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How B2B Buyers Choose: New Data on the Modern Journey

The B2B buyer journey has fundamentally changed, moving away from a linear funnel to a complex path of solo research and invisible touchpoints, heavily influenced by AI. Marketers must adapt by shifting focus from constant persuasion to long-term brand building and optimizing for AI discovery. New data indicates that a significant majority of decision-makers conduct independent research, often starting with AI tools, before engaging sales. Success now hinges on building trust through peer validation and creating citation-worthy content that resonates with AI models and buyers alike.

Tags

ClickUp CNBC Ehrenberg-Bass Institute Ethyca G2 ing LinkedIn Rippling Spotify SurveyMonkey The Cato Institute Brooke Spath Derek Yueh Palmer Houchins Rachel Zydyk

Key points

Notable quotes

Buyers are getting better and better at tuning us out until they're ready to hear us.

— Brooke Spath

The biggest invisible touchpoint today is whether you show up credibly inside AI-generated answers.

— Palmer Houchins

Your single best marketing asset is a happy customer.

— Brooke Spath

Structured claims — 31

  1. 1
    This indicates a fundamental shift in B2B buyer behavior, requiring marketers to rethink traditional linear funnel strategies.
    Entities: B2B
  2. 2
    This highlights the critical importance of early-stage content and brand presence, as buyers are largely self-educating before sales interaction.
    “83% of decision-makers do their own independent research before ever talking to Sales”
    Entities: Sales
  3. 3
    This indicates a significant shift in discovery channels, making optimization for AI visibility a new imperative for B2B marketers.
    “51% of B2B software buyers start research with AI tools before search engines or review sites”
    Entities: B2B, AI tools
  4. 4
    This demonstrates the direct impact of AI on vendor selection and the potential for new market entrants to gain traction through AI visibility.
    “One-third of buyers purchase from a vendor they've never heard of because of AI recommendations”
    Entities: AI
  5. 5
    This highlights the need for marketers to adopt strategies that build long-term brand awareness rather than relying on immediate sales pitches.
    “Buyers are getting better and better at tuning us out until they're ready to hear us.”
    Entities: Brooke Spath, SurveyMonkey
  6. 6
    This proposes a strategic shift in marketing approach, moving away from a linear funnel model to one that acknowledges the non-linear buyer journey.
    Entities: Derek Yueh, LinkedIn, The B2B Institute
  7. 7
    This provides a theoretical framework supporting the shift towards brand-building, emphasizing that most buyers are not in-market at any given time.
    Entities: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, 95-5 rule
  8. 8
    This redefines the objective of marketing to focus on memory and brand salience for future purchase consideration.
  9. 9
    This suggests a need for pervasive, consistent brand presence across various touchpoints, including those not actively sought by buyers.
    “Stop thinking about discovery as something that buyers are actively doing, and start thinking of it as something that passively happens to them.”
    Entities: Derek Yueh
  10. 10
    This identifies a new challenge for marketers in measuring and influencing buyer behavior in AI-driven discovery environments.
    Entities: Palmer Houchins, G2, AI chatbots
  11. 11
    This highlights the critical importance of AI visibility and reputation management as a key factor in buyer discovery.
    “The biggest invisible touchpoint today is whether you show up credibly inside AI-generated answers.”
    Entities: Palmer Houchins, AI
  12. 12
    This implies that marketers need to focus on external validation, reviews, and industry mentions to influence AI algorithms.
    Entities: AI
  13. 13
    This provides a practical, actionable step for marketers to audit their brand's presence in AI discovery.
    Entities: Palmer Houchins, ChatGPT, Claude
  14. 14
    This reinforces the need for proactive reputation management and content strategy to secure AI visibility.
    Entities: Brooke Spath, AI
  15. 15
    This highlights the extended period of independent buyer research, emphasizing the importance of early-stage content and brand presence.
    Entities: SurveyMonkey, B2B
  16. 16
    This reinforces the idea that traditional lead generation metrics (like form fills) capture a late stage of the buyer journey, missing earlier influential touchpoints.
    “By the time someone fills out a form on your website, they may have already done hours of research elsewhere.”
    Entities: Palmer Houchins
  17. 17
    This underscores the enduring power of social proof and customer testimonials in influencing B2B purchasing decisions.
    Entities: SurveyMonkey, B2B
  18. 18
    This suggests a proactive approach to brand building and reputation management to influence buyers throughout their journey.
    Entities: Derek Yueh
  19. 19
    This highlights the value of customer success and advocacy in driving new business through authentic peer validation.
    “Your single best marketing asset is a happy customer.”
    Entities: Brooke Spath
  20. 20
    This provides a concrete strategy for leveraging customer advocacy in the early stages of the B2B buyer journey.
    Entities: B2B
  21. 21
    This calls for a re-evaluation of marketing success metrics to better align with the evolving, non-linear buyer path.
    Entities: B2B
  22. 22
    This suggests that current attribution models may be misleading, prompting a need for more holistic measurement of marketing impact.
    Entities: Palmer Houchins, Derek Yueh
  23. 23
    This proposes a shift towards brand recall and association as key performance indicators for marketing effectiveness.
    Entities: Derek Yueh
  24. 24
    This reinforces the importance of early-stage brand building and reputation management in securing deals.
    Entities: Palmer Houchins
  25. 25
    This emphasizes the need for creative and impactful content strategies to capture buyer attention in a crowded market.
    Entities: B2B
  26. 26
    This provides a benchmark example for effective B2B content creation.
    Entities: Spotify, Spotify's Spreadbeats campaign
  27. 27
    This offers another example of successful content that resonates with buyers by addressing pain points creatively.
    Entities: Rippling, Rippling's Super Bowl ad
  28. 28
    This provides a strategic direction for content creation, emphasizing quality and external validation to influence AI and buyer perception.
    Entities: Derek Yueh, LLMs
  29. 29
    This offers a practical method for validating content ideas and optimizing marketing efforts efficiently.
    Entities: Derek Yueh, LinkedIn
  30. 30
    This provides a real-world example of how market research tools can be used to refine marketing messages.
    Entities: ClickUp, SurveyMonkey, SurveyMonkey for ad testing

Source

Source
surveymonkey-newsroom
Record title
How B2B Buyers Choose: New Data on the Modern Journey
Published
May 15, 2026
URL
https://surveymonkey.com/curiosity/how-b2b-buyers-decide
Manifest ID
1778893661085123933
Significance
medium
Sentiment
neutral