For every marketing and sales team, buying signals work wonders in the business funnel to close deals efficiently and quickly.

What are customer buying signals?

The actions of prospective customers which signal the likeliness of purchasing a product or service are known as buying signals. They can happen at any stage of the buyer’s journey whether through face-to-face conversations, or clicks on a webpage.

In other words, the term defines certain behavioral cues or phrases that predict the lead’s interest in a brand’s offering.

How to recognize buying signals?

Identifying buying signals requires detailed attention and proper training of marketing and sales personnel for effective outreach activities.

What buying signals should a company look for in both physical and virtual mode?

1. Signing up for a free trial

When someone signs up for any complementary offering or free trial via a lead capture page, it’s a buying signal. However, if the person doesn’t immediately sign up, it might be due to their lack of knowledge for using the particular product. Such a situation can be overruled with the generation of automated emails, providing tips or tutorials about its usage.

Meanwhile, a brand can also come up with the option of arranging personal meetings or phone calls with a customer service rep to guide the interested prospects in the right direction. To say, personalized experiences can push the leads into the sales funnel, unlike anything.

2. Filling out the form credentials

Submitting a form to request more info or signing up for a newsletter is another sign of one’s interest in a brand.

3. Engaging in social media

When anyone follows a company’s social media handles to engage across various pieces of content, the behavior proves the prospect’s interest in a particular brand. To find out those engaging with the brand frequently, marketers should monitor mentions or hashtags about the company. That says, there should be coordination between the sales and marketing team to zero down on people active on social platforms.

Integrating leads generation software with social media is another way to monitor a lead’s actions from time to time. LinkedIn can be of great purpose to find and cultivate B2B prospects.

4. Interest in a specific product or solution

If one expresses interest in a single product, know that your prospects are clear about their needs. Such a signal suggests that they have already researched solutions by their demands. Sales professionals can come across the buying signal during a consultation with the lead or through website-related activities.

For instance, if one visits a page more than once within a short span, he’s simply interested in the brand. A company can trace the overall behavior of prospects via lead nurturing platforms and use such data to calculate lead scores.

5. Curiosity about the price factor

Most often, the sales team faces questions from prospects inquiring about price. Well, the eagerness projects thoughts of availing a brand’s offering, concerning the given budget. Either way, sales reps should use their inquisitiveness to speak about how a company can be the ideal choice for them in terms of the cited price.

One major buying signal is checking the frequency of visits on a pricing page.  

6. Interest in case studies

Always focus on prospects interested in the case studies on your company site, or those looking for the success stories of other customers. In other words, the leads try to explore how they might fit into your solution, or if you have solved problems similar to them in the past. These buying signals need to be followed by the sales team over calls, answering every query related to the business concerned.

7. Asking for peers’ advice

Sometimes, more than one person from a company visits a brand site. This might indicate that the decision-makers have asked their peers to bring out information on a specific product. The trend can even show up in email trails when others are copied in the conversation.

However, if the main touchpoint seeks the opinions of other colleagues, it signals his thought process in judging the advantages and cons of a brand offering. They might make decisions without further wait.

8. Questions about a brand’s terms and conditions

When a lead asks about warrantee or money return policies, they try to understand if your brand can provide quality customer service or not, over the period.

Marketers should check when someone visits such pages and connect with them, led by answering every query.

9. Interest in exploring contract specifications

Those inquisitive about steps needed to move forward are ready for purchase. The questions can revolve around the timeline of usage. No matter what, salespeople should project the brand’s compatibility in adjusting to the prospects’ needs over time.

It’s important to ask leads about other considerations they want to make while moving forward. Once the prospect is confident about good customer support, there are high chances they will go for the brand.

10. Asking about methods of payment

Getting overburdened with questions related to how and when the payment can be done assures the prospects’ willingness to purchase the offering at the earliest. But the payment options must align with their needs. The easier it is to pay, the increased chances of closing the deal right away and retaining the customers in the long run.

You can provide automatic payments, other plans, or the option of credit cards to make their lives easier and hassle-free.

11. Asking questions during the demonstration

When a prospect puts forth questions in the demo session, know their effort in perceiving the brand solution. Such queries must be appreciated in the entire funnel. One might ask about the most popular product from a brand’s list of offerings.

12. Leads are unhappy with competitor’s offering

If a lead complains or is disappointed with the current provider, the chances of switching are pretty high.

13. Interest in follow up with the brand

When anyone agrees to a follow-up meeting or looks interested to connect again, know that your brand has been taken seriously at the back of their mind. The best way to deal with it lies in being prompt and to the point.

14. Asking the same questions to confirm information received

When any lead asks the same question or requests to repeat something already answered, they seek to confirm the info received against their concern. Such an attitude indicates their consideration of buying the offering, following a comprehensive understanding of their problems.

15. Deciding on two choices

If a lead is stuck between two choices, the confusion indicates their determination to buy any one of them. At that time, the sales team should assist them to make a better choice from the options.

16. Interest to dig out the company’s background

After concluding that a brand’s offering will meet the cited demands, a lead is more likely to ask about the company, the number of years its operating, and clients served. Such questions validate the buying signal as the prospect’s internal dialogue.

17. Inquiring about discounts

Leads will anyhow ask about discounts and special offers, which suggest their buying intent faster than later. Sales reps should work on them to overcome the probable objections embedded along the way.

18. Asking about the applied terms and conditions

When a lead asks for a breakdown of a contract, any sort of revision or clarification, the sign stands indicative of closing a deal sooner.

19. Making possessive statements

When any lead talks about a product in a way that they already own it, the attitude indicates their commitment to getting hands on the brand offering somewhere down the timeline.

20. Ceasing the competitor’s contract

If a lead has stopped using your competitor’s services recently, chances are they might choose your offering among the possible alternatives.

What are some of the negative buying signals for a business?

1. Hesitation to invest time initially

If someone doesn’t wish to schedule his time in hearing about your brand, leave them there.

2. Mention the quest for other solutions

If someone says that they are not sure to go with your offering, and are on the lookout for other remedies, know your chances aren’t at all favorable. Meanwhile, if you can find out what other alternatives they might consider, set your pitch accordingly. However, if they are really in need of a similar product, come up with a better deal altogether.

3. Unwillingness to speak about the budget

If an organization suppresses its budget, two reasons can justify the behavior-

• There is no budget on the lead’s part
• Confidentiality to disclose

Therefore, one should track buying signals like IPOs, funding, SPACs, acquisitions, and mergers for better outreach to prospects.

4. Introducing to the decision-maker stays far off the plate

Whether you speak to the decision-maker or someone else at the beginning of the conversation, depends on the targeted company. Most of the time, the team lead or someone in charge of recommending to the higher authority takes up the matter. Now, if he doesn’t introduce you to the decision-maker at some point, chances of conversion are seemingly low.

5. Expresses disinterest

When any lead says he isn’t interested in your brand, it’s safe to leave the conversation on a respectful note.  

What are the types of data-driven buying signals?

• Fit Data: It includes firmographic, technographic, and demographic data.
• Opportunity Data: This implies favorable conditions within a company that might increase chances of sale(events, leadership changes).
• Intent data: It predicts the intent of buyers for a specific purchase and helps marketers to engage the leads at the right time.
• Behavioral data: People facing issues in their field of operation seek informational content to overcome them. Such impressions can keep the marketing and sales team informed about the possibility of potential targets.

How to get hands-on buyer intent data?

Buyer intent data can be collected in more ways than one:

• From the business website: Use of analytic tools to calculate the time spent by visitors on each page or getting email sign-ups in CRM.
  
• Deploying a third-party vendor: They collect browsing activities over the internet from B2B websites and digital publishers.

Key Takeaways:

What are the buying signals?

The actions of prospective customers which signal the likeliness of purchasing a product or service are known as buying signals.

What are favorable buying signals?

What are verbal buying signals?

When leads ask about clients served by a brand, the verbal buying signal indicates his interest in the particular offering. However, he won’t be the first buyer of such a product but will draw inspiration from its users. He will simply want a proven track record of its deliverable pros.

What is a signal that a prospect is ready to buy?

If a lead visits the pricing page or places his query about the product or service pricing followed by continuous evaluation, it signals the prospect is ready to buy the brand solution.

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