B2B Buyer Shortlist: Early Signs of Buying Intent

The signals show up long before the form fill. The real question is whether you’re reading them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS & HIGHLIGHTS:

Shortlisting happens quietly, often before a buyer is ever flagged as “in-market”
Ten marketing leaders share the behavioural, content, and cognitive signals that reveal a buyer is leaning in
The common thread: the strongest signals aren’t clicks. They’re shifts in how buyers think, what they look for, and who else joins the conversation

Ask when a buyer has shortlisted your brand, and most teams will point to a visible moment. A demo request. A pricing page visit. A sales call on the calendar.

The honest answer is that those moments usually come last. B2B buyers do most of their research on their own terms, through content, peers, search, and increasingly LLMs, and they form preferences long before they speak to anyone. By the time intent becomes obvious, the shortlist has often already been decided.

That makes the earliest signals some of the most valuable, and the easiest to miss. We asked ten marketing leaders what tells them a buyer has mentally put their brand on the list. Their answers range from website behaviour to buying committee engagement to something harder to track: the moment a buyer starts thinking like a customer.

Meet our experts

Alysha Spencer

Fractional Marketing Director, AS Growth Marketing Consultancy
Keven Ellison

VP of Marketing, AIS-NOW
Sahar Qureshi

Sr. Director of Marketing, North America,OSF Digital
Josie Hirtenstein

Marketing Leader | GTM Strategy, Brand & Demand
Deirdre Mahon

Marketing Leader | PLG, Growth, GTM Strategy
Alan Gates

Managing Director, PreEmpt.Life Ltd
Scott Swank

VP of Marketing, Global TV Concepts, LTD
Ruth Favela

Director of Marketing, AnswerRocket
Michelle Pendenza

Digital Marketing & Growth Executive | Founder
Alex Gammelgard

VP Marketing | Enterprise AI, Infrastructure & Developer Platforms

Alysha Spencer
Fractional Marketing Director, AS Growth Marketing Consultancy

“The earliest sign that a buyer has mentally shortlisted my brand is usually their presence on our website, looking at the product details and case studies. They might have come from LLMs or old-fashioned search, but they’ll usually have checked out the website before reaching out. That makes tracking tools super useful!”

ALYSHA’s BIO

Alysha Spencer is a Fractional Marketing Director with 16+ years of experience across agency and corporate environments, leading demand generation and ABM programmes for B2B brands. She has driven £150m+ in pipeline contribution at O2 Business and led brand transformation at Work.Life

Keven Ellison
VP of Marketing, AIS-NOW

“80–85% of B2B buyers have already formed a preference before they contact you. They research on their own through content and your website, controlling the process at their own pace. The clearest signal is when they arrive asking specific questions because they’ve already done their homework.”

KEVEN’s BIO

Keven Ellison is VP of Marketing at AIS-NOW, building the first Agentic AI Organization to help SMBs adopt practical automation. With 30 years in business, he has deployed 20+ AI agents that eliminated 100+ hours of weekly manual work.

Sahar Qureshi
Sr. Director of Marketing, North America, OSF Digital

“The real signal is when buyers shift from general content to proof. A whitepaper shows curiosity; customer stories and client-led sessions show they’re building an internal case. That often happens before they’re marked “in-market.” By then, the shortlist may already be formed.”

Sahar’S BIO

Sahar Qureshi is Sr. Director of Marketing, North America at OSF Digital, a leading Salesforce partner. With 18+ years leading enterprise GTM and revenue marketing, she previously held marketing roles at Pearson Canada, TJX Canada, and Hudson’s Bay.

Josie Hirtenstein
Marketing Leader | GTM Strategy, Brand & Demand

““Sales readiness comes from multiple touchpoints across content, webinars, third-party research, and high-intent website pages. Shortlisted buyers also show clear sales engagement, decision-maker relationships, defined needs, and an understood buying committee. Once budget and timeframe are confirmed, that intent becomes far more concrete and measurable.”

Josie’S BIO

Josie Hirtenstein is a marketing leader with 20+ years helping B2B SaaS, technology, and IT services companies accelerate growth. Her expertise spans GTM strategy, brand design, demand generation, and partnerships across enterprise software and cybersecurity.

Deirdre Mahon
Marketing Leader | PLG, Growth, GTM Strategy

“The earliest signs are LinkedIn follows, likes & comments, plus direct connects and site visits. Hopefully repeat visits & multiple pages that show intent. The ultimate best sign is when other team members and their colleagues also start following. In other words, it’s not a single thread or individual; there’s critical mass and lean-in from multiple folks, ideally including a decision maker.”

Deirdre’S BIO

Deirdre Mahon is a full-stack marketing leader with experience across growth startups and public companies. She has been instrumental in creating new market categories, including Observability and Cloud Consumption Analytics, and has been part of five company acquisitions.

Alan Gates
Managing Director, PreEmpt.Life Ltd

“The earliest tell isn’t behavioral, it’s cognitive, the moment a buyer stops asking ‘does this problem matter’ and starts rehearsing ‘how would this fit if we went with them.’ Once that shift happens, the shortlist decision is already made; everything after is just the buyer rationalizing a choice they’ve settled emotionally.”

ALAN’S BIO

Alan Gates is Managing Director of PreEmpt.Life Ltd, the 2025 Innovator of the Year, delivering “Decision Wisdom®” through Pre-decision Intelligence. With 40+ years of technology experience, he helps organisations map a clear pathway from where they stand today to where they need to be.

Scott Swank
VP of Marketing, Global TV Concepts, LTD

“The earliest sign is when the buyer stops just asking what the product does and starts asking how it would fit into their business. At that point, they’re no longer just learning about it, they’re trying to figure out whether they can make it work.”

SCOTT’S BIO

Scott Swank is VP of Marketing at Global TV Concepts and Founder of Cryo2o. A Ball State University graduate, he has spent three decades in direct marketing, beginning his career with Kevin Harrington of Shark Tank fame.

Ruth Favela
Director of Marketing, AnswerRocket

“The earliest signal is when a buyer starts using your language to describe their own problem. If they adopt your positioning or jargon before a demo or pricing visit, they may have already mentally shortlisted your solution. The visible signals come later; the real shortlisting often happens upstream through content, POV, and thought leadership.”

rUTH’S BIO

Ruth Favela is Director of Marketing at AnswerRocket with a decade of B2B SaaS experience in content, product marketing, and demand generation. Most recently, she ran the full marketing function at Tomorrow.io, a Series F, $100M+ ARR AI weather platform.

Michelle Pendenza
Digital Marketing & Growth Executive | Founder

“Early intent shows up across multiple touchpoints, direct traffic, and branded searches. Social engagement, bookmarks, and repeat visits to spec or comparison pages strengthen the signal. Returning to sign-up or contact pages points to stronger buying intent.”

Michelle’S BIO

Michelle Pendenza is a Digital Marketing & Growth Executive and Founder of Swurve Media Corporation, which she scaled from an $80K investment to a multi-million dollar business in three years. She has also driven 35% month-over-month revenue growth at Ruby.

Alex Gammelgard
VP Marketing | Enterprise AI, Infrastructure & Developer Platforms

“We know when an account is in-market via ZoomInfo, but to assume we’re on the shortlist I’d want to see strong product-specific engagement signals. That could be someone watching demos, using the trial, attending our events, or sending multiple people from the account to the site. But ultimately, I don’t think you truly know you’re on the shortlist until the buyer tells you or sales confirms it.”

Alex’S BIO

Alex Gammelgard is VP of Marketing focused on Enterprise AI, Infrastructure & Developer Platforms, with 15+ years building GTM organizations for technically complex products. She has grown teams from $30M to $200M+ ARR and secured a $40M SoftBank investment for Wiz.

Earning the shortlist starts before the buyer does

Getting on the shortlist takes more than visibility. It takes a brand that buyers remember, content that builds their case for them, and the intelligence to spot intent while it’s still forming.

That’s what Unbound IA builds. From brand strategy through to demand generation and ABX programs, we help B2B marketing leaders connect brand and revenue, because you don’t have to choose.