B2B buyer journey has changed - has your sales and marketing?
When the buyers are online and your presence isn’t…
B2B marketing guides the buyer journey
A typical B2B digital customer journey includes identifying suppliers and researching offerings, considering and evaluating products, ordering, and reordering.
Today’s B2B buyers are more self-directed, more informed, and more sceptical than ever before. They are also using more AI tools in discovery and research than before.
75% of B2B buyers prefer to buy without contact with a salesperson, using the self-service principle.
Most of the buying process takes place independently on digital channels: websites, comparison sites, webinars, blogs, and AI chat tools.
90% of B2B buyers say that social proof significantly influence their purchase decisions.
In addition, a typical B2B buying process involves 6-10 people on the buyer's side.
McKinsey reports that
At any point in the B2B buying process, a third of customers want in-person interaction, a third want remote communication, and a third prefer digital self-service options.
B2B buyers expect omnichannel: most decision-makers use ten or more channels to interact with suppliers during the customer journey.
E-commerce has become the leading sales channel for B2B sales. 71% of B2B respondents offer some form of e-commerce, and it now accounts for 34% of B2B revenue.
Example of a traditional B2B buyer journey — High-value SaaS platform
Product: Enterprise-level cybersecurity software
Contract size: $100k+/year
Sales cycle: 6–12 months
Buyer group: CIO, CISO, Procurement, Security Architects
How the journey unfolds:
Awareness: A security engineer sees a LinkedIn post referencing a Gartner Magic Quadrant and clicks to read the company’s blog.
Research: The team consumes 3–4 blog articles, downloads a Zero Trust whitepaper, watches a demo video on YouTube, and asks follow-up questions for the solutions in ChatGPT chat..
Comparison: Procurement and technical evaluators benchmark features and pricing via review sites, partner directories, and analyst content.
Validation: The CISO attends a webinar on risk mitigation and reads a case study from a similar industry.
Engagement: After weeks of exploration, the CIO books a discovery call with specific questions about integrations, compliance, and cost-benefit.
Decision: Internal alignment takes another 2–3 months, with the deal finally closing after a custom security audit and legal review.
Takeaway:
Every one of these touchpoints is an opportunity for marketing to influence the sale — or lose the buyer to a competitor.
Without a connected digital sales and marketing strategy, sales would never get the chance to convert this deal.
To guide B2B buyers throughout their self-directed journey, your marketing should do these 5 key things
B2B Marketing plays a critical role in reinforcing value throughout the buyer journey, for both human buyers and AI gatekeepers.
By consistently showing how your solution addresses real business problems and delivers measurable outcomes, you help buyers justify their decision, both to themselves and to internal stakeholders.
Also, AI tools are redefining the buyer journey. Tools like ChatGPT are becoming the go-to starting point for B2B research on solving challenges and seeking vendors, and it is critical to be able to be cited in the AI chats. Read below what matters also to AI.
1) Demonstrate a deep understanding of the buyer's world
Today’s B2B buyers don’t want generic messaging or catch-all solutions — they’re looking for signals that you understand their industry, role, and challenges from the very first interaction. That starts with how you structure your website, content, and offers.
This isn’t just about UX or navigation — it’s about relevance to your human audiences and for AI tools. When you show that you “get it,” buyers stay longer, engage more, and move forward with confidence, and AI tools will cite you in the chats.
Use familiar categories, not vague ones.
Instead of listing “Solutions” or “Use Cases,” organise your site and messaging around terms your buyers use:Their industry (e.g., “For Fintech,” “For B2B SaaS,” “For Manufacturing”)
Their role or department (e.g., “For RevOps Leaders,” “For Product Marketing Teams”)
Their problem or goal (e.g., “Struggling to Scale Pipeline?” or “Launch a New Product Faster”)
Why does this matter for AI brand visibility? To get recommended in AI chats, your products need to be clearly connected to your ICP’s pain points.
2) Mirror their decision-making criteria
When a buyer is comparing solutions, they’re likely evaluating:
ROI and time to value
Integration with current stack
Team adoption and ease of use
Industry relevance or compliance
Make sure your content and product pages speak directly to these points — don’t make them dig for answers.
Why does this matter for AI brand visibility? Users ask detailed long-tail queries in the AI chats. For these queries, AI recommends products and services — but it does so with deep context about the user’s needs and pain points.
3) Reference real ICP challenges and language
Use case studies, blog posts, and messaging that clearly relate to their business reality.
When your site or content talks like their internal strategy decks, you instantly build trust.
Why does this matter for AI brand visibility? To be cited in the AI chat, you must increase brand authority signals. Publish accurate, helpful, and well-sourced content. Link to expert sources, studies, and customer outcomes.
4) Quantify the value
B2B buyers aren’t just looking for what your solution does — they want to know what it can do for them.
To help them make a confident business case internally, your marketing needs to connect your offer to real, measurable outcomes.
Share metrics that matter to their role.
Tailor value proof to your audience:For a CFO: show cost savings, ROI, time-to-value
For a CMO: show pipeline growth, CAC reduction, lead quality
For a Sales leader: show deal velocity, win rate, SQL conversion. Don’t assume one-size-fits-all metrics resonate with everyone.
Highlight the cost of not solving the problem. Quantify the pain: revenue leakage, missed opportunities, churn risk, operational inefficiencies. Help buyers see the opportunity cost of staying where they are.
Why does this matter for AI brand visibility? To be cited in the AI chat, tie your product or service to specific needs of your target buyer.
5) Build buyer confidence
Offer tailored recommendations based on the buyer’s needs and preferences, making them feel informed and in control of the decision.
Always provide a clear and helpful call to action that encourages buyers to move forward in their process.
Why Marketing-Sales alignment is critical for B2B
Too often, B2B companies treat marketing and sales as separate functions. But in today’s landscape, they must act as one unified team.
When B2B-marketing generates leads that sales can’t qualify, or when sales closes deals with no understanding of how buyers arrived, both teams lose visibility — and velocity.
Here’s how you can create true sales-marketing alignment:
✅ Shared KPIs: Define metrics both teams care about — like Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), pipeline value, and deal velocity, not just MQLs.
✅ Journey mapping: Build detailed buyer journeys across personas and buying stages to ensure content and campaigns meet real needs and have relevance for AI as well.
✅ Enablement: Create messaging frameworks and sales content that help reps convert more consistently.
✅ Tactical coordination: From CRM integration to handoff workflows, make sure no lead is left behind — or wasted.
The result? A revenue-generating sales-marketing engine that scales your growth.
Manage the AI driven B2B buyer journey
Modern B2B marketing isn’t just about generating awareness or branding. It’s about enabling revenue.
If you want to win in this environment, your marketing must deliver value at every digital touchpoint and in AI chat tools, long before your sales team ever gets on a call.
Read more about how AI can shorten the B2B buyer journey into one single touchpoint - and how you can drive more AI first brand visibility:
👉 AI-first brand awareness: Adapt your brand strategy for LLM visibility.
👉 Increase your brand’s visibility in AI citations & download AI citability audit
