At B2B Marketing, we believe that the key to enhancing marketing’s strategic and commercial impact is to become the commercial marketer. And to achieve this, you need to master six essential skills. In this blog, we spotlight the benefits of agile-decision making – the ability to leverage real-time analytics and the latest market insights, in order to make rapid adjustments and improvements instinctively where and when needed. Here, Stuart Jaffray, Managing Director, GreenHat breaks down how the buying journey has drastically changed based on economic, generational and tech-driven trends.
A waterfall begins as a gentle river upstream, flowing quietly toward the edge—controlled and steady. Then, with little warning, it plunges dramatically over a precipice, changing everything in an instant. Today, B2B marketers find themselves right at the lip of that waterfall. Attention is locked on reshaping teams for AI capabilities, while subtle shifts in buying group behavior threaten to sweep away anyone who isn’t paying attention. The message is simple: it’s time to rethink your approach to buying groups, or risk being washed away.
Five Signals That Change Has Hit
For years, B2B buying groups got larger, buying journeys stretched longer, and buyers desire to self-serve pushing the point of first contact later in the journey. Yet within just 12 months, new research from Green Hat and 6sense (The 2025 APAC B2B Buyer Journey Research Report) shows these patterns have reversed:
- Buying parties are smaller: Down to 11 from 13 businesspeople.
- Journeys are shorter: Averaging 11 months, not 13.
- Use of external consultants fell 21%, now just 56% of buying groups are using them.
- Contact with sellers happens earlier: Buyers reach out at 60% of the journey—fully 12 weeks sooner than last year.
- 95% of buying groups rank vendors before any outreach to sales, and the top preferenced vendor wins 76% of the time.
What’s behind these sudden shifts? The answer is a powerful cocktail: AI advances, economic uncertainty, and a new generation of digital-native decision makers. Together, these three forces are reshaping long-standing buying behavior norms.
The Selection Phase is the Battleground for Marketers
The B2B buying journey breaks down into two clear stages – selection then validation. On day one of the buying journey, the buying group will already have four vendors on its shortlist. During the selection phase they will add one additional vendor (this vendor will not win the business). 95% of buyers will rank the five vendors in order of preference and 76% of the time that number one ranked vendor goes on to win the business. The entire selection phase happens prior to the buyer talking to sales.
When the buyer reaches out to sellers, the validation stage begins. Confirmation bias leads to the preferred vendor from the selection phase winning most times with just 24% of opportunities shared by the four vendors ranked 2-5. With over three quarters of buying decisions made prior to the buyer talking to the vendor sales team, the message to B2B marketers is clear, to win in B2B, marketers must ensure that their organization wins the selection phase. To do this, they must rebalance spend toward brand. Our recent CMO Priority Research finds that brand building ranks #1 in importance yet only 16% of B2B marketers apportion more budget to brand than demand.
AI Now Steers the B2B Buying Process
During the last 12-months we have seen the impact of AI on the B2B buying journey. Both the selection and validation phase have been altered. B2B marketers that see and understand this have a clear advantage in market.
During the selection phase, 94% of buying party members say that they use LLMs to validate, summarize and confirm their decision. Despite this most B2B marketers have failed to invest in GEO. In a recent poll conducted by Green Hat, only 44% of B2B marketing leaders claimed to be investing into GEO. B2B marketers must meet the B2B buying groups as they research solutions, invest to be found and ensure that their brand is showing up in the LLM answer.
At Green Hat, we have developed a proprietary LLM share of model tool that enables our clients to a) see how they are showing up in the LLMs and b) develop strategies to increase their rankings across key buying prompts within the LLMs. This provides them with a competitive advantage in market.
B2B buyers are now reaching out to vendors earlier, bringing the validation phase forwards by a full 12-weeks. Why? 58% of B2B buyers said they pulled sellers in earlier to clarify the AI inside the product or solution that they are procuring. Think about it. B2B buyers are experienced professionals. It is likely that they have made a purchase decision within your category on multiple occasions. They know who you are and what your product/service delivers. Now their organizations is pushing an AI first agenda – AI everything – but they don’t understand the AI offering in your solution. The opportunity for B2B marketers is clear. Be transparent, develop content that provides clarity on the AI inside with a focus on capability, data security, data privacy, price and training/support.
How Economic Uncertainty Has Accelerated Buying Decisions
Not only is AI uncertainty driving buyers to reach-out earlier to sellers, nearly half of buyers (49%) said that economic uncertainty had led to shorter buying cycles and earlier engagement.
Organizations with approved budgets are eager to spend budgeted funds quickly, before potential pullbacks. At the same time, economic uncertainty has led to redundancies on the buyer side which contributes to a reduction in the size of the buying group. And B2B buying groups are less likely to include consultants as they look to reduce cost further shrinking the size of the group.
The average APAC buying group now comprises 11 businesspeople on an 11-month buying journey. Savvy APAC CMOs have realigned their marketing funds to be targeted and engage the entire buying group with precision during and before the Selection Phase. Yet per our CMO priorities research report. only 55% of APAC organizations have a formal ABM program in place compared with 77% in the US.
Meeting the Needs of Digital Natives
The average age of the B2B buying group is now 38-44 years old. As digital natives take more control of the buying group, B2B marketers must ensure that they are rethinking their approach to meet the needs of this audience.
Are they meeting them today? Recent research from Forester suggests that the answer is an emphatic “no”. 93% of millennial and Gen Z buyers say that they are dissatisfied with traditional buying cycles. The digital native audience expect a frictionless experience (easy to compare, easy to buy from). Three suggestions to help you deliver this:
- Ungate your content – your buyers do not want to fill out forms during the selection phase (they know what will happen next!). Invest in high quality content and set if free. Focus on maximising content reach within your TAL rather than restricting its consumption to hit an MQL quota for sales.
- Adopt a video first approach – the digital native buying group is a video first audience. Ensure that your content meets their needs.
- Per the earlier point around AI. Ensure that your content provides transparency on the AI inside – your buyers are looking for it.
The Final Plunge: Respond or Be Washed Away
The waterfall analogy is apt. Change builds quietly, then hits hard. Not enough marketers have responded yet—but those who do, and rethink their approach, stand to gain real advantage. Ignore the signals, and risk being washed away by competitors who are already adapting.
With all these changes to bear in mind, we know that becoming the commercial marketer is more essential than ever. And if you’re looking to become more agile within your organization, then please check out our report here which highlights each of the six skills.
