Understanding why customer with high intent matters - Part 1

Every aspiring entrepreneur or product manager dreams of a world where customers instantly understand the product, trust the brand, and convert without hesitation.

But reality isn't that friendly.

Most people browsing your website, scrolling past your LinkedIn carousel, or watching your brand’s Reel aren’t ready to buy. They’re curious at best — distracted at worst.

So what separates someone who casually consumes your content from the person typing in their card details?

Intent

Intent is the invisible economic engine behind purchasing behavior. It determines whether a user will buy, when they’ll buy, and what will influence their purchase journey. These are the people who may not out turned out to be the buyers but also the advocates of your product if served well.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into:-

• What intent is ?

• How it affects buying decisions?

• Why targeting high-intent users should be your primary strategy if you want profitable growth?

---

What exactly is Intent ?

Intent is the user’s willingness and readiness to take the next step in the buying journey.

It can be categorized into 3 types:- low, medium and high

Intent Level	User Mindset	Example Behavior
Low Intent	“Just browsing”	Likes a post, visits the homepage, scrolls
Medium Intent	“Comparing options”	Reads pricing page, downloads a guide
High Intent	“Ready to solve the problem NOW”	Searches “Buy…”, submits a form, adds to cart

Intent is rooted in problem awareness.

Lets deep dive with an example where one of the user is of high intent and other is low

Traditional segmentation relies on the "Who." It assumes that identity drives action. But in the B2B SaaS world (and increasingly in B2C), identity is often a lagging indicator.

Consider the buying behavior of a gym membership.

• User A: 30 years old, interested in fitness, high income.

• User B: 30 years old, interested in fitness, high income.

  
  

Demographically, they are clones.

	User A	User B
Trigger	Watched a documentary on health	Recieved a scary diagnosis from their doctor about high blood pressure
Feeling	Curosity	Urgency
Intent	Low	High

If your product treats them the same—serving them both the same generic "Start your free trial" landing page—you will likely fail both.

User A isn't ready to commit and needs nurturing.

User B finds the generic copy too slow and needs immediate friction-less onboarding.

---

Types of Intent

There are 3 types of intent and based on the intent the probability differs:-

	Navigational Intent	Informational Intent	Transactional Intent
Phrases	Just looking	Problem Aware	Solution Aware
Behaviour	short session duration consumption of blog content or "About Us" pages	Reading documentation, "How-to" guides, viewing integration pages	Visiting the Pricing page (specifically toggling between Monthly/Annual), viewing Case Studies
Buying Probability	5%	15-20%	60%+
Product Strategy	Dont see. Push 'Learn more or Subscribe button	Educate the user in more depth about the problem.	Remove all friction or resistance. Few steps to buy

---

Why Intent Drives Purchase Behavior

Every purchase has a psychological trigger. Users buy when the perceived value outweighs the perceived cost (money, effort, risk).

User with high intent has following attributes:-

• They have experienced the problem.

• They are aware or educated about the problem.

• Actively looking for solution which prevent any further risk of cost escalation ( cost in terms of money, effort or risk ).

So instead of convincing them we just need to guide them to the solution. Your value proposition comes into play to help select your product.

With high intent users it dramatically reduces:-

• Sales cycle time

• Acquisition costs

• Required persuasion layers

• Drop-off during checkout

The result? Higher revenue efficiency.

---

 Why targeting high-intent users should be your primary strategy if you want profitable growth?

A mistake I often see especially in early-stage startups is chasing large traffic volumes.

But,

Traffic ≠ Revenue

Intent = Revenue

A thousand visitors reading your blog don’t equal one user actively researching buying options.

Who matters more?

For a product management training org the one who is actively typing in: "Product management certification with placement assistance” is high intent user.

This group:

• Converts faster

• Requires less nurturing

• Has higher CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

• Lowers blended CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

They pay the bills.

---

Final Thought: Intent Is the New Product-Market Fit Signal

If users aren’t showing high intent, the issue may not be marketing. It might be:

• Problem isn’t painful enough

• Positioning doesn’t resonate

• Differentiation isn’t clear

• Value isn’t obvious

• Trust isn’t established

  
  

Ask your product manager the following question:-

“Are we building for a real, urgent problem?”

Because when urgency is real, intent is automatic.