Pillar
Buyer behavior signals: reading what buyers do, not what they say
Stated intent is cheap and frequently wrong. Observed behavior is harder to fake. This pillar is about the difference.
· 1 article
Ask a buyer whether they are interested and you will usually get a polite yes. Watch what the same buyer publishes, attends, hires for, and complains about, and you get something much closer to the truth.
Stated intent versus observed behavior
Stated intent is what someone tells you when asked directly. It is shaped by politeness, by not wanting to close a door, and by genuine uncertainty about their own plans. It is not dishonest. It is just a weak predictor.
Observed behavior is what a person or organization actually did in public. It costs something to produce, which is exactly why it carries more information.
What counts as a signal
A signal is a public, dated, verifiable thing that happened. The date matters as much as the content: a hiring post from last week and the same post from two years ago mean entirely different things.
| Signal | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| New hires in a specific function | Budget was approved for that function |
| Conference talks on a problem | The problem is owned and public |
| Leadership changes | Priorities are about to be reset |
| Public vendor complaints | An incumbent relationship is under strain |
| Funding or expansion news | A spending window is open |
The trap of signal collecting
It is easy to collect signals and never use them. A list of interesting facts about an account is not intelligence. Intelligence is a ranked answer to the question "who should I contact first, and what do I say that they will recognize as relevant".
The discipline is to tie every signal to a decision. If a signal would not change who you contact or what you open with, it is trivia.
Verification
Every signal should come with a link to where it came from. Not because anyone will check every one, but because a claim that cannot be traced will eventually turn out to be wrong in front of a customer.
All articles in Buyer behavior signals
- Hiring posts are the most underrated buying signal — A job posting is a budget decision that already cleared approval, written down in public, with a date on it. (, 2 min read)
Find the decision-makers in your market
Three free searches, no card required.