3 Jun 2026Guides
Guides

Buyer intent data for lead scoring

Use buyer intent data through Deepline skills first, then deploy validated scoring motions as scripts and Workflows.

DDeepline

Action and system primitives

Primitive 1: timing, not proof

Buyer intent data can help prioritize accounts, but it should not override fit. A weak intent signal from a poor-fit account is still a poor-fit account.

Scoring questionIntent field to inspectHuman rule
Is the account in-market?topic, category, recencyonly count signals tied to ICP topics
Should a rep act now?signal age, strength if availablerecent signals beat stale signals
Is this a good account?fit fields plus intentfit comes before timing
What should happen next?reason, next actionroute only when the reason is explainable

Primitive 2: the intent-scoring prompt

You are reviewing buyer intent data for account prioritization.

Goal: rank accounts for sales follow-up.
ICP topics: data enrichment, outbound automation, GTM engineering.
Required output fields: account, signal_topic, signal_recency, fit_status, score_change, score_reason, next_step.

Run a small sample first.
Do not label an account high intent unless the signal matches an ICP topic and the account has basic fit.
For every score change, write a plain-English score_reason.
Mark weak or stale signals as review, not ready_for_sales.

The reason field is what makes intent data usable. It lets a human audit why an account moved up or down.

Primitive 3: explainable scoring output

accountsignal_topicfit_statusscore_changescore_reasonnext_step
Example Codata enrichmentfit+15recent matching topic from fit accountsales_review
Sample Incgeneric AIweak_fit0topic is broad and account fit is weakhold

Intent should explain timing. It should not become a vague urgency label.

How the primitives move through skills, scripts, and Workflows

Start with the Deepline skill. The skill is the primary way to ask for intent signals, inspect false positives, and decide whether the signal changes account priority.

When the scoring reason is explainable, promote the same criteria into a script for repeatable scoring runs or a Deepline Workflow for scheduled routing and CRM handoffs.

Provider-backed intent workflows use the integration execution surface:

POST /api/v2/integrations/{toolId}/execute

The {toolId} must be a real provider tool id. Because buyer intent data workflows are provider-specific, scripts and Workflows should use tool discovery and description before execution:

GET /api/v2/tools/search
GET /api/v2/integrations/{toolId}/get

This keeps the workflow tied to documented tool schemas instead of generic intent claims. After execution, the script or Workflow can map returned signals into lead scoring criteria used by CRM updates, outbound sequencing, or account routing.

Script pattern after the skill works

Use the CLI to discover candidate provider tools after the skill has narrowed the intent job:

deepline tools search intent --json
deepline tools describe <provider-tool-id> --json

Then execute the selected provider action only with a payload copied from the described schema. Scripts and Workflows must not execute a guessed generic buyer-intent payload:

deepline tools execute <provider-tool-id> \
  --input '<schema-specific-json-from-tools-describe>'

The next step should be a scoring rule, not an implicit handoff. For example, the script or Workflow can add points when a returned intent signal matches the ICP topic list, reduce confidence when required fields are missing, and write the reason into the account record.

Quality check before deploying a Workflow

No no-spend workflow-specific test route is currently documented for provider-backed buyer intent data workflows. POST /api/v2/integrations/test should not be documented as safe validation for paid provider-backed intent work unless the endpoint map explicitly confirms that behavior.

Use the skill to validate the scoring logic first, then run small scripted samples only when real execution is acceptable.

Before scaling, inspect whether intent signals are changing the right decisions. If the output cannot explain topic, recency, fit, and next action, it is not ready for automated scoring.

Cost and billing behavior

Keep billing language Deepline-facing. In BYOK mode, customers bring their own data-provider keys and Deepline does not add a platform fee for that mode. In managed mode, Deepline uses credit-based operation billing.

Intent signals should be sampled before they become scoring criteria. Inspect false positives, missing fields, and fit with your ICP before scaling the workflow across the full pipeline.

Related Deepline workflows