Research
What the research says about B2B buying and outbound
The figures we rely on, each read at the source and linked back to it: how buying groups decide, where sellers spend their time, what SDR teams look like, and the rules every cold email program has to meet.
How B2B buying groups decide
How we turn this into pipeline13 + 9
The typical B2B buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, rising for more complex or strategic purchases.
53%
Procurement professionals are decision makers in 53% of business buying cycles, engaging from the start of the process.
67%
67% of B2B buyers say they prefer a rep free buying experience, and 45% used AI during a recent purchase.
Gartner Sales Survey, Mar 2026. 646 B2B buyers, surveyed August to September 2025.
69%
69% of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI generated insights with a sales rep.
Gartner survey, presented at the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference, May 2026. 645 B2B buyers, surveyed August to September 2025.
94%
94% of buying groups ranked their preferred vendors before first contact with a seller, and the vendor preferred before engaging sellers still wins 80% of deals.
6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report, Nov 2025. More than 4,000 buyers across North America, EMEA and APAC.
60/40
The B2B buying journey shifted from a 70/30 to a 60/40 split between independent research and seller engagement, and buyers still averaged 16 interactions per person with the winning vendor.
6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report, Nov 2025. More than 4,000 buyers across North America, EMEA and APAC.
Demand generation and market timing
The outbound layer of demand generation95%
The 95-5 rule: 95% of potential B2B buyers are out of market at any given time and will be in market sometime in the future.
LinkedIn B2B Institute, with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, B2B Institute research.
Channels and the buyer journey
Multichannel outreach10
B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels in their buying journey, up from five in 2016. At any stage, a third want in person, a third remote and a third digital self serve.
McKinsey, B2B Pulse 2024, Sep 2024. Ninth edition of the survey; about 30,000 respondents globally since 2016.
Seller productivity
Give reps back their selling time40%
The average seller spends 40% of their time actually selling; for Gen Z reps it is 35%.
Salesforce, State of Sales 2026, Feb 2026. 4,050 sales professionals, surveyed August to September 2025.
1.7x
Top performing sellers are 1.7x more likely to use prospecting AI agents, and 54% of sellers have already used agents.
Salesforce, State of Sales 2026, Feb 2026. 4,050 sales professionals, surveyed August to September 2025.
Sales development teams
SDR outsourcing3.0 mo
Average SDR ramp time is 3.0 months, the lowest since 2010, and average SDR tenure is 1.9 years.
The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025, Feb 2025. 351 B2B companies.
40%
Median annual SDR attrition was 40% in 2024, and only 60% of SDRs were at quota, the lowest in the study's history.
The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025, Feb 2025. 351 B2B companies.
Prospect data and AI in prospecting
Prospect data and research79%
79% of high performing sales teams prioritize data hygiene, compared with 54% of underperformers.
Salesforce, State of Sales 2026, Feb 2026. 4,050 sales professionals, surveyed August to September 2025.
Cold email deliverability rules
Cold email built to these rules0.3%
Gmail requires senders to keep spam rates in Postmaster Tools below 0.3% (and recommends below 0.1%). Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day must use SPF, DKIM and DMARC and support one click unsubscribe.
Google, Email sender guidelines, Feb 2024.
2 days
Yahoo requires bulk senders to authenticate with SPF and DKIM, publish a DMARC policy, keep spam rates below 0.3% and honor unsubscribes within 2 days.
Yahoo, Sender best practices, Feb 2024.
5,000
Since May 5, 2025, Outlook routes mail from domains sending more than 5,000 emails a day that fail SPF, DKIM and DMARC to Junk, with rejection to follow.
Microsoft, Outlook requirements for high volume senders, Apr 2025.
How we use this research
Every figure was read on the publisher's own page and is quoted as published, with its date and sample. We do not round, combine or extrapolate figures, and we do not cite secondary roundups. When a report is updated, the figure here is updated to match.
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