Buyers are waiting till later in the journey before talking to vendors. Here's why that matters.
81% of B2B research now happens before a single vendor conversation begins.
And there are other ways buyer behaviour is changing the game for marketers.
Your buyers are self-educating using AI answer engines, peer networks and independent validation long before speaking to you. Discovery is happening earlier. Shortlists are formed before they pick up the phone . And "no decision" not the competition has become the biggest threat to your pipeline.
Marketing's job hasn't become less important. It's changed.
The stats that you should worry about
95% of winning vendors were already on the buyer's shortlist — before that vendor even knew the deal existed.
80% of deals are won by the first vendor contacted.
86% of purchases stall mid-journey, often from decision hesitation.
94% of buyers now use LLMs during research, before they ever speak to sales.
Where this research comes from
This report combines the latest published research from Gartner, Forrester, LinkedIn/Dreamdata, 6sense and G2, with 13 years of Marketing Fusion's hands-on experience helping enterprise technology vendors win complex, multi-stakeholder deals.
Is your marketing strategy ready for the AI-enabled buyer?
The question isn't whether the buying journey has changed, it's whether your strategy has moved with it.
The report includes a practical breakdown of where deals actually stall (early discovery, shortlist formation, stakeholder alignment and more) and what marketing teams can do at each stage to stay in the room.
Download the AI Enabled Buyer Report
