration: Tight ICP criteria ensures only qualified accounts consume research credits

What This Proves

  • Service works as advertised - automated personalised research delivers results without manual intervention

  • Real-world validation - not theoretical, actually implemented on live campaign data

  • Practice what I preach - I use my own service on my own business

  • HubSpot integration proven - buyer intent tool + automation = seamless pipeline

  • Scalable solution - proven to handle campaign-scale volume automatically

  • Time savings measurable – About 13+ hours eliminated (to research 40 accounts), quantifiable ROI

  • Quality maintained - automated personalised research matches/exceeds manual quality

The Key Insight

Some teams see buyer intent data in HubSpot but waste hours manually researching each account (to complement the HubSpot enrichment data available in their portal) before outreach.

  • Intent-to-Action by IMC one-off implementation service eliminates that bottleneck entirely.

  • HubSpot shows you which account is showing your defined intent signals.

  • Intent-to-Action by IMC one off implementation service automatically tells you everything else the sales teams need to contact them effectively. Request a sample of the sales notes>>

  • Result: SDRs/Sales Teams log in to research-ready accounts (Request a sample of the sales notes>>).No manual work. Just outreach.

My Takeaway

"I ran a £290 pre-launch and launch campaigns and HubSpot's buyer intent tool identified 40 accounts showing my defined and target intent signals. Which is brilliant!

Without effective HubSpot buyer intent setup, I wouldn't have identified these 40 high-fit accounts at all. The tool flagged about 100 accounts identified from my campaigns, but rigorous qualification criteria automatically filtered them to 40 (manual filtering would take hours).

Even without a single form submission, I identified those 40 high-fit accounts. Proving you don't need to wait for your web traffic to convert to form submissions to build pipeline.

Without Intent-to-Action by IMC implementation service, my sales process would have paused there and waiting for someone to manually research each account to provide the additional insights needed for outreach.

Instead, automation processed all 40 qualified accounts. Research complete. Insights ready. Zero manual work.

This is why both steps matter: Buyer intent setup identifies the right accounts. Automated research makes them outreach-ready. Together, they eliminate noise and manual work.

If Intent-to-Action by IMC implementation service can set up the configuration I needed for my business to process my own campaign data and deliver 40 research-ready accounts with zero manual work, it can do the same for your buyer intent leads.

The difference? Your SDRs/Sales Teams log in each morning to research-ready accounts. No manual work. Just outreach.

That's research-free selling."

Interested in Intent-to-Action by IMC Implementation Service?

See how I can implement this automated research system for your buyer intent companies or any companies that are meeting your defined qualification criteria as we can use any HubSpot company active or static list, we can also use a CSV to enroll your target companies to the system configured to automate the sales research.

One-off implementation. Ongoing automation. Research-free pipeline.

Request a sample of the sales notes that SDRs, ABMs or BDMs will receive after the automated sales research is completed and before outreach>>

About Intent-to-Action by IMC Implementation Service

A one-off HubSpot implementation and integration service that automates the research the sales team (SDRs/BDMs/ABMs) do after receiving buyer intent alerts or leads selected to assign to them.

Companies (showing the intent signals or any qualification criteria you have defined) are automatically enrolled into the automated research system and useful sales insights are generated for the outreach before reaching your sales team.

  • What HubSpot intent tool shows you: Companies showing your target intent signals.

  • What Intent-to-Action by IMC delivers: Everything your sales team need to start the outreach.

  • Result: Research-free pipeline ready for outreach.

  • Investment: Request a sample now>>

Request a sample of the sales notes that SDRs, ABMs or BDMs will receive before outreach


Alberte Touani CMktr Chartered Marketer