Understanding Buyer Intent

When I was in sales, the hardest question was: “Which accounts are actually worth my time?” We had CRMs full of companies and contacts, but no real way to know who was in-market. So we spent hours digging through filings, news, and social posts – hoping to find a signal. Even the best reps could only cover 30 to 40% of the accounts they were assigned. The rest was just wasted opportunity. That’s changing with AI. I have been talking to our customers and even our own reps at HubSpot about how they are using intent data to drive better prospecting. And it is dramatically different. Here is what I am seeing great reps do: Spot demand before it’s obvious. They are using AI to scan job postings, funding announcements, press coverage, even community chatter, to flag the accounts most likely to buy. Qualification is completely different with intent data. Make conversations personal and relevant. Reps are using AI to get alerts the second an account shows intent, like visiting a pricing page right after a funding round. And they are using sequences to send out relevant emails that feel personal. This is what intent-based qualification and prospecting looks like. Salespeople can not only cover more accounts, they can connect with each account in a deeper way. One sales leader we connected with told me: “What used to take 20 hours a week in research now takes one. And we’re seeing better responses than ever.” Prospecting used to be guesswork. With AI, it’s precision.

Every time a new report comes out on the state of retail or luxury, I pause before looking at the numbers. Not because I’m surprised by them, but because they always tell a deeper story about how people are changing. The recent Forbes piece on declining luxury brand valuations is one of those moments and it reflects the mindset of today’s consumer. For years, luxury was fueled by aspiration. People reached for brands that symbolized something. Success, craftsmanship, belonging. But when prices keep rising and relationship doesn’t improve, the equation starts to break down. What once felt aspirational now risks feeling inaccessible. And that shift isn’t limited to luxury. It’s a preview of where all consumer behavior is headed. Today’s customer, regardless of income level, wants three things: 🔹Transparency: Why does this brand exist? What does it stand for beyond its products? 🔹Utility: Does this make my life better, easier, healthier, or more joyful? 🔹Connection: Do I feel seen, understood, and part of something larger? When any of those three breaks, so does loyalty. So, what should brands do now? 🔹Rebalance value and values. The best brands will stop thinking in terms of “premium pricing” and start thinking about “earned pricing.” That comes from trust, relevance, and substance, not just heritage. 🔹Redefine exclusivity. In this era, access is the new aspiration. Personalized experiences, limited collaborations, or digital memberships can create belonging without shutting people out. 🔹Invest in emotional equity. Luxury used to be about owning something beautiful. Now it’s about being part of something meaningful. Experiences, storytelling, and purpose drive that connection far more than logo placement ever will. 🔹Build agility into the model. The macro winds will always shift. economy slows down, aspirational consumers pull back, or new platforms emerge. The brands that thrive are the ones that think like startups: responsive, data-informed, and never entitled to attention. The leaders I admire most are using it as a catalyst to reinvent, to make their brands more intentional, more inclusive, and more aligned with how people truly live. Because if the past few years taught us anything, it’s that resilience doesn’t come from being untouchable. It comes from being adaptable.

Real consumer insight does not sit in market reports. It lives in everyday behaviour. I have always believed that if you want to understand the Indian consumer, you must walk the aisles, visit the kirana stores, and spend time in homes. The questions are simple: why did they choose this brand, what made them switch, what are their latest unsatisfied needs, what habit stopped them from trying something new. The answers are rarely written down. They are observed in the pauses, the hesitations, the way a hand reaches for one pack over another. India is a mosaic of markets. What sells in Chennai might fail in Chandigarh. A message that resonates in Delhi could fall flat in a tier-three town. Income, culture, and even climate shape choices. Unless you immerse yourself in these realities, your strategy risks being built on assumptions. The sharper your consumer insight, the stronger your competitive edge. Do not delegate consumer understanding to agencies or reports. Make it a personal discipline. Sit with retailers, shadow buyers, watch the trade. The real breakthroughs are found not in a meeting agenda, but in how people actually live, shop, and decide. #leadership #entrepreneurship #consumer #mindset

1st time when we launched ABM at a $35M company, we thought we had it all figured out. we didn't. here's what actually happened: we picked 100 "dream accounts." we built personalized ads. we sent direct mail. we tracked engagement. 6 months later? → 3 meetings booked → 0 closed deals → $50K+ spent the board asked: "what went wrong?" the honest answer? we fell in love with the tactic, not the strategy. here's what we missed: 1. we picked accounts we wanted, not accounts that wanted us. no intent signals. no timing data. just logos we thought would look good on our website. 2. we personalized everything except the message. custom ads with their logo. personalized landing pages. but the value prop? generic. they didn't care. 3. sales wasn't bought in. marketing ran the show. sales saw it as "marketing's project." when leads came in, follow-up was slow. alignment was broken from day one. 4. we measured activity, not outcomes. engagement scores looked great. but engagement doesn't pay the bills. pipeline does. the fix? we rebuilt ABM from scratch: → started with sales and CS input on account selection → used intent and signal data to find accounts already in-market → aligned on a shared revenue segment, not just MQLs → measured ICP-fit pipeline and closed revenue, nothing else that's when ABM started working. my lesson: ABM isn't broken. GTM isn't broken. Marketing or sales isn't broken. but the way most teams run it? absolutely is. your take? love, sangram

Most teams buy #IntentData and then wonder why it didn't work.. The tool isn't the problem. What you do on a very next morning is.. Intent data tells you an account is showing buying signals. Useful. But in enterprise, long cycles, a buying committee of eight, half of them you've never spoken to, "this account is in-market" isn't an instruction. It's a hint. Most teams treat the hint like a verdict, dump the account into a campaign, fire the same nurture everyone else gets, and call it intent-led.. Then sales ignores it. Because sales has been burned before by "hot" accounts that went nowhere.. First time I wired intent signals into a CRM, the thing I was sure of going in was that the data would be the easy part. It was. The hard part was everything nobody wants to own: which signal matters for which product, who picks up the phone, what they say that's different from the generic follow-up, what the campaign does that the account hasn't already seen four times.. We had the signals flowing for weeks before they were worth anything. Not because the data was bad. Because no one had decided what to do when an account lit up. The moment we did, the number that moved wasn't lead volume. It was sales actually trusting the list.. Intent data doesn't find demand. It tells you where to aim. The aiming is still your job.. And that gap, between the signal and the action, gets wider, not narrower, the more AI-driven the product is. Now the buyer doesn't even know what to ask for yet. Still arguing with myself about the cleanest way to close it. But it starts with admitting the tool was never going to do it for you. #DemandGen #IntentData #Signals #AI #BuyingGroup

A rep called me frustrated. "I ask all the right questions, but they clam up after 10 minutes. Discovery feels like pulling teeth." I listened to her last call. She was doing everything "right" according to most sales training. Except for one thing. She was treating discovery like an interrogation instead of a conversation. Here's what I told her: Stop trying to get everything in 30 minutes. You're not a police detective gathering evidence. Instead, go deep on what matters most → their pain. Three questions that changed her entire approach: "What's driving this to be a priority right now?" "What happens if you don't solve this in the next 6 months?" "How is this impacting you personally?" Notice something? No questions about budget. No stakeholder mapping. No buying process. Just pain. Deep, emotional, get-them-talking pain. Here's what happened on next call: Prospect spent 20 minutes explaining their challenges. Shared things she never heard before. Got emotional about the daily frustration. Old Rep would've panicked: "I didn't get the buying process info!" New Rep said: "Based on everything you've shared, this sounds complex. Let's schedule another call to walk through how companies typically solve this." Prospect immediately agreed. Why? Because she proved she understood their world. The follow up call? Prospect brought their boss. Shared budget range. Outlined their evaluation timeline. All because the first call was about them, not about her information gathering checklist. Look, I get it. Sales methodology says you need certain data points. But prospects don't care about your methodology. They care about feeling understood. When you nail the pain, everything else flows naturally. The reps's close rate went from 18% to 29% just by changing her discovery approach. Same questions. Same product. Different mindset. Sales VPs: teach your reps to be consultants, not interrogators. The reps who master this thinking close bigger deals because they uncover the real emotional drivers behind every purchase decision. Ever noticed how your best discovery calls feel more like therapy sessions than sales calls? Strange, isn’t it? 😎 — How 700+ clients closed $950 million using THIS 6 step demo script: https://lnkd.in/eVb32BUx

🏛️ Sotheby's London Pop-Up Salon Reveals How Auction Houses Are Disrupting Traditional Luxury Retail Through Temporary Experiences Sotheby's just launched a luxury pop-up salon in London (running until August 22) featuring Hermès, Rolex, and Cartier pieces for auction—and as someone who researches experiential retail evolution across cultural institutions, this activation represents a fascinating convergence of auction culture with pop-up retail psychology. As a researcher studying how traditional luxury gatekeepers adapt to contemporary consumer behavior, this London salon demonstrates three critical frameworks I've been tracking in my academic work on institutional retail transformation: • Cultural authority as retail differentiation: By leveraging their 280-year auction house heritage, Sotheby's transforms luxury shopping from transaction to cultural participation, creating pop-up experiences that offer provenance and storytelling impossible for traditional retailers to replicate • Scarcity psychology through temporal urgency: The limited August 22 deadline creates dual scarcity—both the temporary nature of the pop-up and the one-time auction availability—intensifying purchase psychology that my research shows drives premium pricing acceptance in luxury markets • Institutional credibility as experience validation: Positioning luxury consumption within an auction house context elevates shopping to cultural curation, addressing affluent consumers' desire for purchases that reflect sophisticated taste rather than mere wealth display What fascinates me academically is how this represents cultural institutions recognizing that modern luxury consumers seek experiences that validate their cultural capital alongside their financial capital. Sotheby's pop-up strategy acknowledges that luxury retail has evolved beyond product acquisition toward identity construction through culturally significant purchasing contexts. This signals the maturation of luxury retail's understanding that the most sophisticated consumers want purchasing experiences that reflect their cultural sophistication, not just their spending power. What institutional collaborations are you observing in luxury retail within your research or market observations? 👇 #PopUpRetail #LuxuryRetail #RetailResearch #ExperientialRetail #AuctionHouses #RetailStrategy #topretailexpert #retailconsultant #retailtour #storetour

Your marketing strategy is addressing only 1/7 of your customer's journey and it's costing you sales. Only focusing on the "Buy" stage while neglecting the critical moments that lead to purchase decisions ignores the full needs of your buyer. There are 7 critical stages of a customer purchase journey and knowing each stage doesn't just refine your marketing—it transforms your entire growth strategy by helping you meet customers where they are, create targeted triggers, remove hidden obstacles, and build a complete funnel rather than just focusing on the purchase moment. The Customer Purchase Journey: 7 Critical Stages 1. First Thought  → When do prospects first realise something isn't working?  → Where are they when this happens?  → What are they struggling with? Most startups miss this stage entirely, yet it's where category awareness begins. 2. Passive Looking  → How do they articulate their desired outcome?  → What might spark their interest in solutions?  → What content are they consuming casually? This is where your content strategy should begin—long before they're actively searching. 3. First Trigger  → What finally triggers them to act?  → What's the circumstance that pushes them from awareness to consideration?  → Where are they when this happens? These trigger moments are gold for targeting and messaging. 4. Active Looking  → What are they searching for (exact keywords)?  → Who are they turning to for advice?  → Where do they inquire about solutions? This is where most marketing begins—but it's already the 4th stage. 5. Second Trigger  → What pushes them from browsing to the final stage?  → What objection did they just overcome?  → What new information changed their perspective? Identifying these accelerators can dramatically shorten your sales cycle. 6. Deciding  → What options are they considering?  → Where does this decision actually happen?  → What final questions remain? Understanding the actual decision environment is crucial for conversion. 7. Buy & Consume  → How do they purchase?  → What happens immediately after buying?  → How do they use your product? The journey doesn't end at purchase—it transforms into retention and advocacy opportunities. Why this matters for startups: When you understand all 7 stages, you can:  → Create content that meets customers where they actually are  → Design triggers that accelerate movement through the journey  → Identify hidden obstacles in your conversion path  → Build marketing that works at every stage, not just at the bottom of the funnel The startups I've seen scale fastest aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones who understand their customer's entire journey and show up at each critical  moment. Which stage of the customer journey does your marketing currently focus on? Share below 👇 ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Buyers don’t need more information—they need you to bring a new perspective In 2011, Patagonia made a decision that challenged everything we expect from a brand. On Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, they ran an ad with four simple words: “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” It wasn’t a stunt. It was a call to action. CEO Yvon Chouinard urged consumers to rethink their buying habits and the environmental impact of their choices. Patagonia wasn’t chasing a quick sale. They were asking their customers to think differently. That message resonated because it wasn’t just about jackets or even sustainability. It was about trust. Patagonia showed they were willing to challenge their buyers. Not to sell more, but to inspire better decisions. That bold, solution-oriented perspective didn’t just build loyalty. It built a legacy. Sales leaders, there’s a profound lesson here. Our job isn’t just to meet buyers where they are. It’s to bring a perspective that shifts how they think about their challenges. 👉 Buyers don’t need more data or a longer list of features. They need clarity. They need insights. They need sellers who are willing to challenge assumptions and help them envision better outcomes. This isn’t easy. It requires deep preparation. It means understanding their world so well that you can say, “Have you considered this approach?” or, “What if you solved this problem in a completely different way?” That’s how trust is earned—by doing the hard work of showing up prepared to reframe their needs in ways they hadn’t yet seen. Patagonia didn’t ask their customers to buy into a jacket. They asked them to buy into a better way of thinking. In sales, we’re called to do the same. The future of selling isn’t about delivering more information. It’s about helping them see what’s possible and inspiring them to act. 📌 How do you show up with a POV that inspires action?

I spoke with a D2C brand that had skyrocketed its organic traffic yet their daily orders were still flat. They came to me expecting a quick SEO fix. But as I dug deeper, I realized what they needed was a strategic framework —an integrated set of choices that would drive not just visitors, but profitable orders. Initial Situation: ➜ 10x increase in daily clicks (from almost nothing to 2,000/day) ➜ Average Order Value (AOV) surprisingly low ➜ Order volume: virtually unchanged despite the traffic surge Problem Identification: Why wasn’t all that new traffic turning into sales? The brand had invested in SEO, yes—but without aligning content strategy with top-selling SKUs, profit margins, demographics, and their unique value proposition. ❌ They chased visibility, not viability. Process (Our Discovery Call): I asked questions like: ➜ Top-selling SKUs? ➜ High-margin categories? ➜ Core audience and demographics? ➜ Product Differentiators vs. competition? ➜ Customer repeat purchase cycles? By understanding these, I identified where intent-rich opportunities matched their strongest business levers. What We Did Next (The Proposal): I presented a tailored SEO program that went beyond “just more traffic.” It focused on: a) Where we choose to play: Pinpointing search opportunities that have a short time to value of results. b) How we choose to win: Mapping keywords to product categories with favourable Search Volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), and Average Order Value. I presented them a scatter chart of commercial-intent keywords plotted by: ➜ Search Volume ➜ Keyword Difficulty ➜ Potential AOV Impact This instantly clarified the path forward. Instead of random traffic, we were going after the right traffic. The prospect’s reaction? He said no previous proposal had offered this level of strategic clarity. It’s easy to chase vanity metrics (traffic, rankings, clicks), but without aligning your SEO strategy to business goals, you’ll never see the revenue catch up. Stop treating SEO as a game of traffic. ➡️ Treat it as a strategic tool that positions you in front of high-intent audiences. ➡️ It’s not about playing everywhere—it’s about winning in the right places. If you’re looking to make strategic choices—on Google, Bing, or next-gen platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude —and you want to translate visibility into growth, let’s talk. I’d be excited to help you map your SEO opportunities to real business outcomes.