Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2024

The diversified priorities of 2026 reveal strategic AI integration across all business functions. Find the solutions that map to your responsibilities—and the outcomes you’re expected to deliver. Learn more about our targeted solutions and see what fits the gap you’re seeing. They understand that the decision is never made in a vacuum and build their approach around that reality. Buyers make decisions as multithreaded committees, and nurturing must address each role’s priorities while equipping internal champions to advocate for your solution.

The buying process has become incredibly complex for decision makers to navigate with an average of 640 vendor interactions per vendor in their buyer’s journey (6sense, 2023). Now that you know what B2B buying groups are and why they're so important, learn how to start using them in your next campaign. According to Gartner, the average buying team size is between 14 and 23 people, depending on the size of the spend.

• B2B buyers are nearly 70% through their purchasing process before engaging with sellers — and 80% of the time, it’s the buyers who initiate the first contact, new research revealed.
• They add depth to the decision-making process by involving IT, finance, operations, and specialized teams such as marketing’s ad buying group.
• It’s time to zero in on the people who actually influence buying decisions.
• Procurement teams or executive assistants often serve as gatekeepers, helping maintain order and efficiency in the buying process.
• Simply put, an account-based lens isn’t designed to support multiple selling opportunities at different lifecycle stages.
• Understanding the distinctions can help businesses choose the right approach—or blend multiple models to meet evolving buyer expectations.

More relevant for boutique retailers and online resellers than for custom manufacturing. Ships internationally with individual and wholesale pricing tiers. Yiwu pricing on small consumer goods is hard to beat. Strong logistics infrastructure with cross-border access to Chinese brands.

How to effectively incorporate buying groups into your 2024 marketing strategy

After sourcing more than 10,000 products across Asia, we can say some of the best factories we've found for clients don't have Alibaba listings. One of the best free tools for identifying export-ready manufacturers. B2C with wholesale pricing across apparel, electronics, and home goods. Wholesale and dropship programs with tiered pricing. Shenzhen-based B2B/B2C for electronic products, mobile accessories, and camera gear. Offers a dedicated wholesale program with tiered pricing.

Sales Rep Performance and Productivity Statistics

Focus on technology that empowers marketers to analyze trends, consumer behavior, and program performance, enabling data-driven decision-making and the optimization of marketing strategies. Highlight how your solutions support collaboration and productivity for in-person and remote teams. Provide data b2b buying group analytics platforms or forecasting tools that offer insights into market trends to help CFOs/CIOs make informed investment decisions with your solutions, aligned with growth objectives.

Why B2B lead generation needs to change

In the B2B context, the process of purchasing is people-driven, not person-centered. B2B is a Buying Group, a group of people working within an enterprise who together decide on what to buy. Every member has a different angle from which to look at the issue, thus making sure that the selected solution meets the technical, financial, and business requirements. Rather, a team of various stakeholders would collaborate to assess and give their consent to the appropriate solution.

Since they are the people using the product, their focus is on ease of use and how the solution will impact their day-to-day responsibilities. They assess pricing and ROI to understand how the price works within the overall department and company budgets. Executive sponsors appear in the mid-to-late stages of the funnel to ensure alignment with strategic goals. Blockers or challengers question change and are common in early to mid-journey stages. Purchase influencers are often the first to engage—researching solutions, comparing vendors, and shaping early internal conversations.

Internal Teams Impacted by a Buying Group Motion

Though their position in the organizational chart can vary, effective champions have the credibility to persuade others in the buying organization to follow their commitment to change. Choosing the right B2B e-commerce platform involves several factors like your budget, the size of your business, the complexity of your products or services, and your specific needs. Then, you should identify your target audience, select a platform that supports your goals, and integrate marketing tactics that increase your exposure. Businesses need a clear view of their customers, operations, and digital capabilities—along with a platform strategy that supports scalability and resilience. B2B e-commerce continues to evolve as expectations shift and technology advances—from static catalogs and transactions to dynamic, intelligence-driven collaboration. Across industries, B2B digital e-commerce is helping companies streamline transactions, deepen trading partner collaboration, and respond more effectively to change.

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This includes nurturing and competitive displacement strategies to aid them to better understand their challenges and how the brand can help them achieve their goals while mitigating risk. The complexity of the buying process has significant implications for how go-to-market (GTM) teams approach buyer journeys and create quality buyer experiences. This article breaks down the challenges faced by B2B buying groups, as well as how to solve them and position your brand as the solution.

Marketing teams must balance messaging so that every stakeholder understands how the solution addresses their unique concerns without causing confusion or misalignment. Marketing and sales teams can benefit greatly from understanding these groups, as they can help them access the right people faster and secure more strategic wins. By targeting buying groups, B2B marketers can ensure that their message is reaching the right people and increase the chances of a successful sale. B2B buyers don’t make decisions in one place – they move fluidly between advertising solutions and premium streaming channels. With the current complexity of the buying process and defensive buyers, de-risking your solution is imperative.