TL;DR
- Capture event intent data across sessions, pricing re-opens, booth scans; tie every action to people and target accounts.
- Run a tight loop: capture → saved views (heat + theme) → sales alerts → tailored deck modules that match buying intent.
- Fire alerts only on real heat (e.g., 3 high-heat intent signals in 72 hours) and include the last 5 actions plus a suggested opener.
- Reps assemble decks from tagged modules, ending generic follow-ups and speaking to the buyer’s trail.
- Ownership split: marketing teams capture/enrich; sales teams respond fast (≤2 hours on high-heat).
- From our Informa case study: +10X lead form completions, +40X survey completion rate, 5,000+ offer clicks per 1M impressions, 9% engagement on premium recs, 1.2% uplift in recirculation conversions, and +12K pageviews per 1M. (Source: Informa Case Study)
A sharp deck can’t rescue a weak read on the room. If your sales team can’t see which website visitor saved the agenda, re-opened pricing, or scanned the same booth twice, you’re guessing. And guessing costs you. According to RAIN Group, insight-oriented sellers are 3× more likely to report prospecting success, meaning the ones who can see and act on buyer intent close more deals, faster.
The fix is simple and stubborn: show reps a timeline of intent signals that ties people to target accounts, then let those signals decide who gets what pitch and when.
While working with Informa, we didn’t start by rewriting slides. We started by making buyer intent visible and usable, inside existing workflows. The payoff: more engagement, more first-party data, and more monetisable clicks, without extra ad spend. (Source: Informa Case Study)
Why conversions stall when intent data is missing
When buyer intent data is invisible, follow-ups look the same and arrive late. Marketing captures a lead; sales teams get it days later; the moment passes. Slides get edits while the signal problem stays unsolved. Once the trail is visible, outreach shifts from ‘just checking in’ to ‘you bookmarked the compliance track and downloaded the ROI case, here’s how we do this in your stack.’
Informa’s lift didn’t come from a new pitch deck; it came from unlocking intent data and turning it into actions that a rep could use, right inside their day-to-day tools. (Source: Informa Case Study)
What actually counts as event buyer intent
Not every click is equal. A meeting request, pricing re-open, or booth scan tied to a download is hot, especially since companies using buyer intent data report up to a 25% conversion lift compared to unknown lead flows. Session bookmarks and replays sit in the middle, still worth a same-day touch. A lone blog visit is cool and belongs in nurture. Tag each action as a buying signal, attach it to a person and account, and split ownership: marketing teams capture and enrich; sales teams move fast.
Informa’s agents made this easy to observe: the Polling Agent pulled real answers in-flow, the Offerwall Agent drove qualified clicks on premium content, and the Knowledge Agent pushed relevant recommendations to keep the session alive. . (Source: Informa Case Study)
See our deep dive in ‘Sponsor ROI, Finally Counted’ on how different event engagement types map to real purchase intent.
The smarter qualification loop, four moves your org can actually run
1) Engagement across the audience interactions → clean buyer intent data
Instrument the event app, email opens, event apps, website, badge scans, and content consumed (online and offline) with consistent IDs. Every intent signal lands on a single person profile and a single target account. Duplicates kill trust, so fix those first. Informa ran this inside its existing setup; no heavy rebuild. (Source: Informa Case Study)
2) Segment by heat and theme with saved views
Turn raw actions into saved views that reps can trust: ‘AI Security, 3+ signals in 7 days,’ ‘Finance Ops, pricing re-opens + ROI case study,’ ‘SMB Owners, demo signup + feature tour replay.’ Each view shows recency, frequency, and the theme that should steer the conversation.
3) Send alerts that actually help the sales team
Fire alerts only when thresholds hit (e.g., three high-heat buyer intent signals in seventy-two hours). Include the last five actions, the theme, and a suggested opener. Route to a named owner; no round-robin on live heat. Informa’s teams managed this via a self-serve dashboard with live tweaks and A/B tests. . (Source: Informa Case Study)
4) Tailor the deck to the buying intent
Build a small library of modular slides, pain, proof, offer, tagged by theme. From a saved view, a rep grabs the right stack and sends a deck that speaks to the buyer’s trail. Keep a changelog; retire deadweight slides and double down on winners. Informa’s integration with existing lead and content systems made this flow natural. (Source: Informa Case Study)
You might also like ‘AI’s Empty Hype?‘ on why real growth comes from hyper-personalisation based on intent, not one-size-fits-all AI outputs.
What the data showed in the Informa rollout
Making intent data visible paid off quickly. Premium content recommendations earned a 9% engagement rate; article recirculation saw a 1.2% conversion lift; sessions stretched with +12K additional pageviews per 1M views. The Offerwall Agent delivered 5,000+ offer clicks per 1M impressions, while form completions jumped 10X and survey completion 40X, a huge boost to first-party buyer intent signals that can fuel follow-up and offers. (Source: Informa Case Study)
And it’s not just our results. In 2025, companies using intent-driven strategies report 78% higher conversion rates, so the improvements we saw with Informa are not anomalies; they reflect a widespread performance pattern.
Signal heat, owners, and SLAs: At a glance
Use this as a starting point, then tune with your own volume.
| Heat | Examples of intent signals | Primary owner | SLA |
| High | Pricing re-open, demo/meeting request, booth scan + download | Sales | ≤2 hours |
| Mid | Session bookmark or replay, repeated saved views of sponsors | Sales | Same day |
| Low | Single blog visit, newsletter opt-in | Marketing | Nurture within 48 hours |
Final Words
At the end of the day, the real edge in event sales isn’t the slides your team presents, it’s the signals they can see and trust. A sharp deck only works when it’s backed by a clear read on buyer intent, transparent scoring, and timelines that make sense to reps in the moment. When marketing, sales, and RevOps work from the same signals, the guesswork disappears and conversations move faster, with relevance built in.
That’s why we built a practical scoring framework which is simple enough for sales to trust, structured enough for RevOps to maintain, and proven enough to deliver results like Informa’s.
Download the full scoring guide to see the model, weights, thresholds, and playbooks you can use to bring buyer intent into every pitch.
FAQ
Q. What is buyer intent and how is it different from a lead score?
A. Buyer intent is the trail, pricing views, session bookmarks, booth scans, that shows real interest. A score is a shorthand for routing. Use both: the number to prioritise, the timeline to sell.
Q. Which intent signals matter most after events?
A. Pricing re-opens, demo/meeting requests, booth scans tied to content, and session bookmarks that turn into replays. These patterns tell you heat and theme. (Informa’s workflow used Polling, Offerwall, and Knowledge agents to surface exactly this.) (Source: Informa Case Study)
Q. How do I turn intent data into alerts that don’t spam the team?
A. Set thresholds, bundle by account, include only the last five actions, and add a short opener. Digest for mid-heat; instant for high-heat. (Informa ran this via a self-serve dashboard.) (Source: Informa Case Study)
Q. Do I need a CDP to use buyer intent data well?
A. Helpful at scale, not required to start. Clean IDs across your app, site, CRM, and MAP go a long way.