Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2026

A strong foundation starts with gathering key resources, including customer data and feedback, sales and marketing insights, behavioral analytics, and industry benchmarks. The buyer who will be processing the payment, however, will more likely be focused on pricing and payment terms and so the likes of contract negotiation and ROI tools are more influential to this audience. An ecommerce customer journey map is a diagram that details how customers engage with your company across various mediums including online, retail, and contact with your customer support team. When asked what primarily triggers engagement with providers, respondents more often cited interactions with industry experts than information from AI tools.

Instead, they put their trust in the opinions of peers, particularly friends and family, when making purchases. It means that customers expect to be engaged with on a human level – they want organisations that demonstrate understanding and empathy towards them and genuinely care about helping to solve their problems. Providing a smooth and easy-to-navigate customer journey is key to increasing customer satisfaction and sales, and boosting customer retention.

Nearly all (99%) B2B purchases are triggered by organizational change, and 66% of buyers say the amount of change is overwhelming. I just need to evaluate if the pricing aligns with the budget.” When they spot you in search results after hearing about you from peers, you’ve become a stronger option they’re already mentally prepared to consider. “We start with Google, G2…but honestly someone usually has suggestions already before we search online. The key is to pay close attention to how your products are represented in AI-driven comparisons.

Gary is constantly being pressured by his manager around the quality of his data as a result of these issues. In order to complete any reasonable fixes, he must consult with the internal IT team and HOPE that they respond before any critical business decisions need to be made based on his data. Gary is a 34-year-old Data Analyst who is tired of continuously addressing the same database errors over and over again. Its single greatest objective, however, is to deliver prospects the information they need, when they need it, and provide clarity around next steps. Keeping a close eye on your company’s social channels is also essential as customers often vent their frustrations on these platforms. This shows just how significant long-term customer loyalty can be for businesses.

Requirements mapping: Buyers establish their needs

“We’ve stopped paid LinkedIn ads; we were seeing high platform engagement but very low time on page.” The strongest teams are dropping low-ROI platforms and focusing budget and effort where their ideal customers actually spend their time. The B2B buyer’s journey might be nonlinear, buyer’s journey but marketers still need a clear strategy to show up at the right moment, with the right message. Because when five people need to say yes, clarity beats cleverness every time. If it’s a good fit—we buy it, as long as I do not exceed my budget.”

AI is driving real purchases across every category, but its influence scales directly with risk and consideration level. When an AI tool mentions a brand or product, 40% of respondents search Google for more information, and 36% use Google to compare it with alternatives. 47% of respondents use AI to narrow down their options, but then turn to Google for reviews or pricing. Because of this hesitation, 86% of respondents say they verify AI brand recommendations at least sometimes, including 20% who always do so. Netflix secured 30–40% better campaign ROI by shifting from static recommendations to dynamic content and predictive analytics tailored precisely to the user’s lifecycle stage.

Connect the dots in contact center data with journey analytics

For B2B teams, this means short-form video should be a standard asset in every product or service launch. 78% of consumers say watching a short video is their preferred way to learn about a product or service. For B2B companies selling complex solutions, this is one of the most important data points in the entire set. 87% of consumers say video content has been a deciding factor in purchasing a product or service. For production agencies and marketers alike, this underscores why tech and SaaS companies rely so heavily on video to move prospects through the pipeline. 59% of businesses create video content primarily in-house, while 10% exclusively use external vendors and 32% use a mix of both.

Importantly, shoppers who engaged AI tools reported the highest levels of satisfaction. Providers must also engage intentionally with the buyer’s extended network, including partners, analysts, and industry voices that influence decision-making. In the 2025 survey, generative AI tools were the single most cited meaningful interaction type for researching purchases.

Pinpoint friction points and opportunities

Intent data platforms — including HubSpot’s native behavioural signals and tools like 6sense and Bombora — can surface accounts actively researching your category before they visit your site. Many marketers rightfully focus on buyer keywords (search queries that people use when they’re ready to purchase). For instance, if your map and data tell you that tons of people discover your site and research your products but vanish at the pricing page, focus on your pricing and purchase process. Thrive Comments enhances engagement with insightful comment management and moderation tools for online communities. At this stage, businesses focus on educating prospects, addressing pain points, and positioning their product or service as the best solution. Ensuring you have the right content at each stage and leveraging data-driven tools will allow you to track interactions and optimize the journey over time.

• AI is driving real purchases across every category, but its influence scales directly with risk and consideration level.
• When buyers refer to review websites, they are most interested in the pricing information.
• 87% of consumers say video content has been a deciding factor in purchasing a product or service.

Consideration stage content should help prospects weigh the solutions available to them. As a result, prospective customers are gently guided toward the next phase of the buying journey. The post attracts people who are concerned about their appliance’s performance.

The buyer’s journey is the process of a potential customer going from identifying a need to completing a purchase. By understanding the flow through this purchasing process, sellers can engage appropriately and with the important information buyers want and need to make a purchase. It refers to the buyer’s mindset when identifying their problem, comparing possible solutions, and making a purchasing decision. Review your current sales strategy according to updated market trends, including providing test drives of products, building proof of concepts, or running unique pilot programs for a specific customer. The content will need to address multiple personas, including SMEs involved during the solution’s evaluation. To help buyers discover your organization’s solutions, consider optimizing content for SEO and maximizing the use of social media platforms to engage with prospective buyers.

While your solution may be industry-agnostic, but your buyers are not. One of the key success factors in rolling out a buyer-centric GTM strategy and marketing programs is customer insight. Timely interactions, and proactively helping the customer’s team get the most value out of the solution, can help identify and prevent churn. And while a key goal of the CS team should be to support customers in successfully implementing the solution, they are a key part of revenue operations.

Most suppliers focus on factors like brand, product and service yet the purchase experience presents a substantial opportunity for differentiation. I’ve mentioned a few times that we run workshops to help businesses build go-to-market plans and have software to make that process hyper-efficient. Neither do salespeople generally like conceding defeat. Salespeople are not famous for loving admin, and will often not update sales stages in the CRM as their buyer progresses. Sometimes (or if we’re honest, often), these fast or slow buyers are really a reflection of fast and loose data in your CRM. If it doesn’t make sense to offer a solution until there’s agreed clarity about the need and the gap, is that true earlier?

Video now accounts for over 75% of all smartphone data traffic globally. Personalization in video, whether through dynamic name insertion, account-specific messaging, or role-based content, dramatically outperforms generic approaches. The strongest performers use gated video content, in-video CTAs, and video-driven landing pages to capture contact information at the point of highest engagement.