Understanding Signals Engagement & Research Data

Qualified Signals illuminates which target accounts have the highest purchase intent so your sales reps know where to focus their time. We present two types of proprietary buying interest data, Engagement Intent and Research Intent, in account lists and the Account 360 to equip your team.

Engagement Intent and Research Intent are complementary. Engagement Intent tells you how much an account interacted with your website and the Qualified messenger. Research Intent helps explain why visitors from that account are on your website in the first place.

Engagement Intent, Score, & Trend

We use first-party data to predict the buying interest of your target accounts.

Engagement Score

The Engagement Score is a number between 0–100 in the Account 360's timeline graph. When someone associated with an account visits your website, their activity on your website contributes to the account’s Engagement Score calculation. Activities that contribute to a higher Engagement Score include (but are not limited to):

• How many high-intent pages were viewed
• How many visitors from the same account were on your website
• Clickthroughs from outbound emails and tracked ads
• How many conversations visitors had with bots and your sales reps
• How many meetings were booked with Qualified

Our proprietary data model assigns weights to activities like these based on how much or little they indicate purchase intent.

TIP! If you want to organize accounts by Engagement Score or Research Score, install the Signals unmanaged package in your Salesforce org. You can then sort by the included Signals Engagement Score and Signals Research Score fields.

Engagement Intent

To quickly assess how strong an account’s engagement is, we display the Engagement Intent per account. The Engagement Score lines up with these Engagement Intents:

Accounts with a hotter Engagement Intent have a higher propensity to buy, while cooler accounts are less likely to buy.

Engagement Trend

An account’s Engagement Intent can change rapidly, so we also display the account’s Engagement Trend. The Engagement Trend is the Engagement Score’s rate of change over the past 14 days. 

The Engagement Trend is important because it indicates if an account is gaining or losing interest in your company’s product or services. In turn, this helps your sales team know if they need to reach out imminently.

Research Intent & Score

Qualified Research Intent, powered by Bombora, tells you when companies are actively researching topics you choose. When you select topics that indicate interest in your products or services, their research levels are displayed in Signals account lists and the Account 360.

Research Score

The Research Score is a value between 0–100 and is calculated once every seven days. Our proprietary model takes into account if and how frequently topics were researched online over the previous several weeks.

To view the Research Score and which topics the account researched, hover over its icon in the Account 360 timeline or look within the activity panel:

When an account doesn’t search any of your topics in a meaningful way for several weeks, the Research Score will be zero. Once the account searches for at least one of your designated topics again and it’s been at least seven days since the last calculation, the Research Score will increase.

Research Intent

We also display the Research Intent that corresponds to the Research Score in the Account 360’s top overview bar:

When an account’s Research Intent is Hot, it means they’re searching the topics you selected more frequently than before. Ask your sales reps to connect with their contacts to take advantage of the momentum. In contrast, a Cold Research Intent suggests that the account is losing interest and the deal may be more at risk. This may be an important time for your sales team to outreach.

Strategize with Engagement Intent & Research Intent

At Qualified, we find the most success and efficiency when reps prioritize accounts that already demonstrate an interest in your product or service. We recommend focusing your sales team on accounts with high Engagement and Research Scores. When an account’s Engagement Trend is also Heating or Surging, the moment is even more advantageous for your reps.

Here are other example Signals scenarios that warrant your team’s attention:

• An account with a Surging Engagement Trend is likely a prime candidate for outbound activities.
• A cold account with an upwards Engagement Trend and increased Research Intent should receive attention.
• An account with an Engagement Intent that’s On Fire but a cooling Engagement Trend should be assessed to learn what derailed their interest.
• An account with Hot Research Intent but no Engagement Intent might be the right candidate to drive awareness through advertising campaigns to drive them to your website.