How to Use Data to Understand Buyer Behavior

my competitor and i launched identical linkedin campaigns. same budget, same audience, same product category. i crushed him 8:1 on deal conversion. he was confident going into the test. better product. stronger brand recognition. more funding. bigger team. we both targeted VPs of sales at 500+ person companies. same demographic criteria. same ad creative quality. $10K budget each. month one results: me: 47 deals closed. him: 6 deals closed. he was convinced i got lucky with better prospects. "let me see your targeting strategy," he asked. i pulled up my dashboard. "i don't target demographics at all." "what do you mean? you're running linkedin ads." "i target behaviors." i showed him my approach: instead of job titles, i track content consumption. instead of company size, i monitor website journeys. instead of industry filters, i watch engagement patterns. "i built an audience of people who've consumed competitor content in the last 30 days. downloaded sales automation guides. attended webinars about pipeline management. visited pricing pages of tools like ours." my "audience" wasn't demographic. it was behavioral. "linkedin lets you upload custom audiences," i explained. "i upload lists of people who've shown buying behavior. then i target those lists with ads." he was targeting people who might need our product. i was targeting people actively shopping for our product. "how do you identify buying behavior?" he asked. "third-party intent data. website pixel tracking. content engagement scoring. competitor analysis tools." i showed him my process: week 1: identify companies researching sales tools. week 2: find individuals at those companies consuming content. week 3: build custom audiences from behavioral data. week 4: launch ads to pre-qualified prospects. "demographics tell you who someone is," i said. "behavior tells you what they're doing." he was advertising to VPs of sales. i was advertising to VPs of sales currently shopping for solutions. same title, completely different mindset. my prospects were already in buying mode. his were just scrolling linkedin. the conversion difference made perfect sense. he rebuilt his entire approach: behavioral targeting instead of demographic filtering. intent data instead of job title assumptions. shopping behavior instead of profile characteristics. next month's results for him: 52 deals closed. 9x improvement over his original campaign. the lesson was clear: demographics describe who people are. behavior reveals what people need. target the behavior.

I often say: Focus on psychographics (values, interests) Over demographics (age, gender, income) The tough part? Gathering psychographics (without being creepy or invasive.) It's easier to rely on demographics. They're: - painless to gather - straightforward - easy to analyze - quantifiable But it's a mistake to depend on them. A costly one. They're a weak data point. The role they play in purchase decisions? Smaller than many marketers think. Psychographics are much more useful. And easier to collect than you think. Here's how I do it: 👉 Customer surveys Ask direct questions about values, interests, and the purchase process. 👉 Social listening Analyze what your audience is saying in comments, reviews, and posts. Look for patterns in their language, pain points, and values. 👉 Website behavior Track which pages customers visit, what content they engage with, and how they navigate your site. 👉 Customer interviews Understand the customer buying process — from the first moment a customer noticed a problem in their life through purchasing your product (and ideally your product solving their problem). 👉 Community engagement Host webinars, engage in online groups, read and respond to customer comments. Learn your target market's pain points and how they phrase those pain points. 👉 Analyze reviews and testimonials Look for recurring themes in what people say about your product — or your competitors'. Psychographics give you: - customer behavior insights - voice-of-customer data - value props - pain points It's priceless info. Use it to hone your messaging, offers, marketing, design, and product. #marketing #customerinsights #strategy

While you're cold calling random prospects, your marketing team is sitting on heat maps, screen recordings, and behavioral data that could 3x your conversion rates. Most sales reps think they're flying solo…so they just end up actually flying solo as a result. They build prospect lists from LinkedIn searches and fire off templated emails to anyone with the right job title. Meanwhile, as Mustafa was good enough to point out, marketing has a treasure trove of intelligence they're not sharing. If you wanna be proactive, here’s some stuff you can (read: should) ask for: 1. Traffic source data: SimilarWeb shows which channels drive your best prospects. If ENT buyers come from industry publications but SMB prospects find you through Google ads, that tells you where each segment hangs out. 2. Heat maps and recordings: They know exactly which pages prospects visit before booking demos. Which pricing tiers get the most attention, how long decision-makers spend reading case studies vs features, etc. 3. Intent signals: Job postings reveal current tech stacks, migration timelines, and budget cycles. Companies hiring "Salesforce administrators" aren't shopping for CRMs. Companies posting "HubSpot to Salesforce migration specialist" DEFINITELY are. 4. Competitor analysis: SEMRush data shows which keywords prospects research before talking to you. If they're searching "alternative to [your competitor]," you know the conversation starter. 5. Website behavior: Mixpanel and Amplitude track every click in your product trial. Which features prospects test. How long they spend. What makes them bounce. The disconnect happens because sales and marketing don't talk. Tale old as time, sure, but still worth seeing if we can solve for this. Look, marketing optimizes campaigns. Sales optimizes conversations. But the insights overlap completely. Here's how to drive that “alignment” everyone keeps looking for: - Schedule monthly intel sessions with your marketing team. - Ask for SimilarWeb reports on your top competitors. - Request heat maps for your most visited product pages. - Get access to intent data from job postings and funding announcements. - Review website behavioral data for trial users who became customers. Your marketing team already knows who your best prospects are, where they spend time, and what they care about. They're just not telling you. So go ask them.