6sense Isn’t the Finish Line: Turning Intent Into Director-Level Meetings

Introductions

Intent data has never been louder. If you’re running 6sense, you can see which accounts are researching, surging, and inching closer to a buying decision. Your dashboards are full. Your weekly updates are confident. And yet… pipeline still feels slower than it should.

That disconnect is becoming one of the most common frustrations for demand generation leaders in B2B tech in 2025. Because intent doesn’t equal action. And a signal isn’t a meeting.

6sense is a powerful starting point — but it’s not the finish line. The teams winning right now are the ones that treat intent as a trigger for fast human engagement, not a reason to launch another nurture stream and hope for the best.

Let’s break down what’s actually happening — and what to do next.

What 6sense Intent Means for Demand Gen Marketers

6sense intent data is designed to answer a critical question:
“Which accounts are most likely to buy soon?”

It does that through behavioral signals — content consumption, keyword surges, engagement patterns, and anonymous research that bubbles up to account-level scoring.

For demand gen teams, this matters because it helps you:

• Prioritize accounts that are already in-market
• Shift budget toward higher-propensity segments
• Coordinate sales outreach around real buying windows
• Reduce wasted effort on cold or irrelevant accounts

In theory, this should accelerate pipeline.

In reality, it often creates a new bottleneck: once you know who is interested, you still have to get them into a conversation — quickly — before the window closes.

Intent solves targeting. It doesn’t solve conversion.

Common Challenges Marketers Face

The gap between “signal” and “meeting” exists because modern B2B buying behavior is messy. Here’s what demand gen teams keep running into:

1. Intent windows are short — and nurtures are slow

A surge doesn’t mean a buyer is waiting for a drip campaign. It often means they’re gathering info across multiple vendors right now. If your follow-up takes days (or weeks), you’re already behind.

2. Most intent accounts are anonymous or unresponsive

Even when 6sense flags an account, you still need the right person inside it — and you need them to engage. Email alone rarely gets you there, especially at director+ levels.

3. Sales doesn’t always trust or act on intent

If sales has been burned by low-quality “intent leads” before, your routed accounts sit untouched. Pipeline dies in the handoff.

4. Your funnel becomes a waiting game

Without fast activation, intent turns into “maybe later.” The account stays warm, but nothing moves. You don’t lose the account — you lose momentum.

Solutions That Work

Here’s the hard truth:
intent only creates pipeline when it triggers human conversations.

The teams converting 6sense signals into revenue are building an activation layer that does three things well:

1. Convert surges into immediate outreach

Instead of routing intent into another automation path, they treat it like a live buying moment.

That means rapid outbound calling aimed at the right titles inside the right accounts, not broad blasts.

Site Ascend supports this directly through executive meeting programs: outbound dialing to director-level and above, focused on securing a 30-minute virtual meeting while the account is still in-market.

2. Qualify before sales ever sees the lead

Intent accounts often look hot on paper but vary wildly in real readiness. The best teams pre-qualify with humans before handing anything to sales.

Site Ascend’s lead qualification program turns opt-ins and surging accounts into confirmed, qualified meetings, so sales receives conversations — not guesses.

3. Only count what actually happens

Intent activation becomes expensive fast when you pay for “activity” instead of outcomes.

Site Ascend’s pay-per-meeting model forces clarity:
If a meeting doesn’t occur, you don’t pay. That keeps intent activation accountable to pipeline reality.

Actionable Steps for Marketers

If you want real meetings from 6sense, don’t start by changing your dashboard. Start by changing your follow-through.

Here’s a practical checklist you can implement this quarter:

6sense Activation Checklist

1. Define your surge response window
   Decide what “fast” means (example: outreach begins within 24–48 hours of surge).
2. Align on your director+ target map
   Identify 3–5 titles per account that reflect real buying authority.
3. Use calling to open the door
   Email supports awareness. Calling creates conversations. Make it part of your intent motion.
4. Add qualification before routing to sales
   Confirm need, timeline, and ownership before an SDR ever touches it.
5. Measure meetings, not MQLs
   Track the percentage of surged accounts that convert into attended meetings.

If you don’t have the internal bandwidth to run this consistently, that’s the exact gap an outbound activation partner should fill.

Comparison of Market Solutions

Most demand gen teams activate intent in one of three ways:

Option A: In-house SDR/BDR activation

• Pros: tight control, direct sales alignment
• Cons: activations get deprioritized; SDRs chase volume; response speed varies

Option B: Outsourced “activity-based” appointment setting

• Pros: expands capacity
• Cons: inconsistent targeting, offshore teams, pay for effort not outcomes

Option C: Performance-based executive meeting activation

• Pros: director+ focus, onshore quality, speed + qualification, pay only for meetings
• Cons: requires clear ICP and intent triggers

Site Ascend fits cleanly into Option C. The model is built for teams that already have signals — and now need meetings that actually happen.

Conclusion

6sense gives you visibility. But visibility doesn’t move pipeline unless something happens next.

In 2025, the winning play isn’t more intent dashboards, more nurture steps, or more attribution tweaks. It’s faster human engagement with the right buyers, while the window is open.

If your 6sense accounts are surging but your pipeline feels stuck, you don’t have an intent problem.
You have an activation gap.

Ready to turn intent into director-level meetings?
Contact Site Ascend to start a pilot program.