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Wednesday Wisdom: The B2B Backchannel – Most Buyers Engage Non-Sellers Before Sellers (New!)
Hi all, We have a new report to share with you today! Its no mystery that the B2B buying journey is complex. Over the past few years of research, we’ve been fascinated by what buyers have taught us. And, with each new discovery, more questions tend to emerge. One question we couldn’t ignore was this: Are buyers…
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Metric Monday: Continuing Discussion on Outreach Before the 1st Formal Buyer-Seller Interaction
Hey all, Last week, we discussed how long buyers reported receiving outreach from vendors before their first proper interaction with sellers. The data showed that 83% of buyers received outreach prior to initial contact, with 32% receiving outreach for days, 30% for weeks, and 19% for months. Despite this, buyers still…
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Wednesday Wisdom: 2024 BDR Report Highlights & A Look Ahead to 2025 – Join the Story!
Hi all, We're starting to analyze responses from this year’s BDR survey as we prepare for our upcoming State of the BDR Report—one of our favorite projects of the year. I wanted to share last year’s report, which I still reference regularly. There's a lot of good in there (if I do say so myself) - in it, we discuss: How…
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Metric Monday: Lots of Outreach Won’t Change Their Timeline
Hi all, Happy first post of the year! The 6sense Research team is looking forward to everything we’ll be researching and sharing with you in 2025. To kick off the first of many Metric Monday posts, let’s revisit the point of first contact between buyers and sellers. We know with confidence that this happens over…
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Metric Monday: Who Are the Buyers That Engage Sellers Early?
Hi all, Over the past two years, we’ve talked a lot about what we call the 'Point of First Contact Constant,' where buyers spend over two-thirds of their buying journey—about 70%—coming to consensus on a preferred vendor before engaging sellers. Not much changes this—regardless of buyers' industry, the type of solution…
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Metric Monday: Buyers Don’t Start Their Journey “From Scratch"
Hi all, In last week's Metric Monday post, we shared that buyers start their journey with 3.5 of the 4.5 vendors they’ll evaluate already on their shortlist. Buyers also report having previous experience with 3.2 of those vendors. Nearly 90% of buyers, across all roles on the buying team (see chart below), have prior…
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Wednesday Wisdom: B2B Buying Journey Stats by Business Capability (An Article)
Hi all, A few weeks ago we shared a quick summary of how key aspects of the buying journey differ based on the type of capability buyers are shopping for - new business capabilities, renewals, etc. We now have some reading material on it 🙂 Our new article explores each stat listed in the table below and is a great resource…
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Metric Monday: Buying Experience Key Findings by Business Need
Hi all, At the end of our 2024 Buyer Experience Report (starting on page 56), we’ve included numerous breakdowns of the data, one of which focuses on key stats by business need (e.g., whether the buyer was acquiring new business capabilities, renewing an existing solution, replacing capabilities, etc.). While we’ll be…
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Metric Monday: How Many Vendors Are on Buyers' Day 1 Shortlist?
Hi all A few weeks ago, we discussed the Bain & Google stat in a Metric Monday post: 80% to 90% of B2B buyers already have a shortlist of vendors in mind on Day 1 of their buying journey, and 90% of those buyers ultimately choose a vendor from that original list. Recently, 6sense Research surveyed over 600 B2B buyers to…
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Wednesday Wisdom: The Impact of Industry on the B2B Buying Journey (An Article)
Hi everyone, We’ve previously shared key findings from our buyer experience research by industry in a Metric Monday post, but I wanted to let you know there’s also an article dedicated to this topic. If you’re looking for more details beyond the table below, it’s a great resource! In summary, the key stats are fairly…
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Metric Monday: How B2B Buyers Divide Vendor and Third-Party Content in Their Buying Journey
Hi all, We’re currently writing a few new pieces based on data we collected shortly after wrapping up our 2024 Buyer Experience Research. In this follow-up round, we heard from over 600 B2B buyers in North America and included new questions about the timing of key activities during their buying journey. One question asked…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Different from the Rest: Manufacturers’ Unique Path in the B2B Buying Journey
Hi all, There's a really interesting story about how buyers buy in the Manufacturing industry. Manufacturers purchase hardware and machinery nearly three times as often as buyers in other industries. These types of purchases, regardless of the industry, are typically lower in cost, involve shorter buying cycles, and follow…
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Metric Monday: B2B Buying - 12 months, 11 Stakeholders, 4-5 Vendors, and 800+ Interactions
Hi all, Our team put together these great graphics of some of the key stats from our B2B Buyer Experience research this year. These are the averages across 2,500+ buyers from North America, Europe, and APAC. I think these stats do a good job of summing up the fact that B2B buying is a significant investment—not just…
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Wednesday Wisdom: How B2B Buyers Navigate Hundreds of Interactions to Choose the Right Vendor (New!)
Hi all, On Monday, we discussed the top reasons B2B buyers select a winning vendor. Across industries, solution types, and more price, product/solution features, and ease of implementation consistently ranked in buyers' top five reasons. However, other factors like vendor reputation and thought leadership weren’t far…
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Metric Monday: How Buyers Rank the Key Reasons for Choosing a Vendor
Hi all, This year, we introduced a new question in our buyer experience research: What influenced buyers’ decisions to choose the vendor they did? Respondents were given a list of ten possible reasons, selected the ones that applied to their decision, and ranked them by importance. While there weren’t many stark…
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Wednesday Wisdom: B2B Buyers Are Not Blank Slates
Hi everyone, We’re sharing a new article from our Buyer Experience Research series, focusing on what we call the Blank Slate Fallacy of B2B Buying. This fallacy describes the common (but mistaken) assumption that buyers enter the sales process with little to no knowledge of providers or their competitors. Our research,…
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Wednesday Wisdom: 2024 European B2B Buyer Experience Report
Hi everyone, This year marked a meaningful step forward in our B2B Buyer Experience research as we expanded our study beyond North America to include buyers in APAC and Europe. We're proud to have surveyed nearly 700 buyers in each of these regions, and we're excited to further broaden this research next year. Today, we’re…
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Metric Monday: Buying Experience Key Findings by Industry
Hi all, Over the past couple of Metric Mondays, we’ve been sharing key takeaways from our Buyer Experience Research, breaking down findings by factors like purchase cost and capability type (new business capabilities, renewals, etc.). Today, let's look at these findings by industry. Here’s a quick snapshot: one industry…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Defensive and Empowered Buyer Syndrome (New reads!)
Hi all, We have some new reads from this year's Buyer Experience Research. The first explores the fact that buyers are #defensive. They do not want to talk to sellers until they are ready and only they decide when that is. The data show that there isn't really anything you can do to change that. Buyers wait until 69% of…
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Metric Monday: Buying Experience Key Findings by Purchase Cost
Hi all, Toward the end of our 2024 Buyer Experience Report (starting on page 56), you’ll find detailed breakdowns of the data, including key buying journey stats by purchase cost. We’ll soon be publishing an article dedicated to this table, but for now, here’s a preview of the numbers organized by deal size. Generally, as…