Digital Body Language: Turning Buyer Signals into Real Relationships

Most GTM teams are sitting on buyer signals they don’t know how to interpret. 

Not because the data isn’t there, but because they’re treating it like a to-do list instead of what it actually is.

Signals have become one of the most hyped and misunderstood resources in go-to-market motions. They’re sold as shortcuts to pipeline and revenue. But ad clicks, pageviews, and search data aren’t silver bullets. They’re subtle clues your buyers leave behind as they explore, evaluate, or pull away.

The teams seeing success know how to interpret those moments the way a great seller reads a room. They recognize the interest behind the ad click, the hesitation behind the demo no-show, and the momentum behind a streak of signals from multiple decision-makers.

This is digital body language. And when you know how to interpret it, you can stop interrupting the buying journey and start building long-lasting relationships with buyers.

In this playbook, we’ll show you how to build a GTM motion that reads signals like a conversation instead of a checklist. You’ll learn:

• How to see signals as digital body language
• How to interpret them holistically, not in silos
• How Marketing can help Sales act with timing and empathy
• How to make Marketing indispensable to revenue

Let’s get into it.

According to Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of psychology of connection, “When you interact with others, you're continuously giving and receiving wordless signals.” Everything from eye contact to hand movement and your posture communicates something you may not be saying out loud.

When you talk to someone in person, these cues help you decide whether to lean in, pause, or change the subject entirely.

Digital body language is the same idea, just applied to the digital world.

Your buyers are constantly communicating intent through their behavior. They click on ads, scroll past emails, download content, or search relevant keywords. These are subtle cues that can reveal:

• Curiosity about a solution
• Hesitancy to engage
• Urgency to buy
• A complete lack of interest

But to make sense of it, you have to zoom in.

Looking at signals at the account level is like trying to read body language in a crowd. You might spot movement, but you won’t know who it’s coming from or what it means. Real insight happens at the contact level, when you can connect each action to a real person with a role, a need, and a place in the buying group.

And it doesn’t stop at the first meeting.

Digital body language matters from prospecting to post-sale. Whether someone’s just discovering your brand, comparing solutions, re-evaluating after skipping a sales demo, or considering expansion, their behavior tells you how to engage (or when to hold off).

As marketers and sellers, reading digital body language makes it easier to:

• Understand where each buyer is in their journey
• Read the room before stepping in
• Respond thoughtfully

To start decoding digital body language, it helps to anchor it in something familiar. Here are some examples of how common digital behaviors map to real human cues.

Something to keep in mind is that just like physical body language, it’s easy to misinterpret digital body language.

Buyers rarely wave a flag that says “I’m ready.” They move through gray zones, researching silently, going cold, then suddenly re-engaging.

That’s why GTM teams should look at signals holistically to decide when or how to reach out.

Here’s a framework to help guide you.

These are the same instincts the best sellers rely on in live conversations, just applied to digital behavior. Use them to decode what your buyers’ actions are really saying:

👉 What happened before and after?

Signals are like scenes in a movie. The order they appear in matters.

• A job change followed by viewing a product feature page → potential new initiative or buying motion
• A case study view before a demo request → something in the case study likely motivated them

👉 How fresh is the signal?

Signals decay over time.

• A prospect announced a new job this morning → They’re 62% more open to outreach.
• They announced a new job 6 months ago → They may have already started building their tech stack.

👉 Is it a one-off or part of a pattern?

A signal from one buying group member shows their interest, but signals from multiple buying group members hint at a team initiative.

• One ad click → One buyer’s curiosity and interest
• Clicks from multiple people → Internal momentum building

👉 Does this person have influence?

Not every signal holds the same weight. Filter by context.

• A CTO clicking an ad about integrations → Relevant
• A junior marketer downloading a top-of-funnel ebook → Lower value unless it’s paired with other buying group signals

You don’t need to ignore the ebook download, but the CTO signal should take priority and be treated differently. That could mean a personal outreach to the CTO, while the junior marketer gets put into a marketing nurture related to the ebook topic.

These four lenses can help you filter signal noise and spot the moments that matter, so that Sales can show up with better timing, context, and intent.

Rachel Truair, CMO of Simpro, uses a similar approach for evaluating signals. Here’s her process:

• First, I look for context. Is the signal part of a pattern of engagement across channels or just a one-off? 
• Then I ask: Is the behavior aligned to a specific persona in the buying group? I want to know where that person is in the buying journey—are they educating, evaluating, or purchasing? 
• Lastly, I look at recency and velocity. Did they engage over weeks or within hours?

Signals can be incredibly powerful or misleading, depending on how you interpret them.

Even with the best data, it’s easy to jump to the wrong conclusion and misinterpret signals as buying intent when they’re really just signs of curiosity or something else entirely.

When you treat signals as triggers to pitch your product instead of clues, you risk wasting time, burning leads, or showing up in the wrong moment with the wrong message.

Here are a few common misreads and what a more thoughtful interpretation looks like:

Use the four lenses—sequence, recency, consistency, and relevance—to interpret the full story. When you read the moment in context, you’ll know when to take the next step, when to nurture, and when to wait.

Next, let’s look at how to pair signals with real-world responses that build trust and momentum.

Some GTM teams still treat signals like checkpoints. Marketing sees a signal, Sales gets alerted, and the baton gets passed. But that handoff model doesn’t reflect how buyers actually behave, or how relationships are built.

Buyers don’t stop engaging once they enter a sales process. They’re still clicking ads, researching, comparing, and signaling even while actively talking to a salesperson. If Marketing checks out after the first signal is shared, the opportunity to guide and influence the journey fades fast.

Signals are clues for connection. And to act on them effectively, Marketing and Sales need to move as one unit, not separate teams trading tasks.

That means Marketing stays involved throughout the journey—spotting new signals, sharing context, and supporting Sales with relevant touchpoints. It also means Sales doesn’t blindly react to activity. They interpret it with empathy and EQ, just like they would read a buyer’s tone or posture in person.

A surge in content engagement might mean excitement or uncertainty. A demo no-show might mean hesitation, not disinterest. It takes EQ and a shared understanding to know the difference.

When both teams stay aligned on what signals mean and how to respond, buyers experience a cohesive, thoughtful journey instead of a clunky “handoff.”

Here are a few example signal combinations GTM teams might see, and how to interpret and respond with empathy, not assumption:

Notice how the Sales and Marketing actions happen in sync. In a well-oiled GTM motion, buyers should never feel like they’re being “handed off” from Marketing to sales or vice versa. It should be one smooth and fluid motion.

When Marketing and Sales look at signals through the same lens, you’re able to respond in ways that feel thoughtful instead of robotic. 

Back when opportunities were plentiful, reacting to signals with a canned response was enough to get attention. But now that more competitors are working with the same set of signals, EQ is your differentiator. 

You’re recognizing interest, hesitation, and momentum as they unfold. And when your response matches the moment, buyers feel it.

Let's take a look at a real life example of how the team at Salesloft uses signals to keep Marketing and Sales aligned.

Their CRO, Mark Niemiec, says he needs to answer four questions with confidence:

• Are we focused on the right opportunities?
• Are we coaching the right moments?
• Are we getting more accurate in our forecast?
• Are we delivering an experience that keeps customers with us?

"When signals were interpreted and activated in the right way, we could answer all four as one GTM team." says Niemiec.

He continued: "That alignment was the shift. Sales and Marketing started working from the same playbook. We were operating with shared context. The customer got one unified experience. Internally, we were working from one truth."

There’s a common belief that salespeople want more leads. But data suggests otherwise. A survey from Walnut asked salespeople what would be most helpful for them to reach their goals, and only 10% said more leads.

Handing Sales a list of hundreds of leads or accounts just gives them busywork—they don’t need that. They want to know who to talk to and why. Is it the VP who clicked your ad for a specific use case? The Director who just changed jobs? The Manager who keeps Googling your competitors?

Marketing can connect those dots.

They see the full picture of digital behavior across ads, content, email, social, and other channels, and typically own the systems that capture that activity. So they’re in the best position to help Sales know:

• Who’s leaning in
• What they care about
• How to show up with context

When that signal data gets shared with Sales, it becomes the GPS for pipeline. But only if it’s surfaced the right way.

To make signals actionable for Sales, Marketing can:

• Highlight specific people: Every signal should be connected to a named contact, not “someone from Acme Co”. And ideally, it’s a person that you know Sales wants to talk to. Check out this playbook to get aligned.
• Deliver insight where Sales already works: Whether it's Slack, your CRM, or sales engagement tools, bring the signal context directly into their workflow.
• Create a shared language: “Jane clicked this ad” makes sense to marketers. But “Jane is showing interest in [XYZ] topic” is more actionable for salespeople.
• Bundle signals into narratives: When multiple signals come from a buyer—or across a buying group—they form a story. Share it with Sales so they know who’s engaged, what’s happening, and where to focus.

That last point is very important. One of the biggest benefits of building narratives with signals is that it allows salespeople to stand out.

Kevin White, Head of GTM Strategy at Common Room, shared an example of how you can stack signals to build a compelling narrative for outreach:

Context: A former C-level champion of yours just announced a job change on LinkedIn, and the company they’ve switched to recently released their public earnings report.

• A job change often signals upcoming changes in technology, team, or strategy within a company.
• An earnings report provides insights into a business's financials, risks, priorities, initiatives, and investments.
• Combining these signals in an outbound message shows that you have done your homework, understand the situation, and can help achieve company objectives.

If you’re thinking, “This sounds nice, but how do I implement it?” let’s talk.

We can show you how Influ2 can help power your signal-driven GTM strategy, including how to make signals more actionable for Sales.

To pull everything together and give you a roadmap to take action, here’s a checklist to help you shift toward a signal-driven GTM motion built around reading digital body language.

These are simple, practical steps that help you build internal alignment, equip your Sales team, and create a scalable system.

Define how your team interprets common buyer behaviors and which ones are most relevant for your business. 

How do we stack rank signals? What does an ad click suggest? What does a job change + LinkedIn activity mean? Start documenting signal patterns and their likely indications, so Sales and Marketing are speaking the same language.

Make it easy for Sales to see and act on signal insights. Decide how and where you’ll share signal context—whether it’s through email, CRM updates, or elsewhere. Keep it brief, relevant, and connected to specific people. Simpro’s marketing team is seeing a lot of success pushing signals to Slack in particular.

Don’t let this knowledge stay confined to Marketing.

Use real signal scenarios in Sales onboarding and training. Give reps examples of how to respond to different signals with empathy and timing.

Set aside 10 minutes in pipeline or campaign meetings to review active signals for high-priority accounts.

Look at what’s happening, discuss possible meaning, and identify action items for Sales and Marketing.

You don’t need a full-blown revamp.

Start with one high-signal behavior (e.g., ad clicks, keyword searches, or job changes) for a segment of target accounts, and build a simple play around it. Track what happens, then scale what works.

You can also start with the approach Kaylee Edmondson, founder of Demand Loops, suggests: "Only track signals that correlate with closed deals. Everything else is just noise."

Winning deals is harder today. You’ve seen the doom and gloom posts all over LinkedIn, and have likely experienced the challenges first-hand.

More competition, tighter budgets, and the list goes on.

While some of it is exaggerated, buyers are clearly signaling that they want something different.

As salespeople and marketers, it’s on us to improve the buying experience. As Mark Niemiec told us, “Signals should make reps more productive and help serve customers better.”

And that starts with understanding each buyer’s needs, engaging them in a meaningful way, and hyper-focusing on their needs instead of our desire to convert and retain them.

Signals are how buyers show you what they care about, even if they don’t fill out a form or talk to a rep. When Marketing and Sales interpret signals together, you create a GTM engine that feels less like chasing and more like understanding.

Want help building that engine? Let’s talk about how Influ2 can help you turn signals into pipeline.