Sales and marketing teams have always chased the same goal: finding the right prospects, at the right time, with the right message. But here’s the reality — traditional funnels can’t keep up with how buyers actually behave today.
Buyers are in control. They self-educate. They switch channels. They ghost for weeks, then come back with budget in hand. And most of the time, they do all of this before ever filling out a form.
To succeed in this new era, GTM teams need a new model — one that’s not linear, not static, and not guesswork.
Introducing the Research Quadrant™ — Zymplify’s proprietary framework for understanding buyer readiness based on real, live buying signals.
The Problem With Traditional Buyer Journeys
Funnels give the illusion of order. They assume your buyers start with awareness, move neatly into consideration, then decision, and eventually close.
That model might work in theory — but in practice, it breaks.
- A CFO might download a whitepaper while their CISO is already building a shortlist.
- A buyer might read your product reviews months before engaging your SDR team.
- A high-value account might be missed entirely because they never convert on a form.
This is where intent data helps — but without a framework to interpret and prioritise that data, it’s just more noise.
What Is the Research Quadrant™?
The Research Quadrant™ is Zymplify’s predictive intelligence model that maps buying signals across four stages of readiness:
- Initial – Passive awareness. Light content engagement. No clear buying intent (yet).
- Interested – Signal clusters begin. Multiple sources show research activity.
- Active – High surge activity. Multiple personas involved. Mid-funnel behavior.
- In-Depth – Shortlisting and high-conversion behaviour. Ready for direct outreach.
Rather than force-fit prospects into a static funnel, the Research Quadrant™ allows GTM teams to:
✅ Score intent dynamically
✅ See buying stage progression in real-time
✅ Route accounts to the right motion — nurture, outbound, or sales engagement
✅ Reduce wasted effort on accounts not yet in-market
Why This Matters for GTM Teams
Let’s be honest — most teams have too many leads and not enough insight. The Research Quadrant™ flips that by showing who’s worth your time right now.
- Marketing Teams can prioritise budget and messaging toward segments that are actually researching.
- Sales Teams can focus outbound efforts on buyers showing late-stage signals.
- RevOps can build automated workflows based on signal stage — moving beyond generic lead scoring.
And because Zymplify integrates 20+ intent sources — including G2, Foundry, web visits, content consumption, and CRM activity — the quadrant isn’t guesswork. It’s backed by real behaviour.
From Noise to Next Step
Here’s what the shift looks like:
❌ Traditional lead scoring = Based on job title, company size, and one form fill
✅ Research Quadrant scoring = Based on intent surge, signal density, and journey progression
❌ Funnel stage = Decided by your CRM
✅ Research stage = Inferred from how they actually behave across channels
When you know where an account sits in their research journey, you know how and when to engage. That’s the power of the Research Quadrant.
The Takeaway
B2B buyers don’t move in straight lines. And your pipeline shouldn’t either.
The Research Quadrant™ gives modern GTM teams a signal-based model that aligns around real buying behaviour — not outdated funnels or static lead scores.
If you want to identify the 3% of your market that’s ready to buy today — and avoid wasting time on the other 97% — this is how you do it.
Want to See It in Action?
