B2B marketing
How B2B buyers
choose.
By committee, early, and mostly without you. Forrester's 2026 research puts a typical purchase at 13 internal stakeholders plus 9 outside influencers. Most of them check you out before anyone talks to your sales team, and Gartner found 61% of buyers prefer a buying experience with no sales rep. So the website has to answer each person's question, and make choosing you feel safe.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 2 November 2026.Who is
in the group.
Forrester found procurement is a decision-maker in 53% of buying cycles, and over 60% of buyers use a trial, rising to 78% for purchases of US$10 million or more. In 2024, 6sense put the average buying group at 11 people. Global figures, not Australian, but the pattern holds for most considered purchases.
Each person has a different question. Finance asks what it costs in total. IT asks whether it's safe and fits. The person who'll use it asks how much their job changes. A site that only talks to one of them leaves the others to guess.
Buying group mapper
Who's in the room
when you're not?
Tick who's usually involved when a business buys what you sell. Then tick the ones your website already answers. Gaps are where deals stall.
Covered
Pages to add
They research
without you.
Gartner's survey of 632 buyers found 61% prefer a rep-free buying experience, 73% avoid suppliers that send irrelevant outreach, and 69% saw inconsistencies between the website and what the sales rep told them.
That last one is fixable. If the website and the sales conversation say different things about price, timelines or what's included, buyers notice, and it costs trust at the worst moment.
Safe beats
shiny.
In 6sense's 2025 study, 70% of buyers said economic anxiety affected their vendor choice, often in favour of the supplier they already had. Buyers evaluate about five vendors, and four of the five shortlist spots are filled on day one.
If you're the challenger, reduce the risk of switching: a trial, a phased start, references from similar businesses, a clear exit. If you're the incumbent, don't take it for granted: show what's improved.
Make the safe choice visible as well. Name the businesses like theirs you already work with (with permission), show how long clients stay, and explain what support looks like after the sale. Each of those answers the question the person signing is really asking: will I regret this?
When they
finally call.
By the time a buyer contacts you, they've usually done most of the work. 6sense found that 79% of buyers start the first contact themselves, and they contact their top-ranked vendor first about 80% of the time.
So treat every inbound enquiry as a shortlisted buyer, not a cold lead. Reply the same day, answer the question they asked before you pitch, and send the pages that answer the rest of the buying group. A fast, useful first reply confirms the ranking they already gave you.
What I see most often
What I see
most often.
- 1
A site written for one buyer
Pages aimed at the end user, with nothing for finance, IT or procurement.
- 2
No sign of price
Not even what drives cost, so finance has nothing to work with.
- 3
Gated everything
Every useful document behind a form, for buyers who prefer to research alone.
- 4
Website and sales out of step
Old pricing or features on the site that sales no longer offers.
The honest bit. Marketing can get you onto the shortlist and keep you there. It can't fix a product that loses in the trial.
Questions
people ask.
How many people are in a B2B buying group?
Forrester's 2026 research puts a typical purchase at 13 internal stakeholders plus 9 outside influencers, and more for complex purchases.
Do B2B buyers want to talk to sales?
Many don't, at first. Gartner found 61% prefer a rep-free buying experience.
How many vendors do B2B buyers consider?
About five, and four of the five shortlist spots are filled on day one, according to 6sense's 2025 research.
How do I get on a B2B shortlist?
Be known before the search starts, then make each member of the buying group find their answer on your site without having to call.
Related
Keep
going.
Get a free
search audit.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.