B2B Buyer Click Decision Factors

One of the biggest reasons deals stall isn’t that buyers doubt your solution—it’s that they doubt their ability to make the right choice. Matt Dixon's research for The JOLT Effect found that 40% of lost deals are driven by customer indecision, not preference for a competitor. And Brent Adamson's new book The Framemaking Sale highlights that customers with high decision confidence are TEN TIMES more likely to make a purchase. Here are a few ways you can help buyers build confidence in themselves: 1. Reduce Decision Complexity According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers report their last purchase was “very complex or difficult." Streamlining options, providing decision guides, or recommending a clear best-fit reduces “analysis paralysis” and gives buyers confidence they aren’t missing something. 2. Reframe Risk in Personal Terms Buyers often fear personal blame more than organizational failure. Use case studies and peer validation to show how people in their role succeeded—helping them feel safe and supported in their choice. 3. Provide Buyer Enablement Tools Tools like ROI calculators, pre-built board decks, or checklists reduce the burden on them and demonstrate that they have what they need to decide. 4. Normalize Their Concerns The JOLT Effect also emphasizes “normalizing indecision” as a critical skill—buyers need to know hesitation is common and that you can guide them through it. Framing uncertainty as a normal step in the process reduces the shame that often delays action. 5. Signal Post-Decision Support Harvard Business Review highlights that buyers who see strong post-sale support are more confident in making initial commitments. Show them the path forward—onboarding, customer success, peer communities—so they know they won’t be left alone after purchase. Helping buyers feel personally confident and protected is as important as proving your product’s value. The most successful marketers and sellers don’t just build confidence in the solution—they build confidence in the decision-maker.

Last Tuesday, I watched a $1M software deal die in real time. The champion texted the AE afterward, "My team killed it. They loved the product, trusted the ROI, but said you felt too 'risky' for a company our size." Six months of perfect demos. Strong case studies. Pricing that made sense. But they'd been focused on one person while eight others were making the real decision. In B2B, deals often die from collective anxiety. Your champion can love your solution, but if the CFO, IT director, and three VPs have never heard of you, you're asking them to bet their careers on a company that feels invisible. What we call "trust" in B2B is actually cumulative familiarity across a buying group. It's not one person feeling confident, it's 6-8 people independently thinking, "Oh yeah, I've seen them around. They seem solid." This is where many B2B marketers leave money on the table. We optimize for the champions and decision makers while the real decision happens in rooms we're not invited to. Connected TV (CTV) helps solve for this. That CFO who questioned your pricing? Last night, they saw your 30-second spot during their favorite show. No laptop multitasking. No ad blockers. Just your brand message on a 65-inch screen while they're mentally relaxed. Your IT director saw your retargeting banner during their morning research. Your LinkedIn ad during lunch. Your CTV spot during their evening unwind. That's not multiple touch points. That's one familiarity campaign reaching different decision-makers in different mindsets. Our data at LinkedIn for Marketing shows this opportunity: - 94% of LinkedIn's professional audience can be reached via CTV, - 71% of CTV viewers aren't accessible through traditional TV, - CTV campaigns are 4.3x more effective at reaching B2B targets. Psychologist Robert Zajonc proved that mere exposure creates preference. We don't need to consciously process your message. Seeing your brand repeatedly in different contexts builds what behavioral economist Rory Sutherland calls "subconscious safety signals." When your champion walks into that second meeting, something's different. Your brand doesn't feel new anymore. It feels familiar. "Oh yeah, I've been seeing their ads everywhere" carries more weight than any case study. Because buying groups evaluate solutions and risk. Start building familiarity across ecosystems. Map your buying group. Understand where each decision-maker consumes content. Then orchestrate exposure across channels so by the time they meet to decide, you're not the unknown risk, you're the obvious choice. Because in B2B, trust is built through strategic, repeated presence across the moments that matter. #B2BMarketing #CTV #Trust #LinkedInMarketing

Research is catching up to what we can see about how B2B buying is changing. The 3rs: 𝗥elationships, 𝗥ecommendations, and 𝗥elatability factors are taking centre stage. While product features, price, or brand recognition are in decline. Research from Warc reveals that emotional factors are more consequential in B2B buying decisions than rational levers. • Recommendations from similar customers or trusted colleagues are 3x more likely to tip the balance than cheaper prices • These recommendations are also 3x more influential than products promising better performance So cultural, social signals, and emotions are shifting decision-making. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁? 2/3 of big-ticket B2B buyers are now millennials or Gen Z. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: This isn't about giving old tactics new names. It's about recognising that B2B buyers (especially younger ones) make decisions based on what their peers say and who they trust, not just specs and prices. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁? Stop treating B2B buyers like robots comparing spreadsheets. Focus on the right places to build relationships. LinkedIn (not spam), WhatsApp groups, Slack communities, industry events. Focus on getting more recommendations, and broadcasting them. Create customer communities where peers validate each other's decisions. Avoid the BS: fake testimonials, aggressive automation, undisclosed paid recommendations. Most B2B marketers still pump budget into feature comparisons. Your prospects aren't asking "what does it do?" They're asking "who else like me uses this?" Track where your best deals come from. It's not the trade show booth. It's Sarah telling James at drinks that your product saved her quarter. That's your real marketing channel now.

Here's what 100 CMOs actually did before making their most recent software purchases. I used Wynter to survey 100 B2B SaaS marketing leaders, and asked them about their buying journeys. I wanted to find out what all they did prior to making those purchases. Here's what modern B2B buyers actually engage with, ranked by popularity: 1. Website 100% of buyers visited the vendor the website. Given that the average buyer narrows down their shortlist to 3 companies to get a demo with, it's safe to say that the website messaging plays a huge role. Most message tests I've seen have the target customers say things like "I've seen these claims a 1000 times" or "how's this different from [category leader]"? If you are not the category leader, the primary job is to focus on the differentiated value. 2. Demo 84% of buyers did a demo with the vendor. The rest bought via self-serve or through email/live chat correspondence. 3. Checking out third-party reviews 73% read reviews. The worst is when they go look for your reviews, and there are none. 4. Social media content About half of people (54%) are following the vendor on social media, or at least checked it out during due diligence. 5. Interactive tools Close to half (46%) engaged with an interactive demo or used some interactive tool on the vendor's website. 6. Blog content About a third (36%) engaged with the company blog, either by finding the company through SEO or reading their content. 7. Digital ads One third (33%) remembered seeing vendor ads. 8. Executive social content About a quarter (27%) follow the founder or another executive on social media. 9. Trade show meetings 23% reported meeting a someone from the company at a conference or a trade show. 10. Newsletter Maybe CMOs are not reading many newsletters, only 11% reported subscribing to the vendor newsletter. What we don't know here is whether someone else from the company did subscribe and told the CMO about the vendor. The big surprise? Despite the AI and digital revolution, human touchpoints still matter. Over a third of buyers meet vendors at trade shows, and following executives on social remains a key trust signal. Key takeaway for software companies: Your website and review site presence are non-negotiable - they're universal touchpoints. But the real magic happens when you layer multiple channels strategically.

B2B software vendors - THIS is how people are finding your competition: Google → LLMs → Review sites → Peers → Your website → Back to peers You essentially need to be discoverable in three key places: Google, LLM outputs, and peer networks. Miss any one of these and you’ll be out of the shortlist for a third of buyers. This was found in a joint research survey by Wynter and Omniscient Digital on how 100 B2B decision-makers go from "prompt to purchase" when looking for a new solution. Each channel serves a purpose: Google: "What's out there?" (Discovery) LLMs: "Compare these 5 options" (Structure) Review sites: "What's the real experience?" (Validation) Peers: "Who's actually good?" (Verification) Your site: "Do they really do X?" (Confirmation) Peers again: "Should I pull the trigger?" (Reassurance) Most of this happens before they ever show up in your CRM. Seems like AI is crucial for discovery and shortlisting, but the final decision loops back to... humans. Apparently buyer trust is best built in the following order: 𝟭. 𝗣𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (85%) 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱-𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 (78%) 𝟯. 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 (65%) 𝟰. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗼𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 (43%) Interestingly, the human-centric decision-making points are where we have least control in marketing. We can however control and influence: - Good product - Adding prominent customer logos and testimonials if you're not already, that's easy - Get customers talking in communities and create case studies with real names. Alia for instance religiously publishes 2-3 big success stories every month. They also have ppl on X raving about ROI. - Let prospects meet customers as well. Last month Casey Hill shared an interesting way Warmly, does this by enabling a "Talk to a Warmly customer" feature using SlashExperts. - Run review collection campaigns via email with a small incentive in exchange for that G2 review - ol' reliable. - Run a "Vendor Switch Interview" series where you document customers who switched FROM competitors. Not just "why we chose X" but "here's exactly what broke when we used Y, and here's the migration playbook." Gold for prospects in the same situation. - An underrated one is running your own community forum. HubSpot has one at community . hubspot . com. ClickUp has ~12k weekly visitors on r/ClickUp. Something to consider if your user base is big enough. - Also structure content for AI parsing - Using comparison tables, clear feature lists, and explicit use cases to help LLMs understand what you do and who you serve to recommend you. - Create in-depth pages showing exactly how you stack against alternatives. Own your limitations and be clear about who you're NOT for. Buyers respect vendors who know their lane (3% of buyers explicitly reject "all-in-one" vendors.) Basically remove every barrier between curiosity and confidence. Hope this helps T

The # 1 reason buyers choose a vendor? It’s not ROI. Not the product. Nope, not even price. It’s defensibility. LinkedIn’s new global study of 750 senior B2B buyers - Buyability: The Future of B2B Marketing Success - found that the top drivers of decisions are: “Can I justify this?” “Can I defend it if it fails?” Mimi Turner, LinkedIn’s head of marketplace innovation, puts it simply: “Defensibility is more important than utility.” I mean, this isn’t new. The “no one gets fired for buying IBM” energy still rules. But B2B companies keep making it worse: - Hiding pricing - Extravagant claims with no proof - One-off case studies framed as the norm - Copy that needs a buzzword translator The study outlines 5 emotional drivers of “buyability”: 1. Confidence it’ll work 2. Ease of the decision 3. Internal alignment 4. Managing the downsides  5. Defending the choice if it fails That last one topping the list. So what makes a risky choice safe? Peer validation. Recommendations from “people like me” were 3x more influential than price or performance. So if your landing page is missing: - Credible proof - Named logos from similar ICPs - Clear, reusable copy for internal convos Then, no amount of CTA tests and layout changes will change anything. Your focus should be on helping the buyer justify the purchase AND cover their ass if things go south. 

The 89% trap killing your B2B deals. It's not indecision. It's decision avoidance. Research shows 89% of B2B buyers struggle with information overload that freezes their purchase decisions. They don't reject your solution. They simply retreat to the status quo. Because it feels safest in a world of information overwhelm. This is costing you deals and costing your buyers' innovation and progress. 💸 Top-performing sales teams know there is a great deal of friction for the buyer in decision analysis and decision architecture. When any of us are buying, our brains are wired to: → Avoid risk → Preserve energy → Maintain what's familiar Here's how elite teams are using behavioral science to overcome this and both connect and enable their buyers: 1️⃣ Create contrast, not comparison 🔍 → Average teams show options side by side → Elite teams show the gap between current state and desired state → Activates the brain's contrast detection systems The buying brain doesn't want 3 similar options. It wants clear contrast between staying put and moving forward. 2️⃣ Reduce cognitive load 🧩 → Most salespeople overwhelm with features → Top teams simplify to 3 key decision points → Create mental shortcuts through smart anchoring The buying brain makes better decisions when we remove complexity, not add more options. 3️⃣ Use mentalizing to shift perspective 👁️ → Step into your buyer's mental state → Ask: "What looks risky from their view?" → Then reframe: "What would your team say was the right choice a year from now?" This bypasses present-moment anxiety and activates strategic thinking. 4️⃣ Restructure risk perception ⚠️ → The brain treats potential losses as 2.5x more important than gains → Reframe the risks of inaction → Quantify status quo cost The buying brain can evaluate choices more clearly when both action and inaction risks are equally visible. 5️⃣ Deploy strategic anchoring 🎯 → Present premium option first → Add clear contract options → Target should feel safe middle ground This creates a psychological "safe harbor" that feels both rational and smart. The science is clear: it's not about convincing buyers your solution is good. It's about helping buyers navigate decisions with confidence and clarity. ✨ BUYERS: What do you wish your sales professionals would help you navigate the most? SALES PROs: Which one of the above do you find most useful to serve your buyer's journey? ♻️ Repost to help sales teams learn how to support their buyers better. 🔔 Follow Holly Moe for insights that create breakthrough sales results and success in both work and life.

54% of B2B buyers start with analyst reports. This is a real stat and it’s straight from our original research, The Evidence Gap. Not every buyer thinks like you or me. When I dug into who responded to our buyer survey in this report, it started to make more sense: - 44% were Directors - 29% were in the C-suite - 14% were Senior Directors These are the decision-makers. Many of these people have used analyst reports longer than I’ve been in B2B marketing to validate decisions and build shortlists. It’s what they know. It’s what they trust. I interviewed Brendan Hufford at Exit Five’s Drive event last September (we had WAY too much fun doing this). And his brain broke when we shared this stat with him. Brendan made a great point that platforms like G2 are great for quick reviews but terrible for nuanced comparisons. Go look at a 4.87-star product vs. a 4.82-star competitor comparison page. Can you really take away anything meaningful from this to help you make your buying decision? For younger buyers like me (yes, I know I’m getting old too), analyst reports don’t carry the same weight. They turn to their peers, post in Slack communities, and check out review sites for quick takes. But reviews like, “We love [insert company name]. My CSM [insert name] is the best!” don’t help anyone make serious purchasing decisions, especially for six-figure+ software deals. Younger buyers want speed and simplicity. More experienced buyers rely on trusted, familiar sources to make informed decisions. This isn’t an “analyst reports are dead” post. They’re not (and our original research proved otherwise). The key is knowing your audience and understanding what truly influences them. Because if you’re not showing up in the places where your buyers already live and trust, you’re making it harder for them to choose you. PS you can catch this full interview (and the rest of our Evidently interview series with other B2B marketing leaders) on our YouTube channel

💡 In B2B marketing, the fundamental unit of purchase decision-making is the Buyer Group. In other words, getting the different members of the Buyer Group to agree on a specific vendor is what has to happen to close a deal. LinkedIn partnered with Bain & Company and NewtonX to research the main drivers of Buyer Group decision-making. We found that [1] being known across the Buyer Group of a target account and [2] being trusted by the marketplace were the most important dimensions when being bought. 🎯 81% of purchases were made of vendors that everyone or almost everyone in the Buyer Group knew on Day One. 🎯 Only 4% of final purchases that were made were of vendors/products that only the expert recommenders knew. 🎯 Buyer Group members will pay more for products that their colleagues already know (by a ratio of 3:1), because your colleagues knowing about a vendor makes it a less risky choice. 🎯 Buyer Groups will not fight for products that their colleagues don't know, even if they think that product is better (3:1) because persuading colleagues to take a risk is more difficult than sacrificing potential functionality/quality. 🎯 All other things (like price and product quality) being equal, Buyer Groups will pick a well-known product/vendor over ones that are less well-known (3:1), because less well-known vendors were harder for the group to agree on. 🎯 The further away you are from technical knowledge of the product in your Buyer Group role, the more you rely on brand factors to shape your decision-making. Legal, finance, HR and Procurement, for example, have huge influence here and are much more influenced by brand than product experts and users. We feel our findings open up a few new ways of thinking about how to be successful in B2B marketing and selling - and show the role played by brand in every live sales process. Brand is not just an investment in getting bought in the future. It is a form of decision-insurance and risk-mitigation that makes it one of the main reasons that products get bought right now. Jann Martin Schwarz Jamie Cleghorn Tom Stein Nick Primola Rob Gold Sascha E. Jackie Cutrone #B2BMarketing #BuyerGroupMarketing #B2Believe

You want B2B Buyer honesty? I’m a CEO. I took 100+ demos, and I can say this with absolute certainty—Buyers care about your product 10x LESS than what you think. They nod, smile, say “cool”... but silently worry: Is it doomed to fail? Is the timing off? Why not the 50% cheaper option? Product is only a means to an end. Here are the 6 things buyers ACTUALLY want in demos: OUTBOUND DEMOS: 1. Context First; Demo Second If there's no active project, your demo = noise. Give me clear context first: What is this? Which burning problem does it solve for peers? Why did you think it might be relevant to me? Don’t force me to connect the dots. Make it effortless to see the relevance. 2. Pain Killers; Not Vitamins Every tool seems useful— few feel urgent. During your demo, buyers think, “Is this critical?”, “Right now?” Our list of problems is endless. Don’t just find pain. Clearly show how you solve my #1 priority TODAY, or you’ve already lost me. 3. Proof and Peer Insights If your category is new or unfamiliar to me, I don’t just need its theoretical value—I need evidence. Show exactly how peers win with your product (and how they’re thinking about things differently). Peer confidence reduces risk instantly. INBOUND DEMOS: 1. Your UVP, Not 10 Differentiators Buyers will share your product internally in ONE sentence. It’s all they’ll remember (Not the top 10 differentiators that you demo). Be the one feeding it to them. Positioning is NOT marketing fluff; it’s your go-to in competitive deals. 2. Help in Navigating Buying An 'Active Project’ does not mean it's just about 'Why You'. Our business case might be half-baked, our requirements or evaluation process might be setting us up to fail. Don’t just ‘sell’ your UVP. Guide us so we can avoid project failure. 3. Prove You’ll Deliver, Not Just Sell Your awards, patents, and fancy product slides don’t mean squat. I want evidence you're going to deliver post-signature. Show me your onboarding, adoption, and customer success. I want to buy a partnership, not a product. —— Buyers don’t buy products. They buy confidence in outcomes. Stop demoing. Start proving you’ll deliver.