Demand Compass

The dark channel

Where buyers actually evaluate you, docs, repos, pricing, communities, job posts, before any form. The form fill is the last 5%.

1What it is

The dark channel is where B2B buyers do their real evaluation before they ever identify themselves: reading your docs, starring your repo, visiting pricing repeatedly, asking in practitioner communities, posting a job that names your stack, or using your free tier. It is the opposite of the lit channel, the forms and LinkedIn engagement your funnel already sees.

2What problem it solves

It solves the blindness the MQL was built into. If you only score hand-raises, you miss the months of evaluation that happen in the dark, and you meet the account only at the very end, when the decision is mostly made.

3How it works

You instrument the dark channel with sensors, web de-anonymization, product and developer intent, job-post monitoring, community listening, and roll every signal up to the account. The form fill still counts, it is just the last five percent, and the noisiest.

4When to use it

Instrument the dark channel whenever your buyers research before they buy, which is almost always in complex B2B, and especially with technical buyers who evaluate in docs, repos and communities.

5Example

An engineer reads your docs three times and stars your repo; a job post names your category. No form was filled, yet the account is clearly evaluating. The dark channel is where you saw it first.

6Relationship to other concepts

The dark channel feeds the Readiness to Buy axis of the Demand Compass. Because these signals age, read them with the decay rule.

Readiness to Buy In-Market The decay rule

7Source