The New ABM Intent: Key Buyer Signals Are Now Contact-Level

Oct 3, 2025 · 54:04 · Product Guide
Kaela Clark Head of Product Marketing · Influ2
Dmitri Lisitski Co-founder & CEO · Influ2
Katie Penner VP of Sales Development · Influ2
Davis Potter CEO · ForgeX
Kevin 'KD' Dorsey CRO at Finally; Founder, Sales Leadership Accelerator · Finally

Key takeaways

ForgeX research shows 67% of ABM programs see higher ROI than other marketing programs, yet only 52% of organizations have been investing in ABM for one to two years.
Account-level intent leaves sales asking 'who should I call?' — contact-level intent names exactly who is showing interest, where, and about what, so reps know who to target and what to say.
Audience Scope detects search intent at the search stage itself, capturing signals even when buyers stop at an AI summary and never click through — the zero-click reality that is eroding web traffic and MQLs.
Intent is a short-lived impulse: instead of warming up an account and then passing it to sales, marketing and sales should act on contact-level signals immediately and work in parallel.
KD's KPICC framework — Know, Problem, Impact, Connect the dots, Call to agreement — structures signal-based outreach; lead with relevance rather than creepy personalization, and seek agreement before asking for a meeting.

Chapters

Intro
The future of ABM
The new contact-level intent by Influ2
Signal Center product demo
Turning intent signals into revenue
The KPICC framework from Kevin 'KD' Dorsey
Example plays: content, search, and social signals

Q&A

How did you get into ABM?

At GlobalLogic, a 30,000-person IT services business, Lisitski was unsettled that marketing contributed almost nothing to a sales-driven go-to-market. A 2015 Demandbase conference convinced him ABM was the answer to how marketing can target the specific accounts sales is pursuing.Dmitri Lisitski

How does ABM differ from the traditional demand-waterfall, MQL-volume approach?

For enterprise sales motions there are no MQLs — you want to focus on 10, 20, or 100 accounts, a tiny slice of a traditional audience, mirroring how salespeople prospect their biggest potential wins.Dmitri Lisitski

What are the historical limitations of ABM technology around precision and intent?

Account-level targeting can't reliably reach the right people — in a 150,000-person company like Microsoft, the odds of hitting actual decision makers are tiny, and account-level intent leaves the obvious question unanswered: who in this account should I call? That inspired founding Influ2 to execute ABM at the contact level.Dmitri Lisitski

How do AI and zero-click search impact the buying journey, and where does contact-level intent fit?

Buyers do their homework via AI and research before ever talking to sales, so search traffic and clicks are declining. Influ2 captures search intent even when someone only reads an AI summary, plus content intent from articles they read — critically, tied to the named individual.Dmitri Lisitski

How should contact-level intent change personalization in campaigns and outreach?

Don't point at what someone searched — that's creepy. Use the intent to be relevant: build the conversation around the topic they care about. Relevancy matters more than personalization, especially as AI-scaled outreach needs contact-level signals to know what to say.Dmitri Lisitski

What should a team do when contact-level intent appears in a target account?

Break the old pattern of waiting for enough account-level intent before handing to sales. Intent is a short-lived impulse, so act immediately: pass signals to sales for relevant outreach while marketing keeps engaging — the two work in parallel.Dmitri Lisitski

What happens when a rep is told 'someone at a big account clicked on ABM' with no name or context?

One of two bad outcomes: they do nothing because they don't know what to do with it, or they misattribute the intent to the wrong person and reach out inaccurately — which can burn the bridge at the very account they were trying to win.Kevin 'KD' Dorsey

What's the right next step when reps see a social post signal, and what mistakes do teams make?

Understand the difference between intent and interest — reps see a post and go too fast and too aggressive. You only get to shoot your shot once or twice, so contextualize the post, add insight, weave its language into the message, and end with a call to agreement rather than a pitch.Kevin 'KD' Dorsey

Quotes

There's no such thing as an account journey, because each buyer has its own journey.Dmitri Lisitski
Relevancy is more important than personalization — that's basically our idea.Dmitri Lisitski
Intent data sounds like this silver bullet, but here's the truth: intent on its own doesn't pay the bills.Katie Penner
We have to make sure that we understand the difference between intent and interest.Kevin 'KD' Dorsey
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