B2B Property Intelligence Tools to Identify Buying Signals and Close Deals Faster

Introduction

Sales and marketing teams are always looking for an advantage. Gaining an edge in today’s highly competitive world generally means having access to the right tactics, training, and tools to stay one step ahead of the competition.

One powerful tool that’s making a splash is property intelligence.

What’s Property Intelligence?

Property intelligence refers to the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data related to commercial properties and their associated purchasing decision-makers. B2B property intelligence tools are software platforms that enable sales teams to access this wealth of information, empowering them to make smarter, more targeted outreach efforts.

No longer exclusive to real estate professionals, B2B property intelligence solutions use artificial intelligence (AI), intent data, firmographic details, and other key insights to help sales reps spot buying signals, convert leads, and close deals.

What are Buying Signals?

Buying signals are indicators that a prospect is interested in your product or service and may be ready for a demo or to make a purchase. Buying signals can be explicit actions, like filling out a contact form or requesting a demo, or more subtle cues, such as engaging with your content or visiting key pages on your website, or interacting with your social profiles (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

Sales and marketing teams rely on buying signals to tell them which should take priority, personalize outreach messaging, and focus on the “warmest” opportunities. In other words, strong buying signals show sales reps where to focus their efforts to achieve the best results- thus avoiding “time vampires,” “tire kickers,” and leads that aren’t ready to buy.

Some common examples of buying signals include:

• Downloading gated content like whitepapers or eBooks
• Visiting pricing or product pages on your website
• Engaging with your brand on social media
• Attending webinars or events
• Asking specific questions about your offerings
• Interacting with social media accounts online

Examples of buying signals illustrate leads with high-interest levels or who are considering a purchase, helping streamline sales and marketing efforts, improve targeting, and enhance the buyer’s journey.

Benefits of Recognizing Buying Signals for Marketing and Sales Teams

In today’s data-driven business world, the companies that can effectively harness buying signals and intent data will be the ones that thrive- as you’ll see in the next section. Check out some benefits you can expect from using the best property intelligence software and how it can impact your entire revenue pipeline:

• Improved lead qualification and prioritization
• More personalized and relevant outreach at scale
• Shorter sales cycles and higher win rates
• Better alignment between marketing and sales efforts
• More efficient use of time and resources
• Increased revenue and predictable pipeline growth

Now, let’s discuss different types of signals.

Types of Buying Signals

Effectively leveraging buying signals in your sales process is like having a crystal ball when others are taking random shots in the dark. But not all buying signals are the same. Understanding the difference between the different types of data can provide insight into a prospect’s interest level and true intent.

It’s also important to define that there are sales buying signals and marketing buying signals. Sales buying signals include cues that indicate a prospect’s genuine interest in making a purchase, such as interest in pricing, demos, RFPs, and other verbal and non-verbal signals. Immediately recognizing which buying signal you’re seeing will allow the sales team to step in when a deal is primed to close, rather than wasting time on every single IP address that hits your website.

On the other hand, marketing buying signals are indicators that help marketers deliver timely and relevant content to potential customers. Understanding marketing signals enables businesses to see how their campaigns are performing and make changes to focus or improve upon their overall strategy. These signals can include metrics like email open rates, website traffic, social media engagement, and more.

Now that you’re familiar with the two forms of buying signals let’s chat about the various types before diving into property intelligence tools!

Fit Data

Fit data emphasizes firmographic and property characteristic information, including building usage, company size, industry, location, management, etc. This information helps sales teams determine whether a lead matches their ideal customer profile (ICP) and is a good fit for their product or service.

Fit data allows B2B sales teams to use property intelligence tools to quickly qualify leads and prioritize outreach to companies that are most likely to benefit from their offerings.

Opportunity Data

Opportunity data provides context about a prospect’s business environment and potential pain points. This can include details like recent funding rounds, ownership, tenant or management changes, equipment on the property, and more.

Opportunity data is super important for personalization. When sales teams understand the challenges and opportunities a prospect is facing, they can create outreach that really resonates and speaks directly to what those prospects need. Or, use B2B property intelligence platforms like Convex to do it for them.

Convex combines best-in-class data from multiple sources to train Generative AI for outreach. This approach can provide valuable context that sales reps may miss in the research process and allows for more meaningful conversations that build stronger relationships with potential buyers.

Intent Data

We’ve already touched on the topic of intent data several times, but here’s a 60-second overview.

Intent data is perhaps the most powerful type of buying signal, as it provides direct insight into a prospect’s level of interest and engagement with your brand and offerings. Intent data can come from a variety of sources, including:

• Website visits and page views
• Content downloads and form fills
• Search activity and keywords
• Social media engagement
• Third-party intent data from review sites, forums, and other online sources

Reaching out to the right person at the right time with the right message is a recipe for success. If you think about intent data in these terms, it’s a no-brainer.

Recognizing Buying Signals and Sales Stages

Now that we’ve explored the different types of buying signals let’s dive into some strategies for recognizing and acting on them in your sales process.

Every buyer goes on a “journey” before making a purchase. It might be looking up the product by name, checking out competitor websites, or comparing prices. The key is that they’re taking steps to show they’re serious about making a purchase.

We call it the “buyer’s journey” (or) “customer journey,” and it generally includes three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. At each stage of the buyer’s journey, prospects show different types of buying signals that sales teams should be paying attention to.

Awareness Stage

In this stage, buyers are identifying a problem or need they have. They may not even know your company exists yet, but they’re beginning to research potential solutions on their own. Some common buying signals at this stage include:

• Visiting your website for the first time
• Downloading non-gated content (e.g., blog posts)
• Asking generic questions about a topic related to your offerings

Consideration Stage

At this point, buyers have identified their problem and are actively looking for solutions. They’re likely comparing different options and doing more in-depth research on specific companies. Some buying signals to look out for at this stage include:

• Downloading gated content (e.g., whitepapers or case studies)
• Engaging with specific product pages on your website
• Asking more detailed questions about your offerings

Decision Stage

In the decision stage, buyers have narrowed down their options and are ready to make a purchase. They may request demos and pricing information or contact sales directly. Key buying signals at this stage include:

• Requesting a demo or trial
• Filling out a form on your website or creating an RFP (request for proposal)

Understanding these common buying signals and communicating appropriately with the prospective customers according to their stage will allow smoother transitions through the buying process and increase the likelihood of answering their questions and creating opportunities for conversion.

Engagement, such as commenting on blog posts or sharing product announcements, can be a good sign and indicate interest in a company’s offerings. However, not all engagement is a strong buying signal; it’s important to distinguish between high-interest interactions versus casual ones.

Verbal and Nonverbal Cues

One of the most straightforward ways to spot a buying signal is by paying attention to what a prospect says and does during interactions. Are they requesting a sales call or just downloading a resource? This will tell you which leads are ready to convert and which aren’t. Some verbal cues that indicate interest include:

• Asking specific questions about pricing, features, or implementation
• Expressing urgency or a timeline for making a decision
• Mentioning competitors or comparing your offering to others
• Responding positively to your value proposition or unique selling points

Nonverbal cues can be harder to pick up on, especially in virtual selling environments, but they’re just as important. Some things to watch for include:

• Body language and facial expressions that indicate engagement and interest
• The tone of voice and inflection suggest excitement or urgency
• Responsiveness and promptness in further communication and follow-up

By training your sales reps to recognize these verbal and nonverbal buying signals, you can help them build stronger relationships with prospects and know when to move deals forward.

Data Analysis

While human intuition and observation are valuable for prospecting calls and spotting buying signals, the real power comes from leveraging data to identify patterns and trends at scale. Understanding the stages of the sales funnel can help tailor marketing strategies and communications, ensuring that you effectively move prospects closer to making a purchase. This is where B2B property intelligence tools can be a game-changer for your sales and marketing efforts.

When considering property intelligence solutions, look for options that aggregate and analyze large volumes of intent data, fit data, and opportunity data; these tools can help you surface the strongest buying signals from potential buyers and prioritize your outreach accordingly. Some key capabilities to look for include:

• Lead scoring models that assign values to different actions and attributes
• Predictive analytics that forecast which accounts are most likely to convert
• Alerts and notifications when key buying signals are detected
• Integration with your CRM and other sales tools for seamless workflow

The benefits of these indicators are focus, efficiency, and removing guesswork to channel sales reps’ energy into the hottest leads.

That’s why Convex’s property intelligence software packages all of this in one easy-to-use solution.

Top 10 B2B Property Intelligence Tools

Before we get into the top 10 tools, let’s talk about how we drew these conclusions.

First, G2, Capterra, and platforms like TrustPilot and TrustRadius offer thorough explanations, ratings, and customer reviews of each of these platforms.

Second, each of these solutions offers a unique value proposition for commercial services sales teams—the more value (e.g., tools, data, efficiencies, etc.) they create for your team, the higher they’re rated.

Finally, the quality and ease of use of each platform also shaped this list. Platforms that offer complex filtering processes and difficult-to-use interfaces got lower rankings due to their complexity.

So, what are the best B2B property intelligence tools on the market today? Here are 10 of the top platforms to consider:

Convex

Description: A prospecting platform purpose-built for contractors and companies in the commercial services industry.

Target market: Commercial Services Businesses (e.g., HVAC, roofing, solar, generators, asphalt and paving, commercial cleaning and janitorial, etc.)

Features: Convex Atlas combines proprietary data sources into a single property-centric view. Atlas Engage enables sales teams to call and email prospects directly from the platform.

Best use cases: Finding qualified properties and decision makers, engaging prospects with insights, expanding commercial footprint.

CoStar

Description: Provides industry-leading data and information services for commercial real estate.

Target market: Brokers, analysts, and investors in commercial, multifamily, industrial, and other real estate sectors.

Features: Analytical reports for markets and submarkets, interactive charts, and expert commentary.

Best use cases: Assessing recent trends, understanding future outlook, evaluating risk and growth potential.

Batchleads

Description: Real estate investing software that provides access to on-market & off-market properties.

Target market: Real estate investors looking to find deals and connect with sellers.

Features: Property insights, intuitive comping tools, 300+ real estate filters.

Best use cases: Finding motivated sellers, uncovering potential flips, building passive income.

Crexi

Description: An online marketplace for buying, selling, and leasing commercial real estate.

Target market: Brokers, buyers, and tenants in the commercial real estate market.

Features: Lead management tools, property analytics, sales intelligence tools, and marketing automation.

Best use cases: Listing properties, managing leads, viewing analytics, secure file storage.

Realist (CoreLogic)

Description: A multiple listing management software platform for real estate agents.

Target market: Real estate agents participating in multiple listing organizations.

Features: Property records, market trends, community demographics, environmental risks.

Best use cases: Research properties and listings, identifying opportunities, and improving client decision-making.

HelloData.ai

Description: An AI-driven multifamily market analysis platform that automates rent surveys.

Target market: Multifamily operators, developers, acquisitions teams, appraisers, brokers, and lenders.

Features: Daily rent, availability, and concession data, expense benchmarking, and revenue management.

Best use cases: Automating underwriting, analyzing deals, and improving operations.

PropertyRadar

Description: A hyperlocal lead generation platform for data-driven real estate professionals.

Target market: Real estate agents, brokers, investors, and service providers.

Features: Targeted property data, owner contact information, market insights, and list building.

Best use cases: Generating new leads, researching properties, connecting with owners, and marketing services.

Estated

Description: Provides instant access to property data on over 150 million properties. Recently acquired by ATTOM.

Target market: Real estate professionals, mortgage lenders, insurance providers.

Features: Property characteristics, ownership, sales history, valuations, and integrations via API.

Best use cases: Underwriting loans, assessing risk, powering real estate websites and applications.

ApartmentIQ

Description: An automated market survey tool for multifamily properties with 100% unit-level public data.

Target market: Multifamily owners, operators, asset managers, revenue managers.

Features: Daily rent, availability, and concession data, four years of historical trends, and enterprise security.

Best use cases: Replacing manual market surveys with best sales intelligence, analyzing comps, optimizing pricing and revenue.

While most of the property intelligence systems cater to real-estate professionals (e.g., investors, lenders, brokers, developers, and operators), Convex remains the only property intelligence platform purpose-built for commercial services businesses like HVAC, roofing and janitorial.

Reonomy

Description: A commercial real estate intelligence platform for investment teams, brokers, and lenders.

Target market: Commercial real estate professionals, including investors, brokers, lenders, and appraisers.

Features: Comprehensive property data on 49 million+ properties nationwide, off-market opportunities, and owner contact information.

Best use cases: Sourcing deals and leads for sales or financing opportunities.

Now, here’s what’s interesting: of the 87 (or so) platforms listed on G2 as property intelligence solutions, only one offers commercial services sales reps data and insights targeted at helping them close deals—that’s Convex.

So, you’ve made your decision and picked a platform that you believe offers the most value for your team – now what?

Best Practices for Using B2B Property Intelligence Tools

Implementing intelligence tools can be a challenge. You’ll probably face pushback from some team members who are resistant to change or struggle with adapting to new technology. To ensure the smooth adoption and success of your chosen property intelligence platform, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Involve all stakeholders: Make sure all relevant team members, such as sales representatives, managers, and support staff, are involved in the decision-making process when selecting a property intelligence tool. This will not only help garner buy-in but also ensure that the platform meets the needs of all departments.
2. Train and educate your team: Before launching the tool, provide thorough training sessions for your team so they can learn how to use its features effectively. Share best practices and tips on how to integrate the platform into their daily routines.
3. Set clear goals and objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve with the property intelligence tool, such as increasing sales or streamlining processes. This will help you measure the platform’s success and make any necessary adjustments.
4. Utilize data-driven insights: Encourage your team to use data-driven insights from the platform in their decision-making processes. This will help them identify new opportunities, target potential customers more effectively, and close deals faster.
5. Track, review, and update regularly: Property dynamics change constantly—managers hire more, buildings sell, and tenants leave. Sales results also change based on the economy, inflation, and other factors. Tracking your business’s vital metrics will be key to generating a return on investment (ROI) for these tools.

You’ll want to take a systematic approach to get the most value out of your B2B property intelligence tools. Using these steps above, creating your own, and refining your strategy will maximize the impact of your property intelligence tools and drive better results for your business.

Conclusion

Everything feels like it’s moving at the speed of light, and change is the only constant.

Identifying and understanding buying signals from the best property intelligence tools can help your sales team focus on their most promising opportunities and close more deals.

Whether you’re looking to improve lead qualification, personalize your outreach, or accelerate your sales cycle, investing in the right B2B property intelligence tools can be a game-changer.So if you’re ready to take your prospecting, marketing team, and sales strategy to the next level, schedule a demo of Convex to discover how our comprehensive suite of property intelligence software and automated sales intelligence tools can revolutionize your sales process, save time, and drive more qualified leads to your business.