Taking Buyer Intent to the Individual Level
Let’s be honest—B2B marketing has made tremendous strides with buyer intent data. We’ve developed sophisticated ways to identify which companies are researching solutions in our space, giving marketing and sales teams valuable direction on where to focus their efforts.
But what happens when we enhance this company-level intelligence with person-based insights?
Knowing that a company is interested in your solution is only half the battle. With buying committees averaging 6-10 members and research phases lasting months, the real challenge lies in identifying and engaging the specific individuals driving the purchase decision.
Person-based intent represents a fundamental shift in how we approach buyer intelligence. Instead of merely tracking which organisations are showing interest, this advanced approach identifies the actual people behind the research activity—their roles, the topics they’re investigating, and how actively they’re pursuing solutions. This granular level of insight transforms generic company targeting into precise, personalised engagement strategies that connect with the right individuals at exactly the right moment in their buying journey.
This blog explores how combining traditional account-level intent data with person-based intelligence creates a powerful framework for more effective B2B marketing and sales—one that acknowledges the human element behind every business decision and delivers measurable improvements in engagement, conversion, and revenue generation.
The Added Value of Person-Based Intent
Traditional buyer intent data provides valuable account-level signals—showing us which companies are actively researching solutions. This intelligence has transformed how we prioritise accounts and allocate resources.
Person-based intent builds on this foundation by identifying the specific individuals within those companies who are driving the research process. When combined with traditional intent approaches, this creates a powerful combination that significantly improves personalisation and precision.
How Person-Based Intent Works
Unlike conventional IP-based intent solutions that map behaviour to company domains, person-based intent operates on a sophisticated individual-level aggregation model.
Providers like Delivr.ai, a pioneer in this space, collects intent data by aggregating content consumption at the individual level across multiple devices, linking this activity directly to user profiles. This data comes from authenticated publisher networks and advertising ecosystems where users have explicitly opted in to data collection.
The behavioural signals are tied to individuals using an extensive identity resolution table that matches hashed emails (HEMs), cookies, and other identifiers to known profiles. The scale is substantial—Delivr.ai observes intent signals from 120–130 million unique U.S. individuals daily, with a total observed range between 77 and 150 million per day.
All of this happens while maintaining strict compliance with data privacy regulations including GDPR and CCPA, ensuring ethical data practices.
The Practical Benefits of Person-Based Intelligence
When you enhance your existing intent strategy with person-based insights, you’ll see tangible improvements:
For Marketing Teams:
- Better personalisation: Craft messages that speak directly to the specific topics each individual is researching
- Focused campaigns: Direct resources to the 5-10% of your market who are actively buying—right down to the individual level
- Refined content strategy: Develop materials that address the exact questions potential buyers are asking
For Sales Teams:
- More relevant conversations: Replace cold calls with outreach based on actual research interests
- Clearer prioritisation: Know exactly who within target accounts is actively researching solutions
- Topic intelligence: Understand what specific aspects of your solution each prospect cares about most
For Revenue Leaders:
- Resource optimisation: Direct your team’s efforts toward individuals showing genuine buying signals
- Faster pipeline development: Engage the right people earlier in their buying journey
- Unified intelligence: Align marketing and sales around the same buyer data
The Impact on Performance Metrics
Organisations that enhance their intent strategy with person-based intelligence typically see meaningful improvements across their entire revenue operations. Recent studies of companies implementing person-based intent strategies revealed significant performance gains in multiple key metrics:
- 67% faster time-to-first-meeting: When you reach out to the right person about topics they’re actively researching, they’re more likely to engage quickly. This acceleration in early-stage pipeline development translates directly to compressed sales cycles. Companies report that instead of taking 8-12 weeks to secure initial meetings with prospects, they’re now able to schedule them within 2-4 weeks when targeting individuals with verified research activity.
- 42% improvement in meeting conversion rates: Conversations become more relevant and valuable when based on actual research interests. Sales teams equipped with person-based intent data report being able to address specific concerns and pain points from the very first interaction. This targeted approach has transformed standard discovery calls into productive solution discussions, with deals progressing to next steps at nearly twice the rate of traditional outreach.
- 3.8x higher email response rates: Personalised outreach that addresses specific interests dramatically increases engagement. Marketing campaigns leveraging person-based intent data show open rates rising from industry averages of 15-20% to 35-45%, while response rates climb from typical 2-3% to 7-12%. This improvement comes from the ability to craft messaging that directly addresses the topics and questions that individual prospects are actively researching.
- 28% larger average deal size: When sales teams engage with multiple stakeholders based on their specific research interests, they’re able to address a broader range of organisational requirements. This comprehensive approach leads to more complete solution packages rather than limited, departmental purchases.
- 31% reduction in resource waste: By focusing marketing and sales efforts on individuals showing genuine buying signals, organisations report significant reductions in time and budget spent on unqualified prospects. This efficiency gain allows for reallocation of resources to higher-potential opportunities.
These performance improvements stem directly from the fundamental shift in approach that person-based intent enables: moving from generic company targeting to precisely engaging individuals based on their specific research behavior. The result is a more efficient, effective revenue generation machine that optimizes every stage of the buyer journey.
Moving Forward with Person-Based Intent
The future of buyer intelligence lies in this powerful combination of account-level and person-level insights. By knowing both which companies are in-market AND which individuals within those companies are driving the research process, you create substantial opportunities for personalisation and precision.
This isn’t about replacing your existing intent strategy—it’s about enhancing it with an additional layer of intelligence that improves personalisation.
As B2B buying committees grow larger and research phases become more complex, the ability to identify and engage specific individuals becomes increasingly crucial. Person-based intent represents the natural evolution of buyer intelligence—moving from knowing that a company might be interested to knowing exactly who is interested and what they care about.
Improving Your Buyer Intelligence
The path forward is clear: by enhancing traditional intent data with person-based insights, you create a more comprehensive view of your target market—one that recognises both organisational priorities and individual research interests.
The result? More personalised outreach, more relevant conversations, and ultimately, more successful customer relationships.
Want to learn more about how person-based intent works? Book at call with one of our data experts today.
