How Business Customers Buy Today: More Research, Later Conversations

Why do business customers get in touch so late these days?

The inquiry arrives via a form, precisely worded, with technical requirements and a target date. In the first conversation it turns out the prospect has compared three suppliers, read reviews, downloaded data sheets, and already agreed on a budget internally. They don't want an introduction to the product but answers to four specific questions. And they want to know whether you can deliver.

Many owners experience this shift without being able to name it. The salesperson used to be the customer's most important source of information. Today the customer finds most information alone, and the salesperson only comes into play once the shortlist is set. If you are not visible in this silent phase, you are not even asked. So the question is: what has changed in the buying behavior of business customers, and what follows from it for your sales? To answer it, we first look at the change, then examine whether salespeople become superfluous as a result, and end with the trace check and the changed first conversation.

Most orders are decided before the customer says your name. The question is whether they have read it by then.

What has changed in how business customers buy?

One of the most thorough recent studies on this comes from Kalwey, Krafft, Lim, and Mantrala (2025). The authors conducted 42 in-depth interviews with B2B sales executives in the US, Germany, India, and South Korea, two focus groups with 13 salespeople, and ten interviews with senior buyers. The occasion was a collaboration with a large international industrial company that wanted to realign its sales organization.

• Customers do their own research. Buyers search for and compare suppliers independently of sales and limit, postpone, and change their direct contact with salespeople.
• The process is no longer linear. Especially in first-time purchases, customers jump back and forth between stages instead of moving through a fixed funnel.
• More people are involved in decisions. Buying centers have grown larger, decision paths more complex, and sales cycles longer.
• Buyers automate routine. A head of purchasing from the machinery industry described how his company digitalizes the operational part of purchasing as far as possible to have more time for strategic issues in conversations with suppliers.

The study is qualitative. It does not measure how many customers behave this way but describes how experienced practitioners perceive the change. Its strength is that the seller and buyer perspectives match. The authors stress that the new pattern shows mainly in first-time purchases, when a customer procures something for the first time. Routine reorders largely run automatically anyway.

Are B2B salespeople becoming redundant?

For years it has been predicted that digital self-service and artificial intelligence will displace salespeople. So far the figures say otherwise. Sinha, Shastri, Lorimer, and colleagues (2026) analyzed the development in the US.

Behind the total lie opposing trends. In industries with interchangeable products and little customer ambiguity, the number of salespeople fell. In industries with complex, customized solutions, such as cloud software and advanced manufacturing, teams grew. The authors name five areas in which customers still need a salesperson today: clarifying the problem, defining the solution, mitigating risk, aligning stakeholders, and securing value after the purchase.

For a small business this means: the more your offering needs explaining and the more customized it is, the more important the conversation remains. It just moves later and changes its content.

What is the salesperson's new role?

Kalwey and colleagues call the new pattern “holistic selling.” It means that the salesperson coordinates all touchpoints between customer and supplier before, during, and after the purchase. Their main goal is no longer primarily to win an order or maintain a long-term relationship, but to help the customer make a better decision.

In a small business, the owner is often this coordinator. He knows what is on the website, what the technician says at the customer's site, and what is explained on the invoice. That is an advantage over large suppliers, where these touchpoints sit in separate departments. The article Aligning marketing and sales describes where prospects get lost between marketing and sales.

What does a customer find about you in the silent phase?

When customers do their own research, everything they find about you becomes a salesperson. Gron (2026) describes the change as a shift from persuasion to evidence: buyers collect and verify proof themselves, such as certificates, transparency about the company, and information on data security, and then draw up a list of potential partners.

In this example, sales only learns about 6 of the 100 prospects who had a matching need. The other 94 were not turned down; they dropped out silently: because they did not find the business, because the website gave no answer, or because evidence was missing. You cannot observe this silent phase, but you can shape it.

The trace check: how do you get found in the silent phase?

I call the review of what a customer finds before first contact the trace check. It consists of six questions, best answered from the perspective of a new customer who does not know you yet.

1. Are you found?

   Search for the three terms your best customer would enter, in search engines, maps, and AI assistants. Note whether and where you appear.

2. Does your website answer the first questions?

   Check whether a visitor understands within two minutes whom you serve with what, in what price range, and what happens after an inquiry.

3. Is there evidence?

   Show references with industry and outcome, certificates, data sheets, and answers to typical vetting questions. Buyers want to verify, not just read.

4. What do others say about you?

   Read your reviews and mentions on networks and industry portals the way a skeptical buyer would.

5. Does your content reach several decision-makers?

   Check whether there is material for the technician, the buyer, and management. In larger buying centers, your offer has to convince internally without you.

6. Is first contact easy?

   Test your inquiry routes: form, phone, appointment booking. How quickly does a reply come, and is it helpful?

The checklist A website that brings inquiries describes what a website must do to generate inquiries. The guide Content marketing in B2B shows how articles prepare conversations. And how references become credible is covered in Testimonials and references. Because more and more research begins in AI assistants, the article Visible in AI answers is also worth reading.

How does the first conversation change?

When the customer arrives late, the first conversation is more valuable. They have little patience for standard presentations and great interest in whether you understand their specific problem. This changes how you prepare and what you ask.

• Before the conversation, check which pages, documents, or articles the prospect has probably already seen.
• Start with a question about where they stand: “What have you looked at so far, and what is still open?”
• Don't repeat what is on the website; clarify the open points instead.
• Ask who else is involved in the decision and what those people need.
• Offer documents the person can pass on internally.
• Agree on a clear next step instead of waiting for feedback.

The guide The first meeting describes how to structure a first conversation. How to tell good inquiries from bad ones when more prospects arrive with a shortlist is covered in Lead qualification.

How to get started

The silent phase cannot be observed, but it can be checked. Take two hours and look at your business through the eyes of a customer who does not know you.

• Go through the trace check with its six questions and write down the answers.
• Test your best customer's three search terms in a search engine, map search, and an AI assistant.
• Check whether your website shows price range, process, and references with outcomes.
• Ask your last ten new customers how they found you and what they read beforehand.
• Create a document that a prospect can pass on internally to other decision-makers.
• Measure your response time to new inquiries and set a target.

The opening question was what has changed in the buying behavior of business customers and what follows from it. Customers complete a large part of the decision on their own before they approach a supplier. Salespeople do not become superfluous as a result; their role shifts toward helping customers make a good decision. For your business, the main consequence is that you have to be findable in the silent phase, because whoever is missing there never makes the shortlist.