The Silent Difference Between Interest and Intent

Confusing polite curiosity with genuine buying intent leads to stalled pipelines. An interested prospect says "this looks cool" and then ghosts you. A prospect with intent asks hard questions and commits to next steps.

What "Interest" Looks Like

Interest is passive and cheap. It involves information gathering without commitment. They window shop without a plan to buy.

Interest is when a prospect asks what your product does. Intent is when they ask what your product does for them.

What "Intent" Looks Like

Intent is active and expensive. It involves specific, problem-focused questions and a willingness to commit resources like time and internal stakeholders.

How to Test for Intent

Your job is to move prospects from passive interest to active commitment. Instead of sending info, ask for a brief call. Propose specific next steps with dates. pivot from feature questions back to the core business problem.

The Takeaway

Be ruthless in qualifying for genuine intent. A smaller pipeline of high-intent prospects is infinitely more valuable than a large one filled with polite curiosity.