5 Tools to Understand Buyer Behavior Before You Pitch

Hi Everyone, I am Abhishek, and today I want to talk about something that's been a pain point for me since 2023: getting ghosted after a great pitch.

The other day, I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed and saw a post from a founder I know. He was venting about a pitch that went completely wrong; he’d put in all this effort, only to be met with a silent shrug from the prospect. It hit me that this is a problem all of us in sales have faced. You pour your heart into a presentation, and you’re convinced it was a waste of time.

I remember this one time, a few years back, when I was running an IT solutions agency. I was pitching to a big real estate tech company. I was so sure our product was a perfect fit. I sent them my best outreach message, a polished deck, everything. I thought I had all the bases covered. But two days after the call, I saw on LinkedIn that they'd partnered with a competitor. It was a tough lesson. I had all the right information about my product, but I didn't have any on the person I was talking to. I didn't know what they were really excited about, what their company was focused on, or even what kind of communication style they preferred.

Today we discuss a quite common problem, i.e, ghosting. This kind of ghosting is more scary than a horror movie because you lose money that could have made your life easier.

Ever tried pitching "Hi this is gonna be a win if you use...' and then getting ghosted? Most salespeople still pitch like this, which is a common practice.

It's the same sad story for every sales rep. The sales rep jump on a call, run through their script, and then wonder why the deal slipped away.

Before we move forward here's a quick intro about me: I am Abhishek Patnaik, CEO of Behavely.

If you can understand your lead's behavior — their interests, pain points, decision triggers — you can shape your pitch so it feels like you’ve read their mind. When you have this info you can manipulate any situation.

And of course, this is simple human psychology. We tend to like people with more similar interests. It’s about using sales psychology tools that reveal what’s going on in your prospect’s head before you even say “hello.”

Here are 5 tools of my choice:

Before you read the below, please note this is a list of my personal collection. Feel free to let me know yours. Now jumping back into our list.

1. Crystal – Get to know their Communication Style

Crystal uses personality AI to analyze LinkedIn profiles, emails, and other content to tell you how your prospect prefers to communicate.

What works?:

Tells you how to communicate, taking into consideration your behavior vs your leads' behavior.

What doesn't work?:

Although it only focuses on LinkedIn profiles. It fails to generate insights about the users from other social media, thereby giving you insight only into your leads' professional data.

• Direct or detail-oriented?

• Big-picture or risk-averse?

• Likes casual talk or needs it buttoned-up?

Knowing this lets you adjust your tone, choice of words, and even the pace of your pitch.

Example:

If Crystal tells you your prospect is highly analytical, you skip the small talk and lead with numbers, stats, and ROI.

If they’re more of a “vision” type, you paint the big picture before hitting them with details.

Best way to use this tool: Run their LinkedIn profile through Crystal before your call — it’s a quick edge most reps never bother to use.

2. Behavely AI – Understand Emotions, Likes, and Behaviour

Some tools give you data. Behavely gives you context.

It pulls insights from a prospect’s online activity from their social media, the kind of content they consume, their professional interests, and even subtle behavior patterns.

It can also flag dos and don’ts for approaching them, so you avoid saying the wrong thing before you even start.

Think of it like showing up to a meeting knowing:

• What emotions trigger them

• What turns them off instantly

• What's their political/religious alignment

• What location did they visit recently

• What's their behaviour

You’re not guessing anymore. Your pitch sounds naturally tailored, not rehearsed.

Best way to use this tool: Use it to know all the details about your leads online. After you know all about them online, you have the power to persuade them. Or frame an outreach that has the most probability of conversion.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Spot Interest Signals

Sales Navigator isn’t just for finding leads; it’s difficult to know how to communicate with your leads.

• What posts are they engaging with?

• Who are they connecting with lately?

• Are they following certain industry topics or influencers?

This tells you what’s top-of-mind for them right now.

If they’ve been liking posts about AI in customer service, guess what angle your pitch should take? Exactly — lead with how your product fits into that world.

Best way to use this tool: Save leads and accounts so LinkedIn keeps feeding you their updates without you stalking their profile every day.

4. Hotjar – See How They Interact with Your Site

If you’re selling SaaS or anything digital, tools like Hotjar show heatmaps and session recordings of how visitors use your site.

You’ll see:

• Where do they spend most time

• Where they drop off

• What they ignore completely

If 70% of trial users bail on the pricing page, that’s a conversation point in your pitch — you already know where their hesitation lives.

Best way to use this tool: Pair this with your CRM so you know exactly which leads watched your demo video twice but never booked a call. That’s your follow-up target.

5. HubSpot CRM with Buyer Insight Add-Ons – See the Full Picture

HubSpot’s core CRM is solid, but when you plug in behavior-tracking add-ons, it becomes a model as powerful as a human with 10 years of sales experience.

You can see:

• Which emails they open (and which they ignore)

• What resources did they download

• The sequence of steps they take before booking a meeting

This allows you to spot patterns and predict when they’re most likely to say yes.

Best way to use this tool: Set up lead scoring based on these behaviors so you’re spending your time on the 20% of leads most likely to close.

The Sales Psychology Behind It

Why do these tools work?

Because they tap into sales psychology — the science of how people make buying decisions.

Here’s the short version:

• People buy for emotional reasons, then justify with logic.

• They’re more receptive to messages that align with their personality.

• Familiarity and relevance build trust faster than generic pitches.

When you use tools that decode these factors, your pitch becomes less “salesy” and more “exactly what they were looking for.”

Start with these 5 tools:

• Crystal for personality insights

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator for interest signals

• Hotjar for on-site behavior

• Behavely AI for deep personal and professional context

• HubSpot CRM with behavior tracking for the full journey view

How to Put This Into Play in a Week

Here’s a quick action plan:

Day 1–2: Pick one tool from each category above and run your top 10 prospects through it.

Day 3–4: Adjust your pitch scripts and outreach templates based on what you find.

Day 5–7: Test the results — track replies, booked calls, and conversion rates.

You’ll be surprised at how different the conversations feel.

Pitching without understanding buyer behavior is like playing soccer but with a blindfold. You never know what happens next.

The story is not over until you convert your lead:

It might be tough now; however, if you get a good hold of the above tools, you are gonna win soon.

The reps and founders who close big deals consistently aren’t lucky — they’re prepared. They walk into every pitch armed with data, insights, and psychology data points that make the prospect feel like the product was built just for them.

Use them well, and you won’t just be pitching anymore, you’ll be connecting.

Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to DM me, here's the link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekpatnaik77/