[Research Round-Up] 6sense Study Provides Critical Insights on B2B Buyer Behavior

Source:  6sense

6sense published the findings of its "2025 B2B Buyer Experience Study" (the "2025 Study") earlier this month. The 2025 Study is the third edition of 6sense's B2B buyer experience research. Previous studies were conducted in 2024 and 2023.

The objective of the 2025 Study - as with the earlier studies - was to capture insights regarding how B2B buyers actually make business purchases.

Study Methodology and Participant Profile

The 2025 Study was based on two surveys. The primary study received nearly 4,000 responses from B2B buyers. 6sense also conducted a supplementary survey to specifically examine how artificial intelligence and economic uncertainty were affecting B2B buyer behaviors, and that survey produced an additional 766 responses.

Here's an overview of the survey respondents' attributes:

• Respondents represented a wide range of levels and roles in their organization, with nearly half (49%) being VP-level or above.

• Respondents were located in North America (46%), Continental Europe (20%), the UK and Ireland (20%), and Asia-Pacific (14%).

• Nearly half of the respondents (49%) worked for companies having from $10 million to $500 million in annual revenues.

• 80% of the respondents worked for companies providing technology (42%) or services (38%).

• Respondents included buyers of services (41%), software (33%), and physical goods (26%).

What Has Changed

The 2025 Study revealed two significant shifts in B2B buyer behavior compared to the earlier 6sense studies.

Buying Cycles Were Shorter

 Globally, the average length of the buying cycle in 2025 was 10.1 months, down from 11.3 months in the 2024 edition of the study. In North America, the length of the buying cycle was virtually unchanged - 11.1 months in 2025 vs. 11.4 months in 2024.

The shorter average buying cycle was due in part to a change in the mix of purchases represented in the 6sense studies. There were more purchases of physical goods in the 2025 Study compared to the 2024 study, and the buying cycle length for physical goods was shorter than for the other types of solutions represented in the research.

More importantly, the 2025 Study showed that economic uncertainty played a significant role in shortening the average buying cycle. Nearly half of the surveyed buyers (49%) said economic conditions had led to shorter buying cycles.

The study report states:  "Many organizations with approved budgets may have been eager to commit funds quickly, before potential pullbacks due to tariffs, cost-cutting, or other macroeconomic risks."

Buyers Engaged With Sellers Earlier

The second major shift in buyer behavior revealed in the 2025 Study was that buyers initiated contact with sellers earlier in the buying process. In the 2025 Study, the average "point of first contact" between buyers and sellers occurred when buyers were 61% through their buying process. That was down from 69% in the earlier 6sense studies.

Survey respondents pointed to two factors driving the earlier seller engagement.

• 58% of the survey respondents said their need to evaluate how prospective vendors were implementing artificial intelligence in their solutions caused them (buyers) to engage earlier.

• Nearly 62% of the respondents said they engaged earlier because of economic uncertainty.

What Hasn't Changed

The 2025 Study revealed that many of the B2B buying patterns and buyer behaviors identified by 6sense in its prior studies remained largely unchanged. For example, the 2025 Study found that:

• The surveyed buyers evaluated an average of five prospective vendors.

• Buying groups filled four of the five spots on their vendor shortlist on Day 1 of the buying process.

• 94% of the surveyed buyers said they ranked their shortlist vendors according to preference before contacting any vendor.

• 79% of the surveyed buyers said they initiated contact with prospective vendors. They contacted their top-ranked vendor first about 80% of the time, and they ultimately bought from their top-ranked vendor 77% of the time.

An Important Resource

The 6sense study represents a genre of research that we need more of in B2B. Much of the popular research in the B2B space consists of surveys of marketers. While it's useful to know how other marketers are thinking and what they are doing, it's far more valuable to understand how business buyers actually make purchase decisions.

That's what the 6sense study addresses, and I strongly recommend that you take the time to review the full study report.

Why Mission Is the Critical Foundation of Effective Marketing Planning

The fourth quarter of 2025 is well underway, which means many B2B marketers have begun planning for next year.

Marketing planning processes vary considerably across companies. Planning in large enterprises can be quite formal, while the process in smaller companies tends to be less formal.

Whatever your approach to planning, one key to developing an effective marketing plan is to keep your planning process focused on the right things. Fortunately, a proven military planning technique can help marketing leaders keep their planning process on course.

For years, US military commanders at all levels have used a framework called METT-TC as an integral part of their planning process. METT-TC is a mnemonic that is designed to help commanders remember and prioritize what to analyze when planning a military operation.

METT-TC stands for mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civil considerations. These six factors define the environment in which any military operation will be conducted, and commanders must thoroughly analyze each of these factors to develop sound operational plans.

When I work with a client to develop a marketing plan, we analyze five environmental factors, and I've created a mnemonic for these factors that serves much the same purpose as METT-TC. My mnemonic is MMCC-R, which stands for mission, market structure and dynamics, customer dynamics, competitive landscape, and resources available.

Mission Is "First Among Equals"

These five factors are all important, but mission is clearly the "first among equals" because it provides the "north star" guidance for the rest of the planning process. Mission occupies this pivotal position for two reasons.

First, to deliver maximum impact and effectiveness, all marketing activities must be aligned with and supportive of a clearly defined mission. With every proposed marketing initiative, you should ask:  "How will this initiative help us fulfill our mission?" Obviously, you can't answer this question if you don't have a clear picture of what your marketing mission is.

The second reason is equally important. To be a successful marketing leader, you need the support of your CEO and other senior company leaders. Your chances of gaining and keeping that support will be higher if you and the other members of your company's senior leadership team have a common understanding of marketing's mission.

Therefore, you need to have regular, open, and frank discussions with your senior company leaders about the core mission of marketing in your organization. The goal, of course, is to cultivate a shared understanding of marketing's mission across the entire senior leadership team.

The Core Mission of Marketing

So, what is the core mission of marketing? I'm always skeptical of marketing principles or methods that purport to be universal. Competitive conditions can vary considerably across companies, and that usually requires a company to develop business and marketing strategies that fit its unique circumstances. But, this is the "exception that proves the rule."

Every marketing organization in a for-profit company has a two-part mission, both aspects of which are linked to revenue growth. Marketing must create and run programs that will enable the company to achieve its short-term revenue objectives, and also design and execute programs that will lay the necessary foundation for long-term revenue growth.

The need to focus simultaneously on the short term and the long term is not unique to marketing, but it can be particularly challenging for marketers. For the past several years, marketing leaders have faced increasing demands to prove the value of their activities and programs. Overall, this has been a positive development, but it can have a dark side.

Marketing programs that produce a quick impact on revenue are relatively easy to measure, and their results can often be seen in a few weeks. However, programs whose impacts are several steps removed from the buying decisions that generate revenue are much more difficult to measure, and they may not produce visible results for several months.

Under these circumstances, marketing leaders often face pressures to shift resources to marketing programs that can deliver quick and easily measurable results. Unfortunately, such a shift can cause companies to under-invest in longer-term marketing activities and programs, thus placing future revenue growth at risk.

Producing both short-term and long-term revenue growth is the core marketing mission at any for-profit company, and the company's senior leadership team must understand and endorse this mission. Therefore, communicating this mission to your company's senior leaders and obtaining their buy-in is a vital step in your planning process.

Top image courtesy of DENAN Production via Flickr (CC).