The Invisible Buyer Journey

Your prospects are making decisions right now. The question is whether your customers' voices are part of that conversation.

By Avrohom Gottheil

February 17, 2026

Most B2B companies spend years building direct sales and marketing. Then they look at the data and discover something uncomfortable: in the majority of moments that matter, they are not present.

The numbers tell the story.

According to Gartner, 61% of B2B buyers now prefer a rep-free buying experience. They want to do their own research, on their own terms, through digital channels. And 73% actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.

This isn't a temporary shift. It's structural.

Forrester research shows that over 90% of B2B buyers trust peers in their industry when making purchase decisions. By contrast, only 29% trust vendor sales reps. That's a 3-to-1 trust gap between peer voices and your sales team.

Meanwhile, your prospects are building confidence somewhere else. They're reading someone else's content. Listening to someone else's podcast. Getting advice from people you've never met.

G2 found that 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. And according to TrustRadius, 56% consult with existing product users before purchasing, rising to 71% for enterprise deals.

The winning vendor is often decided before you even know you're being evaluated. According to 6sense, 94% of buying groups rank their shortlist in order of preference before they initiate contact with sales. The vendor ranked first wins about 80% of the time.

So where does that leave your sales team?

The real influence is happening in communities, in peer conversations, in content created by people who have no financial stake in your success. Forrester reports that 35% of B2B buyers already consult external influencers during their journey, with that number expected to reach 50% by end of 2025.

What This Means for Your Go-to-Market

Your customers can become part of that influence ecosystem. Their voices can show up in the places where you cannot. Every customer story you capture extends your reach into conversations you would never otherwise be part of.

A customer describing their experience in their own words carries weight that marketing claims cannot match. It's not a case study written by your team. It's proof from someone who made the decision and saw the results.

Whose voice does your prospect hear when they research you?

Avrohom Gottheil hosts and produces customer testimonial podcast series for B2B technology companies. With 25+ years in enterprise tech, over 100 episodes featuring executives from companies like Intel, IBM, Microsoft, and Siemens, and a spot on Forrester's "64 Best Channel Podcasts," he helps companies build libraries of customer proof that sales teams can use and prospects find when researching. Each episode features one of your customers explaining why they chose you and what changed as a result. A simple, authentic conversation that becomes a sales asset. To learn how a customer testimonial podcast can extend your reach into the conversations where you're not present, connect with Avrohom on LinkedIn or visit AskTheCEO.io.