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Our 2025 B2B Buyer Report lifts the lid on how today’s business decision-makers approach purchasing decisions. It’s a data-rich look at what’s changed in the buying process—and what hasn’t—so marketers can stay one step ahead in an increasingly complex landscape.
From the factors influencing purchase decisions to content consumption behaviours, the findings highlight the shifting expectations that are shaping the buyer journey. And with more stakeholders involved, longer cycles, and increasing demand for value and personalisation, the pressure is on for marketers to be sharper, faster, and more aligned than ever.
This year’s insights aren’t just interesting—they’re actionable. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your targeting, craft messaging that resonates, or rethink how you engage buyers across touchpoints, this report gives you the data to do it smarter.
Here are our key takeaways.
Bigger buying groups, earlier influence
In organisations with over 10,000 employees, 63% of buyers report that six or more people are involved in a single purchase decision. This expansion of the buying group means your campaigns need to be able to speak to multiple stakeholders with different roles, goals, and levels of influence. It’s no longer just about winning over the final decision-maker—it’s about creating momentum within the group early on.
This shift demands a broader, more integrated awareness strategy. You’re not targeting a lone persona, you’re building credibility across an entire committee. That means prioritising brand visibility across multiple touchpoints: programmatic ads, social media, thought leadership content, and partner channels. Your message needs to reach everyone from finance and procurement to operations and IT.
To make the shortlist, you need more than relevance—you need recall. Brand familiarity is becoming a deciding factor long before buyers engage directly. The challenge (and opportunity) for marketers is to create scalable, memorable experiences that reach buying teams where they are, across roles and devices, before a formal brief ever hits the inbox.
The journey isn’t easy
51% of buyers say identifying the right vendor is the most difficult part of the purchase process. The sheer volume of options, coupled with similar messaging across competitors, makes differentiation a critical challenge for marketers. In a crowded landscape, clarity and credibility have become major competitive advantages.
But in large enterprises, the challenge shifts from external to internal. For buyers in organisations with over 10,000 employees, the biggest barrier is stakeholder alignment. Getting consensus across multiple departments, with competing priorities and limited time, can significantly slow or stall the purchase process. Even a strong business case can fall apart without buy-in from key players.
The key to breaking through stakeholder resistance is differentiation. When internal buy-in is the biggest hurdle, your unique strengths become your most powerful asset. It’s not just about being a good option; it’s about being the option that’s easiest to champion. Make it clear why you're different and why that difference matters. Whether it's unmatched data accuracy, faster delivery, or superior service, lead with your USPs. When your value is distinct and undeniable, your internal advocate isn’t just selling a vendor, they're backing a smarter, more strategic choice.
Buyers expect personalisation, not just content
90% of buyers say personalised content influences their decisions, but that doesn’t mean dropping in a name or job title. True personalisation requires a deep understanding of each stakeholder’s role, responsibilities, and challenges. Buyers expect content that reflects their reality, not generic messaging repurposed for the masses.
This expectation becomes more complex in large buying groups. What matters to a technical evaluator may be irrelevant to a C-suite decision-maker or procurement lead. That’s why marketers need to develop modular content strategies, where core assets can be adapted for different personas, industries, or buying stages. This approach allows you to scale personalisation without reinventing the wheel.
The risk of getting it wrong is real. Poorly targeted or irrelevant content can make your brand seem out of touch, and damage trust before you’ve even had a conversation. The takeaway is clear: thoughtful, role-specific content isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a competitive differentiator.
Engagement needs to match intent
Buyers want to engage on their own terms, and their expectations vary depending on where they are in the journey. Our research found that final decision-makers are more likely to want direct conversations with sales reps, while researchers prefer to explore vendor websites independently. In short: a one-size-fits-all engagement model doesn’t work.
This reinforces the need for hybrid buying experiences. Marketers must ensure there’s a clear, valuable path for both self-serve research and high-touch engagement. That means investing in intuitive, content-rich web experiences for early-stage researchers, while empowering your sales team to deliver timely, consultative conversations once intent is clear.
The most effective strategies seamlessly blend automation and human interaction. Think personalised nurture tracks that deliver relevant assets based on behaviour, supported by outreach from reps who understand where the buyer is in the journey. When engagement aligns with intent, conversion rates rise, and buyer satisfaction increases, too.
ROI is the biggest focus
ROI is the top factor influencing final purchase decisions. But despite this, 69% of buyers are frustrated by the lack of transparent pricing from vendors, and 57% say they want to see clearer demonstrations of ROI in vendor content. This disconnect is a missed opportunity—and a fixable one.
In a high-scrutiny environment, buyers are under pressure to justify every purchase. They need tangible value, not vague promises. Marketers who make it easy to understand cost, value, and outcomes will stand out. This means moving away from fluff and towards tools like interactive ROI calculators, case studies, and detailed pricing breakdowns (even if that means showing ranges or tiers).
What’s more, ROI storytelling needs to happen earlier in the journey. If buyers can’t quickly see how your solution impacts their bottom line—or how it stacks up against the competition—they’ll move on.
Enterprises need more tailored solutions
While all companies want clarity around pricing and packaging, enterprise buyers have additional needs. Specifically, they expect tailored recommendations that show an understanding of their scale, complexity, and specific pain points. Broad messaging about “flexibility” or “customisation” won’t cut it.
To meet these expectations, marketers must work closely with sales, product, and customer success teams to surface real-world examples of how similar enterprise clients have implemented your solution. Personalised demos, strategic roadmaps, and vertical-specific case studies can all help bridge the gap between generic messaging and enterprise-level relevance.
And don’t forget: the larger the organisation, the longer the decision cycle. Enterprise buyers are evaluating not just what a solution does, but how it integrates with existing systems, supports their internal workflows, and scales over time. The more you can anticipate and address those concerns upfront, the better your chances of building trust and momentum.
The buying process is changing—again
72% of buyers say their purchase process has evolved in the past two years. This shift includes more digital research, a bigger focus on ROI, and more internal stakeholders involved in buying decisions. But perhaps most noteworthy is the role of AI—84% of buyers now trust AI tools to support their journey.
This has major implications for the B2B buying process. AI is now influencing how vendors are discovered, evaluated, and shortlisted. It’s no longer enough to be in the right place at the right time—you need to be findable and favourable in the eyes of both human stakeholders and the algorithms that guide them.
For marketers, this means thinking about the buying experience holistically. How are your strengths being picked up and prioritised by AI tools? Are your USPs surfacing clearly in comparison engines, intent platforms, or decision-assist tools? The brands that succeed will be those who optimise not just for messaging, but for machine visibility, ensuring their differentiators are structured, accessible, and compelling across every step of the AI-influenced journey.
