# Intent-based outbound – how to use intent signals for more effective sales outreach – ULTIMATE GUIDE

> Intent-based outbound or signal-based outbound are one of the top-2 biggest bets B2B marketing teams are making for 2026 – according to the survey conducted study by Kyle Poyar of Growth Unhinged and Maja Voje of Growth Strategist. And I’m not surprised.

Author: Emilia Korczynska
Published: 2025-12-06
Updated: 2025-12-07
Categories: Intent & Stages
Source: https://zenabm.com/blog/intent-based-outbound

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![Intent-based outbound – how to use intent signals for more effective sales outreach – ULTIMATE GUIDE cover](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Intent-based-outbound-how-to-use-intent-signals-for-more-effective-sales-outreach-ULTIMATE-GUIDE.png)

Intent-based outbound or signal-based outbound are one of the top-2 biggest bets B2B marketing teams are making for 2026 – according to the survey conducted study by [Kyle Poyar of Growth Unhinged and Maja Voje of Growth Strategist.](https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-ai-could-make-you-more-valuable)

![Intent based outbound Kyle Poyar](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Intent-based-outbound.png)

And I’m not surprised. “Cold outbound” isn’t working – since outbound sales automation like Apollo, Outreach or Salesloft have become popular and made outbound easier, “spray and pray” cold outbound made the market really saturated, and made it extremely hard to cut through the noise. The same is happening on LinkedIn, with linkedin outreach (DM) tools like HeyReach, Meetlfred, Sales Robot, or Buzz[dot]ai.

So everyone knows you need to heavily personalize your messaging with **“intent signals”** – signs what your account is interested in, and when it’s ready to buy. But the problem with creating these personalized messages for intent-led outbound is two-fold:

- How are you going to obtain these intent signals so your know which accounts are ready, and what are they interested in?
- How are you going to personalize the outreach messages based on these intent signals without hiring an army of BDRs/SDRs that are not only expensive and hard to manage – but also, as I will show you – they may not be actually able to personalize the messages at the scale you need.

Intent-led outbound is more effective, cheaper…and it’s the perfect complement to ABM campaigns, no actually, scratch that – an integral part of ABM campaings (you generate intent signals = target account engagements with your great content, delivered through e.g. [LinkedIn ads](/blog/linkedin-document-ads-guide-with-examples) but also your blog, website, lead magnets…and then simply leverage these intent signals to reach out to the prospects with the right message, at the right time. And then it may actually be the prospects who want to book the meeting – as [**Mahinour Sabra wrote in her recent LinkedIn post:)** ](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mahinour-sabra_outbound-experts-always-stress-about-the-activity-7393611135075250176-N-g3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAoeTw8BXrhsCWTDanav-4S5RKqZcQ3Mmmo)

![LinkedIn post by Mahinour Sabra on intent-led outbound, with prospects asking for a call after warm outreach](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Mahinour-Sabra-intent-led-outbound-prospects-asking-for-a-call-.png)

So this post, I will share with you:

- What exactly intent-led outbound is
- What types of intent signals you should be collecting, and how you can collect those intent signals
- How to use these intent signals for intent-based outbound
- Best tools for intent-based outbound
- How I’ve been doing intent-based outbound (at Userpilot), by fully automating our outreach efforts with a fairly minimal tech stack: [ZenABM](/) (for harvesting intent signals from linkedin ads) + Hubspot (CRM – the biggest source of 1-st party signals) + Clay (orchestration and prospecting layer) + Smartlead (email outreach) and Heyreach (LinkedIn outreach)
- I’ll also share a few different intent-based outbound plays that are worth trying in 2026, and a few intent-based outbound agencies that can help you.
- Clay template you can use for automating prospecting (= autoprospecting) in the [accounts reaching certain signal levels](/blog/linkedin-ad-performance-account-level).

WARNING: This is a long, “ultimate guide” type of post – including step-by-step instructions how to set the automations for pushing account-level intent signals from ZenABM into Clay – so brace yourself for a 30 minute read and take notes! (but I prepared a quick summary for you below – so you can decide if it’s worth reading for you 😉 )

## **Intent-based outbound – a Summary**

- Use LinkedIn ad engagement data for **warm outbound** by sending engaged accounts from ZenABM to Clay, auto-finding ICP contacts, and pushing them into Smartlead (email) and Heyreach (LinkedIn) sequences.
- Identify **“interested” accounts**, segment them by **intent**, auto-prospect into them with Clay templates, and funnel enriched contacts into coordinated outreach across email and LinkedIn.
- Leverage ZenABM’s **company-level ad performance view** and the automation path ZenABM → Clay → Heyreach → Smartlead, with a 37-day free trial to get started.
- **STEP 1:** Copy the free Clay template into your own Clay workspace to instantly get the right structure for the workflow.
- **STEP 2:** Define ABM stages in ZenABM (e.g. Aware, Interested, Considering) so companies are automatically labelled based on LinkedIn engagement and CRM data.
- **STEP 3:** Tag LinkedIn campaigns in ZenABM with **intent labels** (e.g. Analytics, Adoption, AI) so accounts inherit these intents when they engage with those ads.
- **STEP 4:** Create a **ZenABM → Clay webhook** that sends only “Interested” accounts (optionally filtered by intent) to Clay on a fixed schedule, one company per row.
- **STEP 5:** Use Clay’s **Find People** block on incoming companies to discover ICP contacts (filtered by job title, seniority, location) and enrich them with email and LinkedIn URLs.
- **STEP 6:** Connect Clay to **Smartlead** via API so enriched contacts are automatically added as leads into a chosen email campaign.
- **STEP 7:** Connect Clay to **Heyreach** via API so the same prospects are pushed into LinkedIn outreach campaigns.
- **STEP 8:** Test the pipeline end-to-end so “Interested” accounts flow correctly from ZenABM → Clay → Smartlead/Heyreach and outreach is personalized by engagement and intent.
- **STEP 9 (optional):** Use the ZenABM × SalesCaptain offer to get ZenABM Starter, Clay credits, Heyreach discount, and full done-for-you implementation if you book before the deadline.
- De-anonymize LinkedIn ad engagements with ZenABM (from $59/month) to see **which companies engaged with which ads**, score their intent, and send filtered engagement data anywhere via webhooks.
- Configure **custom ABM stages** in ZenABM based on LinkedIn engagement, CRM lifecycle/deal stages, and custom properties (e.g. specific form fills or downloads) to classify accounts through your funnel.
- Push ABM stage labels from ZenABM into your **CRM or Clay** as company properties so every downstream tool knows each account’s funnel stage.
- Set up **intent tagging** in ZenABM by assigning themes (Analytics, Adoption, Security, AI, etc.) to campaigns so accounts are automatically labeled with those intents when they engage.
- Use repeated engagement with specific themed ads to infer **account intent** (e.g. “Analytics intent”) and push this as a company-level property into your CRM.
- Send “Interested” accounts (with or without intent labels) from ZenABM into Clay so you can **attach real contacts** that match your ICP to each engaged company.
- In ZenABM’s webhook settings, select **Companies** as the data type, name the webhook, and paste the destination Clay table URL.
- Apply filters in the webhook for **ABM stage, campaign/campaign group and properties** (e.g. Interested stage + specific intent + engagement/spend thresholds) before sending data to Clay.
- Configure data delivery to send **fresh companies every 7 days**, one per row, with all relevant company metrics and intent fields included.
- Let the webhook continuously push new “Interested” companies with specified intents into your Clay table, creating a **recurring batch for autoprospecting**.
- In Clay, run **Find People** on these companies to automatically identify ICP contacts based on job titles, functions, seniority, and other role filters.
- Refine your ICP search with options like **exact title matches**, minimum time in role, and **location filters** (country, city) to improve quality.
- Use the resulting ICP table (Step 4 in Clay) as your **master prospect list**: a cleaned, enriched dataset of contacts from “Interested” companies.
- Create a **Smartlead campaign** (steps, sending account, from name, warm-up inbox) to host your inbound-led outbound email sequence.
- Grab Smartlead’s **API endpoint and campaign ID**, then configure Clay to push selected prospects directly into that campaign with the correct mapping.
- Repeat the integration steps for **Heyreach**, selecting the appropriate account and campaign to receive LinkedIn prospects from Clay.
- Use Heyreach’s API from Clay to **create prospects** with full\_name, LinkedIn URL, company, title and email so they flow straight into your chosen LinkedIn sequence.
- Add conditions in Clay so the Heyreach API call only runs when a LinkedIn URL exists, the contact is not already in Heyreach, and the LI sequence hasn’t yet been sent.
- Update Clay rows with flags like **pushed\_to\_heyreach = TRUE** to track who has already been added to LinkedIn sequences.
- Turn on **Clay Triggers** (New Row / Column Change) so every new or updated prospect automatically flows through validation, enrichment and Smartlead/Heyreach API pushes without manual work.
- Implement **anti-duplication logic** in Clay using columns like `already_in_smartlead?` and `already_in_heyreach?`, populated via each tool’s search API, and skip sending if a prospect already exists.
- Run a **recommended email sequence** in Smartlead (Day 1 value-first, Day 3 soft follow-up, Day 6 content CTA, Day 10 break-up) to drive replies and meetings.
- Run a **parallel LinkedIn sequence** in Heyreach (profile visit, connect, engage, short message, nudge) so social touchpoints support the email motion without depending on it.
- Use ZenABM + Clay + Smartlead + Heyreach together to transform **anonymous LinkedIn ABM engagement into a predictable warm-outbound engine**, contacting accounts that already know your brand and have shown clear intent.
- Take advantage of  **ZenABM × SalesCaptain offer** to have the entire workflow (ZenABM config, Clay table, Smartlead/Heyreach integrations, de-dupe, messaging) implemented for you and start generating pipeline faster:
✅ [Set up this entire workflow inside ZenABM](/blog/linkedin-ads-crm-automation)
✅ Build your Clay table + auto-prospecting flow
✅ Implement Smartlead + Heyreach API pushes
✅ Configure anti-duplication logic
✅ Plus: Salescaptain will write your entire **email outreach sequence** for free
This offer is genuinely insane value – and it’s the fastest way to [launch](/blog/productive-case-study) a warm-outbound motion that actually generates pipeline.
👉 **Want this implemented for you?**
Click below and book your slot while the offer is still available:
[**📅 Book a demo**](/book-a-demo)

## **What is intent-based outbound and why you should use it instead of manual outreach?** 

Intent based outbound (or signal based outbound) is a marketing strategy involving reaching out to highly qualified prospects based on their intent signals – often involving automation that uses these intent signals both as **triggers for (sales) outreach** (via email/LinkedIn) and for **creating personalized copy** relevant to the intent signal (usually with generative AI).

![ZenABM account level intent signals](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Intent-Speargrowth.png)

It has gained a lot of attention in 2025 nd is now the 2nd most popular strategy marketers are investing in for 2026.  And I understand why – in August 2025, after 2 years of trying to make our manual outbound work with the BDR team, we decided to let them go and replace them with intent-based outbound [automation](/faq/linkedin-ad-clicks-into-crm-for-abm). Why automation, you may say?

### **Why is intent-based outbound becoming so popular for 2026?** 

![2025 intent based outbound funnel](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/8.png)

Marketers are turning to intent-based outbound because – ironically – **AI is better at personalizing outreach messages based on signals than most human SDRs.**

Another reason for the surging popularity of intent-led outreach is that it’s a lot cheaper (and easier) than hiring and managing teams of BDRs/ SDRs.

But let’s focus on the effectiveness first:

No human being can possibly mentally process 367 company properties from your CRM, and then craft a bespoke message based on them.

This is where **intent-based outbound really helps** – it helps you turn your CRM company (and contact) properties and ad engagement data into a signal database, and them orchestrate an efficient, automated, predictable **outreach operation based on those** intent signals.

I’ve learned it the hard way – after trying (and failing) to deliver consistent pipeline with a BDR team, with different BDRs/SDRs, strategies, tools and leads – we finally gave up and turned to automation. Since then – our intent-led outbound campaigns, fuelled with intent data from our CRM and LinkedIn ads (via [ZenABM](/) – which deanonymizes LinkedIn ad engagements on company level and captures company intent from those engagements)

Deanonymize LinkedIn ad engagements, get intent, account scoring (starting @$59/month!) [Try ZenABM Now](https://app.zenabm.com)
37 Days Free Trial

## Types of Intent Signals

Intent signals come in three main forms:

- **First-party signals: account and contact-level intent signals from sources that you own.**
    - Your CRM is your best source of 1st party intent signals.
    -  Actions on your owned channels (website, email, ads engagements).
    - Visiting key pages (high-intent pages like pricing, features, demo booking page, trial signup page, and mid-intent pages like comparison blog posts, competitor comparison pages)
    - [Clicking on your LinkedIn or Google](/blog/track-linkedin-ad-conversions) ads and filling in a form afterwards (contact level signal).
- **LinkedIn Ad Impressions or Engagements** (which you can de-anonymize on[ Company Level with ZenABM](/) – you can [**try it for FREE** ](https://app.zenabm.com/signup)for a month and then push these intent signals from LinkedIn Ads into your Hubspot from $59 per month) – which are **account-level fist-party intent signals:** **– Intent from qualitative LinkedIn campaign engagements** – not only how many times the account engaged with your ads, but also which ads they’ve engaged in specifically – so you can deduce what “themes” they are interested in:
– downloading gated content (e.g. reports, lead magnets).
– signing up for webinars, events, and executive dinners.
– visits to your social media landing pages (LinkedIn Page, Facebook Page, Instagram Profile – if you have those) and social media engagements (likes, shares, comments).
-  **Product-led signals**

Product-led signals are a type of first-party signal, but they merit their own short paragraph.
Product-led intent signals intent include signup events and usage events inside your product. In a PLG model, actions such as free-trial sign-ups, the number of sessions (many logins indicate the account is a good indication that the account is really commited to testing your product and more interested in buying it) or heavy feature usage serve as intent signals. In short, meaningful in-product activity can be treated as a sign to reach out.

All of these count as first-party intent signals. These are the most reliable clues because they show the [company is directly engaging](/faq/see-companies-engaging-with-linkedin-ads) with your content. Userpilot is a great source of product-led intent signals (that can be pushed from your product into your CRM with webhooks):

- **Second-party intent signals:** account/ contact intent data from partners – for instance, if you’re co-hosting or sponsoring an event or conference, you will often get a list of signups/ participants from the organizer, sometimes together with answers to critical questions like (what is your biggest GTM problem you need to urgently solve right now? Are you currently [evaluating any solutions/ service providers](/blog/demandbase-vs-zenabm) to solve this problem? What is your budget to solve this problem?)
- **Third-party intent signals:** [Data from external intent providers](/blog/account-penetration-strategy-guide). Vendors like Bombora, Demandbase or G2 aggregate content consumption. If people from a target company read any industry articles or view vendor comparison pages, that indicates interest even if they haven’t contacted you. Thirs party intent tools can [track which pages your target account](/blog/linkedin-abm-tools-account-tracking) visited/ what were they searching for by means of cookie & click stream tracking, reverse IP lookups and tracking on private advertising networks.These third-party intent signals are more scalable for outbound  – especially if your company is fairly new – as they give you more information about [accounts](/blog/account-scoring-from-linkedin-ad-data) that are not familiar with your brand, and therefore – may not have engaged with your content / ads yet and may not be in your CRM at all.See the example of 3rd party intent signals based on specific keyword searches (queries) from [6sense](/blog/recotap-vs-6sense):

Source: Martech

## Sources of intent signals for intent-based outbound (how to collect intent signals for intent-led outbound)

Ok, so now you know what types of signals you can collect about your target accounts – let’s make it a little less abstract – and see what signals you should be collecting, from where – and how to collect them.

I thought it would be easiest to do in the form of a table:

| Signal source (1st / 2nd / 3rd party) | Signal type | Where to get the signal from? | What to use the signal for? | Tools for obtaining the signal |
| 1st party | High-intent website visits (pricing, demo, trial pages) | Your CRM/ RB2B/Vector/ Text ad website visitor de-anonymization with ZenABM | Adding the specific page visit to [account scoring](/use-cases/account-scoring) | Your CRM + Tools like RB2B/Vector |
| 1st party | Mid-intent content visits (comparison pages, competitor blogs) | [Blog and content](/blog/demandbase-vs-common-room) page events in CRM and analytics tools | Building “research stage” audiences, nurturing with comparison content, warming up before direct outreach | GA/GA4, HubSpot, Webflow analytics, CMS + CRM event tracking |
| 1st party | Ad click + form fill ([LinkedIn / Google → lead form](/blog/how-to-set-up-linkedin-campaign-manager-hubspot-integration-and-why-theres-a-smarter-way)) | Ad platform + form submissions synced into CRM | Capturing contact-level intent, prioritising fast follow-up, auto-enrolling in signal-based nurture or outbound | LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, [native lead gen forms](/blog/linkedin-ads-hubspot-integration-steps), HubSpot / Salesforce forms |
| 1st party | LinkedIn ad impressions & engagements (company-level) | [LinkedIn Ads → de-anonymised and pushed](/blog/push-linkedin-ad-impressions-to-crm) into CRM | Spotting accounts consuming your ads, scoring account intent, building “warm outbound” lists | ZenABM (de-anonymises and syncs to HubSpot/Salesforce from $59/m), LinkedIn Ads |
| 1st party | [LinkedIn campaign theme engagement](/blog/linkedin-abm-pipeline-reporting-tools) (which ads/campaigns they clicked) | Campaign + creative-level [engagement mapped to companies in CRM](/blog/best-linkedin-ads-crm-connectors) | Understanding what topics each account cares about (AI, analytics, adoption, etc.), powering highly relevant messaging | ZenABM intent tags, [LinkedIn Ads campaign](/blog/what-is-zenabm) data, CRM custom properties |
| 1st party | Gated content downloads (reports, lead magnets) | Form submissions and content download events in [CRM / marketing automation](/blog/linkedin-ads-crm-automation) | Identifying topics of interest, segmenting by use case, triggering follow-up sequences referencing the asset | HubSpot, Marketo, Customer.io, landing page tools (Unbounce, Webflow) |
| 1st party | Webinar / event / exec dinner signups | Registration lists and attendance [data synced into CRM](/blog/linkedin-ad-crm-integration-why-and-how-to-build-it) | Prioritising attendees for follow-up, running post-event outbound, multi-threading into active opportunities | Zoom, Livestorm, Demio, Hopin, event [platforms + CRM integrations](/blog/crm-integrations-linkedin-ad-tracking) |
| 1st party | Social media visits & engagements | Social profile clicks, UTM-tagged visits, social engagement metrics | Identifying who is “lurking” on your brand, warming up accounts with light-touch outreach or content follow-ups | LinkedIn Page analytics, Meta/Instagram analytics, GA/GA4 with UTMs, CRM |
| 1st party (product-led) | Product signup / free trial | Trial signup events and workspace/account creation in product analytics / CRM | Triggering onboarding and AE outreach, qualifying product-qualified leads (PQLs), mapping “evaluation” stage | Userpilot, Mixpanel, Amplitude, in-house event tracking, webhooks → CRM |
| 1st party (product-led) | Product usage & feature adoption | Login frequency, key feature usage, usage depth in product analytics | Identifying highly engaged trials, expansion opportunities, churn risk, and timing sales conversations | Userpilot (in-app events + webhooks), Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap, Segment |
| 2nd party | Co-hosted webinar / event attendee lists | CSV / export from partner or event organiser with signups + survey responses | Joint outbound motions with partners, prioritising accounts with urgent problems, tailoring messaging to survey answers | Partner CRMs, event platforms, spreadsheets synced into your CRM |
| 2nd party | Sponsored conference / community data | Sponsor reports with booth scans, badge swipes, participant lists | Re-engaging people who interacted at events, mapping new accounts into your ICP, running post-event sequences | Conference platforms, sponsor dashboards, manual imports into CRM |
| 3rd party | Category / competitor research behaviour | Page views and research activity tracked across publisher networks and review sites | Discovering net-new in-market accounts outside your CRM, prioritising outbound by “in-market” score | Bombora, Demandbase, 6sense, G2, similar 3rd-party intent providers |
| 3rd party | Keyword/search-based intent (topic or competitor queries) | Search terms and topics monitored by 3rd-party networks | Building campaigns around the exact problems/accounts are researching, triggering outbound when search intent spikes | 6sense, Demandbase, Bombora, other ABM/intent platforms |

Now, let’s see what you can actually do with all these intent signals for intent-led outbound…

## Turning Intent Signals into Outbound Campaigns: Scoring, and Grouping

Once you have these signals, you can tailor your outreach. For example, if a target keeps clicking on an AI-focused ad, you’d follow up with AI-related content (case studies, a webinar invite, etc.). Conversely, a visit to your pricing page is a strong late-stage signal:
In that case you might immediately route that [account to sales or send a personalized](/blog/rollworks-for-abm) email about pricing. The general rule is: match the message to the signal’s intent level.

- **Topic engagement:** An account clicks repeatedly on our “AI for ABM” [ad](/blog/abm-campaign-template). We treat this as mid-funnel interest, serving them more AI content and tagging their record with an “AI intent” flag.
- **Pricing page visit:** This is a high-intent action. We’d trigger immediate outreach — perhaps an SDR call or a tailored email referencing their interest in pricing.
- **Product trial usage:** The company is actively testing our product. We route them to our onboarding team or sales engineer and note any advanced usage to mention in follow-up calls.

## How ZenABM Supports Intent-Led Outbound

ZenABM is our source of not only LinkedIn ad interactions, but allows us to push scored accounts into both your CRM and Clay (for automated prospecting).

ZenABM de-anonymizes your LinkedIn ad engagements (= tells which company engaged with which campaign) and then pushes this data automatically into your CRM – both the raw engagement date (impressions, engagements, clicks) and computed “account scores” (=ABM stages based on combinations of LinkedIn ad engagements, lifecycle stages and custom properties = any of the intent signals you have in your CRM that we’ve discussed before) 

![ZenABM abm stages](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Linkedin-metrics-or-lifecycle-stages.png)

…as well as intent (from the qualitative ad [engagements = which campaigns the accounts](/abm-campaign-analytics-dashboards) engaged with):

![Buyer Intent analysis in ZenABM](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-intents-filter-dropdown.png)

ZenABM ingests your [LinkedIn ad](/faq/see-companies-clicked-on-linkedin-ads) interactions at the company level, computes a real-time score for every account, and tags each account with the campaign or content they engaged:

![HubSpot CRM account view with highlighted LinkedIn Ad Engagement Score and Analytics Intent fields for ABM campaign metrics](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/ZenABM-Hubspot-CRM-LinkedIn-campaign-metrics-2.png)

Then all these intent signals flow directly into your CRM – ZenABM syncs account them into your CRM as custom fields automatically (and creates these fields as well).

You can then build workflows so that any company hitting a certain intent threshold triggers an alert or outreach task – or you can push the data to Clay for autoprospecting (automatically finding the right personas in these accounts for outreach), and then [automated lead routing](/blog/clay-for-abm-experts-share-it-all) or follow-up sequences.

![Clay workflow receiving ZenABM intent companies via webhook, then finding ICP-fit people for outreach](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Get-companies-with-intent-from-ZenABM-into-Clay.png)

In short, [ZenABM bridges marketing signals and sales](/blog/6sense-vs-zenabm) action with very little rev-ops required.

In [ZenABM’s dashboard we see company-level LinkedIn](/linkedin-ad-campaign-insights) engagement visualized: each target account is listed with the campaigns it clicked and an inferred intent or ABM stage. You can also use its AI chatbot, Zena, to pull a specific list of [accounts that engaged with any campaign](/blog/linkedin-ad-engagement-account-level), in any timeframe:

![Zena AI chat in ZenABM listing top 10 engaged companies by ad spend with their ABM stage](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Top-engaged-companies-zena-ai-zenabm-1.png)

With ZenABM, those [LinkedIn ad engagements](/blog/linkedin-ad-engagement-analytics-zenabm) and web visits automatically turn into CRM triggers, so your sales reps only spend time on accounts already primed to buy. As soon as a [company shows buying signals](/blog/demandbase-one-for-abm), you can either automatically prospect into those accounts with Clay and send them into automated outreach sequences e.g. in Smartlead/Heyreach, or notify your sales team in your CRM (Hubspot).

I will explain how to set the automatic prospecting up in more detail in the next few paragraph.

## How to push intent signals from ZenABM into  Clay for auto enrichment?

OK but now you still need to know how to use the intent signals from account level, that you have in ZenABM – to find prospects for outreach in Clay, and add them to the right respective intent-based outreach sequences.

Below, I will show you how to do that + set up filters, connect your Smartlead (email outreach) account, and configure automatic updates to keep your campaigns running smoothly.

**0. [Copy the Clay Template from here [LINK – FREE CLAY TEMPLATE]. ](https://app.clay.com/shared-workbook/share_0t5geg6X8njFpgKZSgD)

![Clay workflow template for intent-led outbound: find companies, find people, then add leads to a campaign](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Clay-template-intent-led-outbound-autoprospecting.png)

1. Go to [ZenABM and under ABM](/pricing) Stages, click on “Edit” next to Interested. Define it as you prefer.

![ZenABM ABM Stages settings listing each stage and its conditions for signal-based outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-abm-stages-configuration.png)

In this example, it’s [companies with three or more clicks](/faq/see-companies-that-saw-your-linkedin-ads). Select what you prefer and then, click on “Update Stage”

**2.** Click on “Update Stage”

![Stage conditions filter setting a clicks metric rule to qualify LinkedIn Ads engagement signals for outreach](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-stage-conditions-filter-setup-2.png)

This playbook works only with Clay’s Explorer plan or higher or on the free trial because Webhooks and Email sequence integrations are only available with those plans.

**3.** You will need Clay’s Explorer plan at least to run this playbook

![Clay pricing plans comparison table with arrows pointing to tier prices and feature rows like integrations](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-pricing-plans-comparison-table.png)

After you copy the Clay template, you will see the full workbook with 2 tables and an Overview.

Go to the first step and click on it.

**4.** Click on “Pull in data from a Webhook”

![Clay workflow pulling companies in the Interested stage from ZenABM via webhook to find their people](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-webhook-data-pull-flow.png)

**5.** Double-click here

![ZenABM workflow with a webhook node pulling data into a custom table for signal-based outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-webhook-data-pull-setup.png)

It will take you to step one, where you need to complete the first step. The first step is to copy the webhook URL you see. Copy it, then go to ZenABM. Click on “Webhooks,” and select “Create a new webhook.”

**6.** Click on “Copy”

![Clay webhook setup panel with the URL Copy button clicked, used to send intent signals into Clay](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-webhook-url-copy-button.png)

**7.** Go to ZenABM, Click on “Webhooks”

![ZenABM app sidebar with Webhooks selected under Data to push intent signals into outbound tools](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-webhooks-data-insights-menu.png)

**8.** Click on “Create new Webhook”

![ZenABM webhooks table with the Create new webhook button for sending signals to tools like Clay](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-create-new-webhook-interface.png)

In this webhook, you will select companies and then name the webhook.

**9.** Click on “Companies”

![ZenABM webhook step selecting Companies engagement data as the data type to send to Clay or Apollo](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-webhook-data-type-selection.png)

**10.**Name the Webhook here:

![ZenABM webhook setup form with a Name field and a URL field for receiving intent signal payloads](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-webhook-name-url-configuration.png)

Paste the webhook you just copied from Clay in the “URL”. Click Next.

**11.** Paste the webhook you just copied from Clay here

![Clay webhook form with empty URL field, where the payload URL for sending intent signals is entered](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-webhook-url-input-form.png)

After you paste the webhook, click Next.

**12.**

Click on “Next”

![ZenABM webhook setup screen with the HTTPS URL field and a cursor clicking the green Next button to continue](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-next-button-workflow.png)

These are the filters. If you want companies from specific campaign groups, campaigns, or ABM campaigns, you can select them. I want everything, so I will ignore this. Click on “Add Filter.” Select “ABM stage” and choose “any of interested.” Ignore the other options.

**13.** Click on “Add filter group”

![ZenABM webhook setup with the Add filter group button under Company Property Filters for account data](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-add-filter-group-button.png)

**14.** Click on “LinkedIn Metric”

![ZenABM webhook filters choosing a LinkedIn metric to send only matching company data to outreach tools](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-metric-property-filters-zenabm.png)

**15.**

Click on “ABM Stage”

![ZenABM webhook setup showing Company Property Filters with a LinkedIn Metric dropdown set to Company Intent](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-company-property-filters-setup.png)

**16.** Click on “Has any of”

![ZenABM webhook company property filter set to ABM Stage 'Has any of' with operator dropdown open](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-company-property-filters-dropdown.png)

**17.** Click on “Select ABM stages”

![ZenABM webhook settings filtering company data by ABM Stage with a 'Has any of' condition](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-company-property-filters.png)

**18.** Click on “Interested”

![ZenABM ABM Stage filter with Interested selected to narrow accounts by buying stage](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-linkedin-interested-filter.png)

Then click Next.

**19.** Click on “Next”

![Clay filter step with the Next button highlighted, used to set up intent signal filters before outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-clay-filter-next-button.png)

From here, I want it to recur for every 7 days, since I plan to run this weekly. So I am going to change the Date Range to “Last 7 Days”.

**20.** Click on Date Range

![ZenABM webhook Data Delivery settings with date range set to Last 90 days before sending data to Clay](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/webhook-data-delivery-date-range.png)

**21.** Select “Last 7 Days”

![Clay data delivery settings with the date range dropdown set to Last 7 days for webhook payloads](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-data-delivery-date-range-selection.png)

Each week, once this occurs, the companies are automatically included.

**22.** Click here:

![Clay Data Delivery settings with Individual mode selected, sending one webhook record per request](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-data-delivery-webhook-setup.png)

**23.** Click on “Individual” under Delivery Mode

![Webhook delivery mode settings with Individual selected as best for Clay, sending one record per request](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/webhook-delivery-mode-individual-selection.png)

Individual, because that’s what’s best for Clay. I will select all of the “Data Fields”, then create the webhook.

**24.** Click on “Create Webhook”

![ZenABM webhook setup choosing LinkedIn data fields for the outgoing payload, with JSON preview](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-data-fields-webhook-configuration.png)

Once I do this, I will go back to Clay for Step 2.

All of these company URLs will be pulled in automatically. I will click on Overview, then Find People, and then Edit Inputs.

**25.** In “Overview”, Click on “Find People”

![Clay workflow with a Find people source step feeding a Person table for finding ICP-fit contacts](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-clay-find-people-source.png)

**26.** Click on “Edit inputs”

![ZenABM job title filter showing include and exclude keywords, exact match field and manual run option](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-job-title-filter-settings.png)

Here, select the filters for your ICP. Including Job Titles, Locations etc.

**27.** Edit the filters for your ICP here

![ZenABM Find People search criteria panel with Job title filter and other filters for targeting contacts](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-search-criteria-filters-setup.png)

List all the job titles you want to include, as well as those you want to exclude. Add any other relevant details as needed.

Adjust the filters as needed, then click Continue.

**28.** Click on “Continue ✓”

![LinkedIn Recruiter search filters panel with Limit results set to 50,000 and the Continue button highlighted](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-recruiter-search-filter-continue.png)

Once you do that, click on…

**29.** Click on “Replace existing rows”

![ZenABM dialog asking whether to add new rows or replace existing rows before continuing a search](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-replace-existing-rows-dialog.png)

Click on “Replace Rows”, and you’re done.

**30.** Click on “Replace rows”

![Replace existing rows dialog warning that all rows are deleted before importing new LinkedIn lead data](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-replace-rows-dialog-confirmation.png)

Now It will prospect into your ICP from the Interested Stage companies automatically. Go to Step 2 now.

**31.** Click on “Step 2”

![Clay workflow step two, Finding ICP fit people, lists contacts after the companies step in outbound setup](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-step-two-finding-icp-fit-people.png)

This table, finds the work emails of the [prospects](/blog/abm-content-examples) and pushes them to the relevant Smartlead and HeyReach campaigns automatically. By default the “Work Email” column is turned off so you don’t spend Clay credits unexpectidly. If you want to automatically find the work emails for your ICP in those interested stage companies, you need to enable “Auto Update” for this column.

**32.** Click on “Work Email”

![Clay table showing the Work Email column selected to find ICP contacts before adding leads to a campaign](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-work-email-column-selector.png)

Click on “Edit Column.” Then, you…

**33.** Click on “Edit column”

![Clay table's Work Email column menu with Edit column selected in the ICP people-finding step](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/work-email-column-edit-menu.png)

**34.** Click here

![Clay column settings for Company Social Profile URL showing a 'Please select a valid value' error](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-company-social-profile-url-settings.png)

**35.** Click here

![Clay table run settings with auto-update toggle and 'Only run if' condition for refreshing company data](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-clay-auto-update-settings.png)

Turn on “Auto-update”.

If you want to change certain settings, you can do so in “Full Configration”. If not, let it be. Click on “Save”.

**36.** Click on “Save”

![Clay run settings with an Only run if filter to limit enrichment to qualifying accounts for signal outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-run-settings-configuration-panel.png)

Now to select the right Smartlead Campaign to add the prospect to, follow these steps.

**37.** Click on the column “Add Lead to Campaigns”

![Clay table with Add Lead to Campaign column selected beside LinkedIn Profile and Work Email columns](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/add-lead-to-campaign-column-selection.png)

Here you need to select which Smartlead campaign do you want to add the prospect automatically to.

**38.** Click on “Edit column”

![Clay table column menu showing Edit column, Insert column and Run column options next to a LinkedIn Ads lead campaign step](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/edit-column-menu-options.png)

If your Smartlead account is already connected, select your account. Then, choose the campaign you want.

**39.** Click on “Select [Smartlead.ai](https://smartlead.ai/) account”

![Smartlead UI for selecting an account and mapping columns when adding leads to an outbound campaign](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartlead-account-selection-mapping.png)

**40.** Click on “Campaign ID” to select the right campaign

![Clay column mapping that links Find people fields like work email and names to a campaign setup](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-column-mapping-campaign-setup.png)

If your smartlead account isn’t connected, click “Add Account” and name your connection.

**41.** Click on “+ Add account”

![Smartlead.ai account dropdown in a Clay workflow for choosing where warm outbound sequences are sent](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartlead-account-selection-dropdown.png)

To get your Smartlead API key, go to Smartlead and click on Settings.

**42.** Click here

![SmartProspect lead discovery screen with AI Search, a red arrow pointing to the top-right account icon](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartprospect-lead-discovery-interface.png)

**43.** Click on “Settings”

![SmartProspect settings menu showing credit usage and Settings option for managing outbound lead credits](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartprospect-settings-menu-dropdown.png)

Click on API key management, then copy the API key.

**44.** Click on “API Key Management”

![Smartlead settings sidebar with API Key Management highlighted, where outbound tools get connection keys](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/api-key-management-settings-panel.png)

Copy the API key from this location. Click on “Copy.”

**45.** Click here

![Smartlead Admin API Key page with masked key and reset option, used to connect outbound tools like Clay](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/admin-api-key-interface.png)

Go back to Clay and name your connection however you like.

In this example let’s name it “Smartlead connection”. Paste the key here. Click save, test, and save.

**46.** Click here

![Smartlead.ai API key setup dialog showing the connection name and masked API key field before saving](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartlead-api-key-connection-setup.png)

**47.** Paste the API key you copied from Smartlead here

![Smartlead.ai API key dialog to connect Smartlead for sending enriched leads into outbound sequences](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartlead-api-key-connection-dialog.png)

**48.** Click on “Test account & save”

![Smartlead connection dialog with API key field and Save menu open, highlighting the Test account & save option](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/smartlead-api-key-test-account-save.png)

Now your Smartlead account is connected to Clay.

Simply choose the campaign you want to run and the other fields will populate automatically.

**49.** Select the campaign you want to push the contacts to

![Campaign ID dropdown in an automation setup panel, with the ZenABM campaign selected from a list of options](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-campaign-id-dropdown-selection.png)

If you want to add custom fields, you can do so.

**50.** Click on “Custom Fields”

![Clay Find people step with location and company domain fields mapped for warm outbound lead enrichment](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/custom-fields-zenabm-clay-campaign.png)

If not, you can leave it as is. To set this to run automatically, click on auto-update. Then select save and run.

**51.** Click here

![ZenABM campaign run settings with Auto-update toggle and an Only run if filter on Work Email for intent-based lead updates](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-campaign-run-settings-panel.png)

**52.** Click here

![ZenABM campaign run settings with auto-update enabled and the Save button highlighted for lead filtering](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-campaign-run-settings-save.png)

**53.** Click on “Save and run rows in this view”

![Clay table settings with auto-update on and a 'Save and run 0 rows in this view' option for enrichment](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/linkedin-campaign-save-run-rows-view.png)

After this, you do the same for HeyReach. If it is connected, you can simply choose any campaign you want. If not, you connect it via API.

**54.** Click on “Add Lead to Campaign”

![Clay table with an Add Lead to Campaign button highlighted in a work email enrichment workflow](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/add-lead-to-campaign-button.png)

**55.** Click on “Edit column”

![Clay column dropdown menu with Edit column highlighted for adding LinkedIn Ads leads to campaigns](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/edit-column-dropdown-menu-options.png)

**56.** Click here

![Clay column mapping screen linking Find people name fields and Campaign ID for warm outbound workflows](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-clay-linkedin-column-mapping.png)

If Heyreach isn’t connected, click Add Account.

**57.** Click on “+ Add account”

![Clay workflow screen with HeyReach API selected as account and the Add account option in the dropdown](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/clay-add-heyreach-account-dropdown.png)

**58.** Click here

![Add HeyReach API Key dialog in Clay for linking HeyReach outreach to a signal-based prospect table](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-api-key-setup-dialog.png)

First, name your connection. Then, obtain the API key for HeyReach.

**59.** Click here

![HeyReach API key connection dialog with an empty required API key field for linking outbound tools](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-api-key-connection-dialog.png)

Go to HeyReach and click on Integrations. Select HeyReach API, then click Get API. Copy the API key. Go back to Clay, paste the key, then click Test Account and Save.

**60.** Go to HeyReach. Then “Integrations”

![HeyReach Integrations menu showing the Clay option for sending enriched leads into outbound campaigns](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-integrations-menu-api.png)

**61.** Click on “Get API key”

![HeyReach integrations settings with Connect buttons for Clay, Zapier and HeyReach API for outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/hayreach-integrations-settings-panel.png)

**62.** Click here

![Integration settings page showing the HeyReach API key field and the Get API Key button highlighted](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-api-key-integration-settings.png)

**63.** Go back to Clay. And paste the API Key here

![HeyReach API key connection dialog in a Clay table, used to link HeyReach to outbound lead workflows](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-api-key-connection-setup.png)

**64.** Click on “Test account & save”

![HeyReach integration Save menu with the Test account & save option for connecting LinkedIn outreach](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/heyreach-test-account-save.png)

It will save, and that’s it. You can now choose your Heyreach Sequence you want to add the prospects into and add custom fields if needed. It will work automatically.

If you enable auto-update, click Run.

**65.** Toggle on “Auto-update”

![Clay Run settings with Auto-update toggle highlighted and an Only run if condition on LinkedIn Profile](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-clay-auto-update-run-settings.png)

**66.** Click on “Save and run rows in this view”

![Clay dialog highlighting the 'Save and run 0 rows in this view' option for running enrichment on table rows](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/save-run-rows-workflow-dialog.png)

Okay. Everything is now set.

Go to ZenABM and click “Trigger Webhook.” That’s all you need to do.

**67.** Click on “Trigger webhook”

![Webhook list with Test and Trigger webhook buttons, cursor clicking Trigger to send a webhook](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/webhook-trigger-action-buttons.png)

Now, return to your [Clay account](/blog/clay-for-target-account-list-building-abm). You will start to [see companies appearing](/faq/see-companies-that-saw-your-linkedin-ads) gradually.

Okay, this is how it will look. It will fetch each individual webhook and automatically find people. It will find your ICP in those Interested accounts, find their emails, and add them to the appropriate campaigns.

That is all you need to do.

**68.** How it will look on Step 1

![Clay table of companies in the Interested stage imported from ZenABM, ready for people search and outbound](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-linkedin-stage-companies-list.png)

**69.** How it will look on Step 2

![Clay table step two, finding ICP-fit people at ZenABM interested-stage companies before outbound outreach](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-step-two-finding-icp-list.png)

**Ready to leverage intent-led outbound?** [Try ZenABM free for 37 days](https://app.zenabm.com) or [book a demo](/book-a-demo) to see how ad engagement signals can power your outbound strategy.

## **🚨 Want this intent-led outbound workflow set up FOR YOU — for free?**

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✅ Plus: Salescaptain will write your entire **email outreach sequence** for free
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This offer is genuinely insane value — and it’s the fastest way to [launch](/blog/productive-case-study) a warm-outbound motion that actually generates pipeline.

👉 **Want this implemented for you?**
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## How I used Intent-based Outbound at Userpilot

When I took over our outbound motion at Userpilot in 2025, we realised our outbound motion was still behaving like it’s 2015:

- big cold lists,
- generic sequences,
- and a lot of “just checking in” emails nobody asked for.

At the same time, we were drowning in **signals**:

- who trialled,
- who no-showed a demo,
- who downloaded our “lead magnets”, e.g. our “SaaS product benchmark report”,
- who used Userpilot at their previous company,
- who’s hiring PMs and PMMs,
- who was clicking on our ABM ads…

So instead of “motivating SDRs to send more emails”, we decided to change the rules:

> **No signal → no outbound.**
> **Strong signal → strong offer.**

This is how we actually run **signal-based outbound at Userpilot** today – using HubSpot, our own product data (from Userpilot into Hubspot), [LinkedIn ad](/blog/how-do-linkedin-ads-work) engagement data and intent based on which ads the accounts engaged in (pushed from ZenABM into Hubspot and Clay), 3rd-party intent signals found in Clay from other tools like Builtwith (technographics – mainly competitors tool usage & , SmartLead and HeyReach.

## **What “signal-based outbound” means for us**

For every contact, we try to answer two questions before we ever reach out:

1. **Why now?**
What just happened that makes this a good time to talk?
2. **Why this?**
What’s the most relevant *offer* or angle based on that signal?

Instead of starting from “all SaaS companies 50–500 employees in the US”, we start from:

- “people who no-showed a demo this week,”
- “alumni who used Userpilot at a previous job and just switched roles,”
- “accounts where 3+ people hit the pricing page this week,”
- “companies launching a new product while hiring PMs and CS roles.”

All of that gets translated into:

- **contact-level signals** (what *this person* did), and
- **account-level signals** (what’s happening across the *whole company*),

and then orchestrated through:

- **Clay** → signal plumbing + AI copy
- **SmartLead** → email
- **HeyReach** → LinkedIn

## **Step 1 – Choosing the signals (with Sales & CS, not in a vacuum)**

We didn’t invent the signals in a Notion doc alone. We sat down with:

- Sales,
- Customer Success,
- and reviewed QBRs / closed-won patterns.

We literally asked:

> “In the deals we actually won, what *always* happened before they talked to sales?”

The patterns were painfully obvious:

- people who **requested a demo** (even if they no-showed) were much more likely to buy,
- people who **used Userpilot before** (and then changed jobs) were incredibly easy to sell to again,
- people who downloaded the **SaaS Product Metrics Benchmark Report**, came to **Product Drive**, or joined **Product Adoption School** were clearly “our people”,
- accounts hiring **Product / Growth / CS / PMM / UX** while shipping new features screamed “adoption problem”.

So we turned that into a **prioritised signal list**.

### **Contact-level signals we care about most**

In priority order:

1. **Past product users**
    - customers who switched jobs
    - churned users
    - ex-trial users
2. **Past sales interactions**
    - demo no-show
    - demo request
    - closed-lost
    - disqualified
    - chatbot conversations (Drift)
3. **High-intent website visits (this comes partly from RB2B + Vector and partly from ZenABM – running text ads to page visitor audiences)**
    - pricing page
    - demo page
    - other high-converting pages
4. **Referrals**
    - especially from partners like Userlane
5. **Past marketing interactions**
    - our in-person events (Austin dinner, Dublin events, etc.)
    - 3rd-party events we sponsor
    - Product Drive, webinars
    - SaaS Benchmark Report
    - newsletter subscribers
    - Product Adoption Dictionary
    - Product Adoption School
6. **Other website visits**
    - medium- and low-intent pages
7. **Social**
    - follows the Userpilot LinkedIn page

### **Account-level signals we care about most**

In priority order:

1. **Past product usage at the account**
    - ex-customers
    - past POCs / trials
2. **Past sales interactions at the account**
    - closed-lost deals
    - disqualified accounts
3. **Ad engagement**
    - ABM stage
    - intent from LinkedIn ads
    - clicks, engagements, impressions
4. [**High-intent website at account](/faq/identify-high-intent-accounts-linkedin-ads) level**
    - multiple people hitting pricing/demo/high-conv pages in a short window
5. **3rd-party + contextual signals**
    - TAM/SAM fit
    - GTM motion (PLG vs sales-led)
    - tech stack (Pendo, Appcues, GainsightPX etc.)
    - product/feature launch
    - hiring signals (Product, Growth, CS, Design, PMM, UX)
    - headcount growth in product org
    - leadership changes (new CPO, VP Product, CCO, etc.)
    - changelog / release note velocity
    - 3rd-party intent (Sales Nav, HubSpot, G2)
    - G2 activity (reviews, category views, comparisons)

## **Step 2 – Turning signals into “hot, warm, cold” buckets**

A long list of signals is useless if everybody ends up in the same sequence.

So we grouped both **contacts** and **accounts** into three buckets: **hot**, **warm**, **cold** – based on those signals.

### **Contact buckets**

**HOT contacts**

- past product users (customers, trial users, job-switchers)
- recent sales interactions (no-show, demo request, recent closed-lost, recent DQ, chatbot)
- high-intent website visits (pricing, demo, high-conv pages)
- our own in-person events
- interactive demo, Pendo calculator, etc.

**WARM contacts**

- older qualified deals / trials
- past DQs (older)
- medium-intent website visits
- online events (webinars, Product Drive)
- SaaS Benchmark downloads
- Userlane referrals
- 3rd-party events we sponsored

**COLD contacts**

- low-intent website visits
- newsletter/blog subscribers
- Product Adoption Dictionary
- Product Adoption School
- “passive” content consumers

### **Account buckets**

**HOT accounts**

- ex-customers, past POCs/trials
- recent closed-lost / DQ
- Pendo / direct competitor in the stack
- strong ABM ad engagement (clicks, intent)
- high-intent website visits at account level

**WARM accounts**

- older deals/trials
- product/feature launch
- hiring in relevant roles
- product org headcount growth
- GainsightPX / similar in stack
- medium-intent website visits
- referrals (e.g. Userlane)

**COLD accounts**

- old DQs
- 3rd-party intent only (no first-party behaviour yet)
- G2 page views with no other signal
- or simply outside our ICP

Then we use a really simple rule:

- **Hot contact OR hot account → we outreach.**
- **Warm / warm or warm / cold → we outreach or nurture, depending on capacity.**
- **Cold / cold → we do nothing.**

This one matrix saves us from spamming people “because the sequence is ready”:

![Prioritization matrix pairing contact and account signals with Outreach, Nurture or Do Nothing actions](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Prioritization-matrix-for-intent-based-outreach-.png)

## Step 3 – Wiring signals into Clay (without building a scoring monster)

Now the nerdy bit.

In Clay, every row = one **contact**. For each contact we pull in:

- their **contact-level signals** (booleans + dates),
- their **account-level signals** (via a related “company” table),
- and some light metadata (persona, company size, domain, etc.).

Instead of building a huge Frankenstein scoring model, or sending these awkward, extremely long outbound emails (see the image below ;)) covering someone’s entire work history that just scream “automation”, we do something much simpler:

![Hands holding a tall, narrow screen packed with dense text, showing an overload of intent signal data](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Intent-led-outbound-overdose.png)

1. For each contact, pick a **single “primary” signal**
→ the strongest, freshest signal from the priority list.
e.g. “DEMO\_REQUEST”, “CUSTOMER\_SWITCHED\_JOBS”, “PRICING\_VIEW”.
2. Optionally pick a **“supporting” contact signal**
→ the next best, *if* it’s still fresh.
e.g. primary = “DEMO\_REQUEST”, supporting = “PRICING\_VIEW”.
3. Pick **one account-level primary signal**
→ e.g. “PENDO\_TAG”, “FEATURE\_LAUNCH”, “HIRING\_SIGNAL”, “MULTI\_PRICING\_VISITORS”.
4. Add **soft context lines**
    - “looks like a couple of teammates checked this recently”
    - “many teams on Pendo use Userpilot to ship PM-led experiments faster”
but never naming individuals or exact timestamps.

Everything is driven by **tiny rules** like:

- only treat a demo request as “fresh” for 7 days,
- high-intent page views for 2–3 days,
- job-switching customers for 90 days,
- competitor tags for 30 days,
- LinkedIn ad impessions > 10 / clicks > 3 in the last 30 days
- etc.

If a contact has *no* fresh contact signal and *no* interesting account signal, the row is simply **skipped**.

No signal, no outreach.

## Step 4 – Letting AI turn signals into actual outreach

Once each Clay row knows:

- contact\_primary\_signal
- contact\_supporting\_signal (optional)
- account\_primary\_signal (optional)
- team\_interest\_line / competitor\_line
- persona, company, domain, size,

…we feed that into **one AI block** that does just two things:

1. Writes a **short email** (≤120 words)
2. Writes a **LinkedIn opener** (≤35 words)

Some constraints we’ve found critical:

- max **two explicit signals** in the copy (primary + either supporting or account),
- no tracking language (“we saw you clicked X at 13:22 yesterday”),
- no naming colleagues (“Tom from your team…”),
- CTA is always a **10-minute fit check** or a short **Loom** – nothing heavy.

Example shapes:

- For a job-switcher champion:
“You used Userpilot at <PreviousCo>, congrats on the new role at <NewCo> – if you want to copy the same adoption playbooks there, we can walk you through what’s changed since you last used us.”
- For pricing-page + benchmark report:
“You’ve been digging into your SaaS metrics and pricing page – we can show you how teams like yours use in-app checklists and driven actions to move those numbers without writing code.”

The offers change, but the pattern stays:

> **Signal → offer → shortest possible path to value.**

## Step 5 – The 5 phases of our signal-based outbound motion

To keep ourselves sane, we rolled this out in **five phases**, from “spiciest” signals to broader plays.

### Phase 1 – Tier 0 high-intent inbound

**Signals:**

- demo no-shows
- demo requested but not scheduled
- partnership leads (e.g. Userlane)
- chatbot conversations

These people are already raising their hand – something just broke.

What we do:

- Put them into SmartLead + HeyReach with very direct offers:
    - “We’ll build your first onboarding checklist for free.”
    - “We’ll design your onboarding flow and you only pay if you like the results.”
- Daily capacity:
    - \~90 emails/day (3 mailboxes)
    - \~20 LinkedIn connections/day (5 accounts)
- If the primary contact doesn’t move in 7 days, we **fan out to 8 other contacts** in the same account.

This alone stops us wasting the highest-intent inbound.

---

### Phase 2 – Tier 1–2 inbound (“mid-tier inbound leads”)

**Signals:**

- form fills (benchmark report, PAS, Product Drive, etc.)
- webinar signups
- relevant website visits
- partnership referrals
- ad engagements (LinkedIn/Google/etc.)

These people are not yet asking for a demo, but they are clearly in our world.

What we do:

- Run SmartLead + HeyReach sequences that **explicitly reference** the signal:
    - “You joined Product Adoption School – here’s a 2-minute Loom on how people implement those lessons inside Userpilot.”
- Maintain capacity:
    - 3 mailboxes, \~90 emails/day
    - \~100 LinkedIn connections/day
- Don’t stop at one person: again, up to **8 contacts per account** if it’s a good fit.

This fills the gap between “content consumer” and “active opportunity”.

### Phase 3 – Alumni & job-change plays

**Signals:**

- past users, champions, trialists, POC contacts who changed jobs,
- ex-customers now at new companies.

These are our favourite: they already know what Userpilot does.

What we do:

- Identify alumni using HubSpot + enrichment.
- Filter for new companies that match our ICP and SAM.
- Reach out with a very simple angle:
    - “You used Userpilot at <OldCo>, congrats on the move. When you’re ready to fix onboarding and adoption at <NewCo>, we can help you set it up faster than last time.”

If they don’t respond, same rule: **we expand within the account**.

### Phase 4 – SAM account-level prospecting (3rd-party + ABM signals)

**Signals:**

- ABM ad [engagement + Interested ABM stage](/blog/abm-engagement-penetration-strategy),
- account-level website behaviour (multiple high-intent visitors),
- Pendo/Appcues/GainsightPX in the stack,
- product/feature launches,
- hiring / headcount growth in Product, Growth, CS, PMM, Design.

This is where we scale up across our Strategic Addressable Market.

What we do:

- Use Clay to find the right personas in those accounts.
- Match **signals to offers**:
    - new feature launch → in-app tours & checklists package
    - Pendo tag → “Pendo + Userpilot” or “Pendo replacement” play
    - hiring spike in Product → PLG activation / onboarding play
- Capacity:
    - \~640 emails/day (40 mailboxes x 20 emails)
    - \~80 LinkedIn connections/day

All of this sits on [top of evergreen ABM campaigns](/blog/abm-campaign-examples), so they see us in their feed while we’re in their inbox.

### Phase 5 – Expansion plays for existing customers

**Signals:**

- new products or modules
- mobile app launch
- acquisitions / big growth moments
- usage patterns that scream “expansion opportunity”

What we do:

- Treat this as **AE-owned**, not spam-automation.
- When an expansion signal fires, the AE gets:
    - a short context line,
    - a concrete, adoption-led offer.
- If nothing happens for 30 days, we review with CS and Sales before automating anything.

This keeps expansion aligned with relationships, not just sequences.

## Capacity, guardrails & exclusions

To avoid turning this into sophisticated spam, we enforce a few guardrails:

- **Email capacity:**
40 mailboxes × 20 emails/day
→ \~800 emails/day
→ \~4,000/week
→ \~16,000/month
(≈ 2,000 companies/month if we assume \~8 contacts per account)
- **LinkedIn capacity:**
5 accounts × 20 connections/day
→ \~100/day
→ \~500/week
→ \~2,000/month (≈ 250 companies)
- **Exclusions:**
    - existing customers
    - open/active deals
    - closed-lost in the last 90 days
    - churned in the last 9 months
    - non-SaaS / no web or mobile app
    - company size <10 or >3,000
    - TAM/SAM = not a target
- **Rules per account:**
    - cap to **2 contacts per account per day**,
    - skip contacts with **no fresh signal**,
    - skip accounts with **no meaningful signal**.

## Intend-led Outbound Playbooks Examples

Here’s a bunch of playbooks you can use for intent-led outbound (using signals):

![Intent led outbound workflow 6](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/2-1.png)

## 

![Intent led outbound workflow 2](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/6.png)

![Intent led outbound workflow 3](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/5.png)

![Intent led outbound workflow 4](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/4.png)

![Intent led outbound workflow 5](https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/3.png)

## Summary: Embracing an Intent-Based Outbound Approach

By “inbound-led [outbound” we mean treating inbound engagement signals](/blog/zenabm-warm-outbound) (like ad clicks) as triggers for outbound sales action. In practice, this has [aligned our marketing and sales](/blog/terminus-vs-zenabm) perfectly. [ZenABM](/) logs that intent in HubSpot and automatically queues it for our BDRs with personalized context. We no longer send cold outreach blindly – each sequence is seeded by actual behavior. The result is a true flywheel: marketing fuels sales, and sales feedback refines marketing. Our inbound-led outbound approach has turned passive interest into active pipeline and made our [ABM outreach](/use-cases/bdr-outreach) dramatically more effective.

## Images

- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/zenabm-logo.png
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/assets/zenabm-gif.gif
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/Company-LinkedIn-ad-engagements-in-ZenABM-1-1-scaled.png
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/In-app-events-Userpilot-1st-party-intent-signals-scaled.png
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/SearchSense-showing-companies-searching-for-specific-B2B-keywords-in-6sense.webp
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/ZenABM-intent-stages.png
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/ZenABM-conditions-for-intent-led-outbound.png
- https://cdn.zenabm.com/media/7.png