ZoomInfo

Refine Sales Lists with Buying Signals Using GTM Studio

Most sales teams already have long lists of accounts they could go after. The challenge isn’t finding more companies, but identifying which companies are actually in market right now.

We recently helped a client take a list of about 7,000 accounts and narrow it down to roughly 2,400 accounts, allowing their enterprise sales team to launch a highly targeted outbound motion focused only on prospects actively in market for their products.

Here’s exactly how we did it using GTM Studio.

Starting With the Audience

We began inside GTM Studio by selecting the audience that the enterprise team wanted help segmenting. This audience contained 7,336 accounts.

ZoomInfo already provides a rich set of company data, but the real opportunity comes from layering in signals that indicate when a company may be actively evaluating solutions.

So the first step was to enrich the audience with intent signals.

Inside GTM Studio, we selected Add Enrichment, then navigated to Signals → Intent. This allowed us to create custom intent clusters based on the topics most relevant to the client’s products.

Building an Intent Cluster for Security Awareness Training

The client is a cybersecurity company, and one of their core products is a security awareness training platform.

To identify accounts researching solutions like this, we created a custom intent cluster called:

Security Awareness Training Intent Cluster

Within this cluster, we selected several intent topics that closely align with the product:

  • Security training

  • Zero trust

  • Identity and access management

  • Multi-factor authentication

Grouping these topics together created a signal cluster that allowed us to see which companies were actively researching related technologies.

We also selected a lookback timeframe, which determines how recently a company has been researching these topics.

Once saved, the cluster appeared as a new column in the dataset. At the account level, each company could now be categorized as showing:

  • No intent

  • Low intent

  • Medium intent

  • High intent

This gave the team a clear signal of which companies might currently be evaluating security awareness training solutions.

Building a Second Cluster for Cloud Email Security

The client doesn’t just sell security awareness training; they also offer a cloud email security platform.

So we repeated the same process to build a second intent cluster.

This one was called:

Cloud Email Security Intent Cluster

The topics selected for this cluster included:

  • Email security

  • Phishing

  • Ransomware

  • Threat prevention

These topics represent common research patterns for organizations evaluating email protection platforms.

One key adjustment we made was the intent timeframe. Instead of looking at activity across 12 weeks, the client wanted to focus on organizations researching these solutions within the last two weeks. That tighter window helped isolate companies that were very likely in an active buying cycle.

Once this cluster loaded, we had a second column showing whether accounts were displaying high, medium, low, or no intent around cloud email security.

Adding Technographic Data

At this point we had two powerful buying signals:

  1. Security awareness training intent

  2. Cloud email security intent

But we could refine the list even further.

The client only sells to companies using Microsoft 365 as their email platform. If an organization isn’t running Microsoft 365, it’s simply not a fit.

So we enriched the dataset one more time, this time using technographic signals.

Inside GTM Studio, we selected:

Add Enrichment → Technologies

Then searched for Microsoft 365.

This created a new column indicating whether the technology exists or does not exist within each account.

Now we could instantly see which companies in the list were running Microsoft 365.

Creating a Targeted Sales View

With all three signals in place, we created a saved view called:

Accounts Showing Intent

This view filtered the list down to accounts that met three criteria:

  • Showing intent for security awareness training OR cloud email security

  • Actively researching those solutions

  • Using Microsoft 365 as their email platform

In other words, these companies were:

  • A technology fit

  • Showing active buying signals

  • And aligned with the client’s product offering

The Result: 7,000 Accounts Becomes 2,400

The transformation was dramatic.

We started with an unfiltered audience of 7,336 accounts.

After applying intent signals and technographic filtering, we narrowed the list down to roughly 2,400 highly targeted accounts.

Instead of a broad list that sales teams would struggle to prioritize, we now had a focused set of prospects that were:

  • Relevant

  • In market

  • Technically qualified

Activating the Sales Play

The process doesn’t end with segmentation.

Once the filtered list was ready, we exported it and assigned the accounts directly into Salesforce so the enterprise sales team could begin outreach immediately.

Within minutes, GTM Studio helped turn a massive, unfocused list into a surgical outbound motion targeting companies actively researching the client’s cybersecurity solutions.

Why This Matters

Modern sales teams don’t struggle with a lack of accounts, but with knowing which accounts matter right now.

By combining:

  • Intent data

  • Technographic signals

  • Custom segmentation

You can dramatically narrow your focus to the companies most likely to convert.

In this case, that meant reducing more than 7,000 accounts down to 2,400 high-probability prospects and launching a targeted sales play the team could act on immediately.

Learn more about GTM Studio and find your ideal accounts today.


How helpful was this article?

  • 1 Star
  • 2 Stars
  • 3 Stars
  • 4 Stars
  • 5 Stars

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.