More work. Less results.
For a lot of B2B sales teams, that’s the new reality.
They’re spending a large chunk of their time chasing leads that have no intention of buying, while their ideal customers are currently researching a solution in some random Slack channel in total anonymity. And by the time a prospect finally fills out a Contact Us form, they’ve likely already built a shortlist....that may not include them.
Hmm...if only there was a way to gain visibility into the research phase of the buyer’s journey instead of just waiting for someone to fill out a form.
Oh wait, there is. HubSpot!
Check out our series on migrating to HubSpot! 👇
TL;DR: The Basics of HubSpot Buyer Intent
- What it is: A tool that tells you which companies are visiting your website. It identifies them by their office network, so you know who’s looking at you even if they don't give you an email address.
- What it tracks: It shows you which pages they clicked on your site and what topics they are searching for on other websites across the internet.
- The Goal: To help your team call the right people at the right time. Instead of guessing who might be interested, you can reach out to companies that are already researching what you sell.
- The Result: You get to talk to a potential customer first, rather than waiting for them to find your competitor.
1. What is the HubSpot Buyer Intent Feature?
Most website tools are pretty vague. They might tell you that 500 people visited your site yesterday, but they won't tell you who those people actually are.
But the HubSpot buyer intent feature isn’t most website tools.
Putting a name to the traffic
Every business has its own (for lack of a better term) digital fingerprint. When someone researching from a company visits your site, the HubSpot buyer intent tool matches that fingerprint against a massive database of companies.
Almost instantly, that anonymous visitor is replaced with a real company name. You get to see their industry, their size, and where they’re based. By using buyer intent in HubSpot, all of this happens automatically inside your CRM (not a separate spreadsheet), so the info is right there waiting for your sales team the moment they log in.
In a head-to-head test, HubSpot’s Buyer Intent feature surfaced 3x more visiting companies in just 14 days than a leading competitor’s tracking tool, dramatically expanding the pool of in-market accounts sales teams could actually see and act on.
Why this beats standard website tracking
Standard tracking is great for seeing trends, but it’s difficult to use for sales. If you only look at total hits, you might be treating a student doing a school project the same as a VP at a target company.
When you track buyer intent HubSpot style, you focus on the businesses that are actually spending time on your product pages. Because the system is unified, you can trust that the names you're seeing are accurate, giving your team the confidence to reach out without worrying if they have the wrong company.
2. How to use HubSpot Breeze buyer intent to find leads
Seeing a list of every business that clicks on your website is a start, but the real win is knowing which ones are worth your time. And that’s where HubSpot breeze buyer intent comes in, acting as a filter to find the people who are actually in the middle of a buying decision.
Focusing on the right companies
If your website gets a lot of visitors, your sales team can't possibly call everyone. Some people are just there to read a blog post, while others are a perfect match for what you sell. Trying to chase every single person is a fast way to get nowhere.
The HubSpot buyer intent feature lets you set up simple rules so you only see the companies you actually want to work with. You can tell HubSpot to only notify you if a company is a certain size or in a specific industry. This way, you can see which of your ICPs are spending the most time on your site and reach out to them first while they’re still thinking about you.
With HubSpot Buyer Intent, teams can define up to 10 unique intent criteria, explicitly marking which page patterns and behaviors signal “ready to buy” versus casual research. That means pricing pages, comparison guides, or repeat product visits can trigger alerts, while low-intent blog traffic stays out of your sales queue.
Seeing what companies research across the web
The most useful part of buyer intent in HubSpot is that it doesn't just watch your own website.
With the "Research Intent" tool, HubSpot can tell you what these companies are looking for on other sites, too. If a company you’ve been watching suddenly starts searching for your competitors or looking up how to solve a problem you handle, you’ll see it.
3. Spotting the most important HubSpot buyer intent signals
Data is only helpful if it tells you when to pick up the phone. You don't want to reach out to every person who accidentally clicks a link, you want to find the people who are actually trying to solve a problem.
Here are the specific signs that a company is getting serious:
High-value pages that show they are deciding
The easiest way to see what a company is thinking is to look at where they’re spending their time. If they’re just reading a general blog post, they’re probably just learning. But if they start hitting these pages, they’ve moved into the decision phase:
- The pricing page: If a company is looking at what you cost or checking out your ROI calculator, they are seeing if you fit their budget. This is one of the clearest signs they are ready for a real conversation.
- Comparison guides: When someone reads your "us vs. them" pages, they’ve already decided they need a product and now they’re just trying to figure out if you’re a better choice than the other guys.
Clues that the whole company is interested
Sometimes the best sign isn't which page they visit, but how they behave.
- Team-wide research: If you see five different people from the same company on your site in a single day, they're likely talking about you in a meeting or passing your link around to their bosses.
- Sudden search spikes: If the tools show that a company is suddenly searching for your specific service all over the web, it usually means they have a problem that needs a fast solution.
- Coming back for more: If the same business shows up three days in a row, you’re clearly on their mind. You don't need to wait for them to fill out a form to know they’re interested.
4. How to use HubSpot buyer intent to grow
Having all this data is great, but it doesn't do much if it just sits in a report. The real value comes when you use these insights to change how you talk to people.
Getting your team moving faster
One of the best ways to use this is to set up automatic alerts. Instead of your sales team having to dig through data, you can have HubSpot send them a message the second a high-value company visits your pricing page. This lets them reach out while your business is still fresh in the prospect's mind, rather than waiting a week and losing the lead.
Showing up where your customers are
You can also use these signals to make your marketing much more effective. If you know a specific group of companies is researching you, you can show them targeted ads on LinkedIn. Instead of showing ads to everyone in the world, you’re only spending money on the businesses that have already shown they are interested in what you do.
Having better conversations
When your sales team does reach out, they don't have to start from scratch. Because they can see exactly which pages a company was looking at, they can be a lot more helpful. Instead of a generic sales pitch, they can mention specific topics the prospect was already reading about. It makes the call feel less like a cold pitch and more like a timely check-in.
5. What you need to know about using HubSpot buyer intent
When people start using these tools, they usually have a few of the same questions about how the data works and where to find it. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common things people ask.
Will I see the name and email of the person visiting?
No. To keep things private and follow data laws, the HubSpot buyer intent feature identifies the company, not the individual person. You might see that someone from a specific corporation is on your site, but you won't see their name or personal email address until they actually fill out a form and give it to you.
Where is this located in my HubSpot account?
You can find these insights in two main spots. Most of the new intent data lives under the Breeze Intelligence tab. You can also see a live feed of visiting companies in the "Prospects" section of your reports.
How is this different from a regular lead?
A regular lead is someone who has already reached out by giving you their contact info. Buyer intent HubSpot signals are different because they show you who is interested before they ever say hello. It gives you a head start so you can be proactive instead of just waiting for people to find you.
-3.png)
-1.png)
