Ever wish you could read your buyer’s mind?
With buying signals, it’s possible. And it doesn’t involve any sci-fi magic.Â
Subtle clues—like website visits, content downloads, and social engagement—tell you when a prospect is in-market and what they’re interested in.Â
But spotting them isn’t enough.Â
The real power comes from acting on intent data quickly with tailored, targeted outreach.
What Are B2B Buying Signals?
B2B buying signals are actions that indicate a company or individual is researching your solution (or solutions similar to yours) or is ready to make a purchase.Â
These signals provide valuable intel into when and how to engage B2B buyers, which can make all the difference in converting a lead to a customer.Â
There are two main types of buying intent: explicit and implicit.
Explicit signals are clear, intentional actions such as filling out a contact form, requesting a demo, or directly stating interest.
Implicit signals are more subtle and often come from behaviors such as visiting your website frequently, interacting with your content, or demonstrating a high level of interest without directly communicating it. The latter can include visiting your commercial website pages, like pricing, features, or comparison articles.
What Are Digital, Verbal, and Company-Level Signals?
Let’s look at the three main types of buyer signals: digital signals, verbal signals, and company-level signals.Â
1. Digital signals are online activities of your potential buyers that show interest in your product or service.
Site behavior: Visiting pricing pages, spending time on product demos, scrolling depth on commercial pages, or downloading whitepapers/ebooks that address a specific pain point.
Email engagement: Opening emails, both nurturing and newsletters, clicking on links, or responding to newsletters.
Social activity: Following your company on LinkedIn, commenting on posts or YouTube videos, or sharing your content.
2. Verbal signals come from direct communication, showing an intent to move forward.
Response to outreach: A reply to a cold email, scheduling a call, or requesting additional information.
Conversations: Asking specific questions about features, pricing, or implementation.
3. Company-level signals are broader organizational or industry trends that can indicate a shift toward purchasing.
Firmographic events: Organizational growth (new hires, funding rounds), leadership changes, or mergers/acquisitions.
Industry news: A company announcing a major project or shift that your solution could address.
Different signals have different weights in decision-making and the buying process. We will walk you through how to assign importance later in the post.
Why Do B2B Buying Signals Matter?
B2B buying signals allow you to optimize your sales strategies to reflect the strength of a prospect’s interest and disregard those who are just browsing.
Here are the three primary benefits of gathering buying intent data:
Reduced waste: By focusing on high-intent prospects, sales teams avoid spending time on leads that are unlikely to convert.
Improved targeting: Analyzing buying signals enables more personalized and relevant outreach, thereby increasing the chances of engagement and conversations.
Faster sales cycles: Engaging with prospects at the right time significantly shortens the sales process, resulting in faster conversions.
John Ozuysal, co-founder of Restartt and the founder of House of Growth, articulates the benefits of intent data perfectly:
“Most marketers spend a lot of time creating the perfect copy to deliver a message that resonates. The problem? It doesn’t matter if you have the best messaging if the list you are targeting has no intent. In my opinion, the list is more important than the copy, so this is why I use intent data as one of my qualifiers.”
What Happens When You Ignore Intent Data?
Neglecting to track B2B buying signals can negatively affect sales performance in a multitude of ways. In fact, there are very few occasions when intent data shouldn’t factor into sales decisions.Â
Here’s a quick rundown of the risks of ignoring intent data:Â
Wasted outreach: Sending out dozens of cold emails and follow-ups to prospects who aren't ready to buy is a sure route to a bad reputation and missed opportunities.
Longer sales cycles: Without insight into a prospect’s activity, you can’t deliver timely and spot-on messaging, and deals can stagnate.
Misaligned sales focus: Not having a lead scoring system in place based on buying signals means salespeople are more likely to overlook warm/hot leads.
Lost revenue: The combined effect of wasted outreach, longer sales cycles, and rep misalignment is ultimately fewer deals and lost revenue.Â
Unfortunately, fresh research by Pavilion & Ebsta shows that 60% of sales reps missed quota in 2024, and 44% of deals slipped, resulting in longer sales cycles.Â
What’s alarming is that most of the deals were lost due to buyer indecision or misaligned enablement—issues that could have been instantly remedied if those sales teams had strong frameworks for acting on B2B buying signals.
Yet, there’s another side to the coin.Â
As Emilia Korczynska, VP of Marketing at Userpilot, points out in one of her LinkedIn posts, not all signals are created equal. Misusing them is just as ineffective as running poorly targeted ads.
Korczynska was targeted by a completely irrelevant ABM campaign—a waste of marketing budget for the advertiser.
Common B2B Buying Signals to Track
The following signals are sourced from hundreds of intent-led GTM case studies and reveal a clear pattern of actions that predict actual buying behavior.
Website and Product Page Activity
This refers to the engagement or behavioral data you collect directly from your target audience to spot high-intent visitors.Â
Multiple visits to pricing, product, or solution pages
Viewing the same page from multiple devices or IPs
Deep scrolls on landing pages or comparison sections
Downloading product specs or feature breakdowns
Checking out integrations or your partner ecosystem
Repeated return visits to your site within short timeframes
Navigating between use case pages, customer success stories, and demo forms
Visiting the “Contact Us” or “Request a Demo” page without converting
Unusually high time on site from a specific company or department
Live chat engagement
Traffic from review sites or analyst reports
Social Media and LinkedIn Behavior
These are strong discovery-stage or trust signals from decision-makers and influencers.
Likes or comments on product launches or case studies
Shares of thought leadership posts from your team
Follows on your business page from ideal customer profiles (ICPs)
Reactions to testimonials or customer spotlights
Employees updating their titles to reflect transformation (e.g., “RevOps” to “VP of RevOps”)
Team members from one company engaging with your content in a short time window
Comments on competitor-related discussions
Joining relevant LinkedIn groups or events that your company hosts
You might be thinking, “That’s a lot to track!” But AI tools are helping sales teams to automate intent tracking. Artisan’s Smart Signals feature automatically surfaces lead behaviors and scores them for outreach readiness, so reps know exactly who to message and when.
Email and Outreach Engagement
Outbound isn’t just about sending emails or LinkedIn DMs—it’s what happens after that counts. The following metrics tell you if you’ve hit the bull’s eye or you’ve got to refine your campaigns.
Email opens (especially multiple opens over a short period)
Click-throughs on demo CTAs or case study links
Replies—even if they’re neutral (“Not now,” “Circle back”)
Calendar link views and meeting bookings
Forwarding emails to teammates (tracked via pixels or tools like Yesware)
Unsubscribes after deep email engagement—can be a sign of internal discussion if mixed with strong website behaviors from different IP addresses
Replies that ask about pricing or integration questions
Follow-up engagement even after initial silence
Opens from different locations or devices (suggests internal sharing)
Reviewing your email signature links or social profiles
Content Downloads and Webinars (Conversion Outcomes)
These are mid-to-late funnel indicators that show solution awareness or vendor consideration.
Accessing whitepapers, ROI calculators, or onboarding guides
Registering for a product tour or a feature deep-dive webinar
Attending industry-specific webinars with your sales or product leaders
Downloading competitive comparisons or implementation roadmaps
Engaging with success stories or “How we did it” customer interviews
Multiple team members downloading the same or related content
Asking live questions during a webinar
Requesting the recording even if they didn’t attend
Watching a full on-demand demo or webinar replay
Do you need to track all conversion metrics at once? The answer is a definite no.
Ozuysal, for instance, relies on the following five key conversion outcomes from a website visit.
Technographic, Firmographic, and Funding Signals
The next batch of powerful triggers you should track are technographic, firmographic, and strategic change signals.Â
They tell a lot about your prospect’s intentions or struggles. Use them as outbound campaign triggers, but always combine them with behavioral data to qualify the timing.
1. Technographic (Tool Changes, Stack Shifts)
Adding a tool you integrate with (partnership opportunity)
Removing a competitor tool
Installing new sales/marketing techÂ
First-time install of lead generation tech (this signals go-to-market readiness)
2. Firmographic (Growth, Scale, Structure)
Rapid hiring across GTM roles (sales, marketing, RevOps)
Creating new departments or ICP roles
Office expansion or entering new markets
Shifts in company size or ARR based on public sources
3. Funding or Strategic Signals
Announced funding round (especially Series A–C)
Acquisitions or mergers (new org needs, tool re-evaluation)
New leadership (CMO, CRO, or RevOps changes often indicate a GTM strategy reset)
Major customer win or logo addition (implied scaling phase)
Recent PR blitz or major product launch
How to Turn Signals Into Pipeline
Intent signals are only as powerful as what you do next. Once you detect buying behavior, you need to act—fast, smart, and in a way that matches the buyer’s journey. Top-performing teams that do this consistently convert passive signals into a predictable sales pipeline.
1. Prioritize Accounts Based on Signal Strength
As with signals, not all accounts are worth chasing. That’s where signal scoring helps you.Â
Unlike traditional lead scoring (which focuses on the person), signal scoring weighs:
The type of signal (e.g., a webinar signup vs. a pricing page visit)
The fit of the account (how close they are to your ICP)
The number of signals from the same company
Combined, these data points help you decide which accounts deserve high-touch, ABM-style approaches and which ones can be nurtured over time.
For example, a Series B SaaS company that just viewed your pricing page and booked a webinar is a high-priority lead. A small company that just replied to an email will be lower on your priority list and require additional nurturing.Â
2. Personalize Outreach in Real Time
When a buyer shows intent, a generic email won’t work. You need messaging that speaks directly to what they’re researching (integrations, pricing, and how you compare to competitors).
That’s where real-time personalization comes in. Using buyer signals, you can reference the exact asset they viewed, the problem they’re trying to solve, or the role they’re hiring for. It turns cold outreach into warm relevance.
How does this work in practice, though?
John shared an amazing example from his data-driven campaign that resulted in a $15,000/month deal.
“I’ve been using intent data for a while. The first time I got a positive result was for my previous agency, House of Growth. I realized that there was an account visiting my website and spending minutes reading the blog posts we used to have.Â
I identified the accounts and pages he was interested in. I also saw that this account had recently raised funding and was hiring a “Head of Content Marketing.” Based on this data, I created “how-to” content based on his interests, built a personalized microsite and reached out to him on LinkedIn. I ended up closing a deal that was $15k per month.”
John’s example highlights the importance of tracking multiple events to develop and launch the right ABM strategy at the right time. His tech stack, which he uses to capture buying triggers and run personalized campaigns of different types, consists of Warmly, Clay, Smartleads, Attio, SmartSuite, and Mosaic ABM.
AI tools are also allowing teams to automate ABM campaigns. Artisan’s Dynamic Personalization engine, for instance, understands the context of a prospect’s behavior—from visited pages to tech installs—and creates email and LinkedIn messages that hit the right pain points.Â
3. Follow Up Fast Because Timing Is Everything
Intent decays. If you wait too long, your warm prospects cool off—or worse, get scooped by a competitor.
To stave this off, set up CRM alerts and notifications for high-signal behaviors like demo requests, pricing page visits, or webinar attendance. Automate quick follow-ups, but personalize them as soon as a rep can jump in. Even a 10-minute delay can make a difference since conversion rates are 8 times greater if a reply is made in the first five minutes.
Artisan’s sales automation features help with follow-ups as the platform captures real-time intent data from hundreds of sources and uses it to craft personalized messages.Â
Example: Signal-Based Sales in Action
Let’s look at a practical example of how to work with intent data to fuel your pipeline and illustrate how the process works in the trenches.Â
Scenario: A mid-market cybersecurity company uses signal-based sales to convert anonymous website traffic into qualified leads through ABM and timely outreach.
Let’s break it down in 10 steps:
Website visitor identified: A visitor lands on a high-intent page (pricing) and spends three minutes on it. Their IP identifies the account as a mid-sized fintech firm.
Matched to ICP: The visitor's company aligns with the ICP (company size, industry, and tech stack). The fit score is 92/100.
Intent spike detected: Third-party data indicates that the same company has recently downloaded whitepapers on cybersecurity audits from two industry-specific websites.
Engagement tracked: Over the next 48 hours, two other colleagues (suggested by different devices but the same IP) view case studies.Â
Trigger ABM campaign: Based on the intent and engagement signals, an account-specific ad campaign is launched via LinkedIn and programmatic platforms.
Custom landing page served: Clicking the ad directs visitors to a personalized landing page highlighting fintech-specific use cases and ROI stats.
Real-time alert to SDR: A sales rep receives an alert that a buying committee may be forming. Signals include page path, time on site, and job titles.
Personalized email sequence: A three-step email sequence auto-launches, referencing their specific compliance needs and linking to a fintech webinar.
SDR connects on LinkedIn: SDR sends a connection request with a soft ask: “Saw your team’s been exploring vendor compliance workflows. Want to see what’s working for others in fintech?”
Meeting booked: The head of security replies, referencing the webinar content. SDR books a call within 48 hours. Deal enters pipeline.
Of course, this is the ideal scenario, and some leads will never convert or reply. Should you worry? Not a bit. We’ve already surfaced case studies and even a large close-win gap between reps who act and don’t on intent data.
But let’s not sugarcoat—working with intent data can be a pain in the neck.Â
Here’s what John Ozuysal says:
“I think the hard thing is combining intent data with qualitative data to make sure that accounts really have buying intent. Just because someone visited your high-intent page does not mean that they are in the market to buy. You need to have additional insight that they are suffering with the problem your service is solving. Finding that extra insight is not always that easy.”
Why Automation Is Key for Signal-Based Sales
When a buyer shows intent, you’ve got a short window to act. Reps are usually busy and won’t react instantly. That's why you should consider hiring a GTM engineer to build AI workflows to address the issue.
For instance, tools like 6sense use intent signals to sort accounts by buying stage. Based on where a company is in the funnel, it automatically triggers tailored plays (e.g., awareness content for early-stage prospects or direct rep outreach).
In addition, Clearbit, paired with HubSpot, can identify anonymous website visitors in real time and send that data straight into your CRM.Â
And teams that want full automation use tools like Artisan to take care of every outbound step. Its web scraping feature pulls in real-time behavior across platforms (like LinkedIn views and product page clicks), checks accuracy, and feeds it into auto-personalized messages. It even layers in intent tagging and ICP fit scoring to prioritize outreach and route leads to the right sequence.
AI Is Simplifying and Speeding Up Complex Workflows
When used in the right way, buying signals provide reps with a steady flow of engaged, eager leads. However, the processes underlying tracking, account prioritization, personalization, and automation are complex and, if handled manually, incredibly time-consuming.Â
That’s why companies are increasingly turning to AI to handle these tasks. A platform like Artisan consolidates and automates a wide range of automation functionality, which means your entire tracking workflow—from first touch to AE handover—can be automated.Â
