The TrustRadius / Pavilion 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect report is built on a simple gap: what buyers say they do, and what vendors believe they do. Three findings stand out.
Buyers are relying on fewer resources than before
The list of trusted inputs is shrinking, and quality beats quantity. Nobody is reading a 48-page buying guide to make a decision.
Buyers trust their own experience above everything
“Own prior experience” and “experiencing the product” sit at the top of the list. Demos, prior experience and trials: three of the five most-consulted resources are about the buyer’s direct experience of your product.
Review websites are slipping
Consulting user reviews dropped 5%. Buyers increasingly know which review sites are pay-to-play and which are gamed by vendors. Free trials dropped 10% too, arguably because interactive and recorded demos now do the same job.
The one number that matters
The number one reason buyers select a product is best fit + best price. Everything else on the list is risk mitigation: vendor brand, existing relationships, past experience, existing customers.
That reframes the debate. Buyers aren’t looking for the safest vendor. They want the best fit at a price they can defend, and then they use brand and relationships to make that choice feel safe.
What this means for vendors
- Make the product experience frictionless. Three of the five top resources are about experiencing the product. If your demo, trial or onboarding is clunky, you’re losing the most trusted channel you have.
- Invest in relationships that outlive the deal. “Own prior experience” means the stakeholder you nurtured at their last company is now a buyer at a new one. Stay in touch as people move.
- Don’t outsource credibility. If buyers distrust review sites and long guides, your own proof carries more weight: a reference who will take a call, a named case study, a working demo.
- Know the real competition. It isn’t the other vendor. It’s the buyer’s own prior experience and the status quo.
The disconnect itself
The report’s core finding: vendors overestimate how much buyers trust vendor-produced content, and underestimate how much buyers rely on their own experience and their peers. That gap is where most B2B marketing budget goes to die.
There’s plenty more in the report, particularly the bit about how buyers take decisions versus how vendors think they take decisions. Hint: the number one reason buyers select a product is best fit plus best price. Everything else is risk mitigation.