What is B2B buyer intent data?

Intent data is the signal layer that makes signal-based selling possible. Without it, sales teams rely on cold lists, cadence-based follow-up, and form fills — reaching out to buyers who may or may not be in-market. With intent data, sales teams reach out to buyers showing active research activity in your category.

Three types of B2B buyer intent data:

First-party intent — signals from your own properties: website visits, email engagement, content downloads, demo requests.

Third-party (offsite) intent — signals from external sites: content consumption on publisher networks, review site activity, research on industry platforms.

Social intent — signals from social platforms: posts about pain points, engagement with competitor content, category-related questions on LinkedIn.

The key distinction in 2026: most intent data providers (Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase) deliver buyer intent data at the account level — a company name and a surge score. Kwanzoo delivers buyer intent data at the person level — the named individual with full contact information, the specific topics they researched, and the sites they visited.

Account-level intent without person-level contact is just a heat map. Person-level intent with full contact data is a lead.