7 B2B Buying Signals Marketers Should Pounce On

Inbound marketers are getting even better at attracting visitors to their websites. But as we all know, in B2B environments, eyeballs don’t pay the bills. Getting visitors to convert into leads and ultimately sales is the name of the profitability game. With today’s modern analytics and marketing automation tools, marketers can play a bigger role in that ‘middle of the funnel’ conversion path with the power to re-engage interested prospects and tee up their sales teams for success.

If you’re not taking advantage of prospect behavior to drive conversion, here are 7 buying signals you should look out for and specific actions you can take to increase sales.

7 B2B Buying Signals All Marketers Should Track and Pounce On

1. Multiple Visitors to Your Site in a Short Time

Did you know that you can use tools that leverage reverse-IP lookup to track not only a known lead's but also a company's visits to your site? Well, you can. Even if that hot company you’ve been trying to get access to hasn’t filled out a form to become an official lead, you can find out if one or more people from that company have visited your website. And … if you see a pattern of multiple different visitors from the same company in a short period of time, it’s a pretty good sign you made it to their 'consideration' step. Now is the time to alert your sales rep to reach out to the person who may be your target and really work deep into that account.

2. Prospect Visited Your Site Multiple Times in a Day

When considering a product, service or solution, most buyers do quite a bit of research. Some of that research happens off your website, but plenty also occurs on your site.  Your analytics can track how frequently a visitor is coming to your site, and if you see an increase in daily visits, it’s probably safe to assume that your champion is doing some due diligence on you before they either select you or decide to pitch your product/service to their management. Using marketing analytics to inform your sales reps with things like lead alerts can put them in a position to reach out at the exact moment your buyer needs more information or help. If you don’t have analytics or lead alerts set up, don’t wait. Your sales team will LOVE the added intelligence and sing your praises for the helpful assist.

3. Filled Out a Form But Didn’t Press Submit

Sometimes you’ve generated early interest from a prospect with a great ‘top of the funnel,’ informative ebook, webinar, or other piece of content. Your prospect filled out that form, and since then, has been getting additional information from you. Maybe they keep consuming your content, and then one day, they decide they really want to know more about your paid solutions. The prospect visits your 'request a demo or consultation' landing page form, fills out the form, and just before they hit 'submit,' they either decide otherwise or get pulled away...and you never get that request.

Why not instrument that form so it knows you got a partial completion from that person so you can shoot them a heads up? Maybe now isn’t the time to have a rep call, but it could be the perfect time to invite them to a webinar that’s a deeper dive into your product or service. You’re giving them the option to enjoy a low-risk, non-salesy version of the information they were seeking. If they don’t accept, no harm no foul.

4. Reviewed Case Studies on Your Site

Before most B2B buyers purchase, they want to know what results others have generated. They are past the basic research phase and are looking for ‘stories like mine’ to prove or disprove your company’s fit for their needs. Set a trigger on your case studies page to alert you or your rep when a prospect visits the case studies section of your website. Based on that trigger and the particular lead's score, you can set up automated flows that either offer an additional deep dive or a customer webinar to a low score lead, or alternatively, trigger a rep to follow up and offer a reference call. What better proof than talking to a happy customer LIVE and using your case studies to trigger the next value added conversation?

5. Visited Your Pricing Page

Checking out the pricing page usually means one of two things. If it’s early in the sales and research cycle, it might just be a ‘ballpark’ exercise to see if your product or service is priced within the realm of possibility for your prospect. Now might be a good time to offer a consultation or free trial via email.

Now suppose that your sales rep is deep in discussions with a potential customer, and they visit the pricing page again. That rep would really want to know! Pricing discussions are a huge buying signal; send your rep a note from the website giving them a heads up that it’s time to move into a closing sequence.

6. Signed Up for a Free Trial & Did Something or ... Nothing

Marketing analytics isn’t limited to just your website (otherwise, we'd call it website analytics). Thank goodness, because a lot of B2B companies have a variety of other sales tools that should be instrumented for intelligence!

If you happen to offer software that enables a free trial, you’re sitting on a goldmine of information. Why not connect your trial to your automation tools so that after sign up, you can engage prospects based on the actions they do or don’t take. One HubSpot customer, TribeHR, uses automated lead nurturing to remind users of their trial expiration date if they haven’t taken advantage of the features. They also have the intelligence to know what features users have set up, which can really inform additional content suggestions or sales activities. How great would it be if you could use people’s behavior to support them through a results-oriented free trial experience?!

7. Tweeted About You or Your Competition

Although no one ever wants to be in a competitive situation, it’s always better to find out early. With today’s hyperactive social media environment, it’s not uncommon for someone to tweet something like ... 

Prospect lead intelligence can connect a lead’s information to their Twitter username, and if you follow them, filters can be set up to look for specific keywords. How great would it be if your sales rep could be alerted to this tweet and follow up with some information and a personal call? Modern behavioral marketing automation makes this amazing scenario a reality!

Some folks might find this creepy and ‘big brother-ish,' but it’s all about how you use the information. Consider the fact that your prospects are actively seeking out information and solutions, and then, based on their actions, help give them what they want. The above actions aren’t license to aggressively stalk your prospects. Rather, they provide an invitation to be helpful and then let human relationships take over from there.

What other behaviors can you track that signal serious interest for your potential customers?

Image Credit: Poppet Maulding