03-11-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

B2B purchases aren’t made by individuals

When marketers ignore the diversity of stakeholders, they create friction.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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For years, B2B marketers have chased a familiar formula: more leads equal more opportunities. Build the list, blast the message, and chase the pipeline.

Yet despite better data, smarter tools, and growing investment in performance marketing, many organizations are still challenged when it comes to driving measurable revenue impact.

The problem isn’t reach—it’s relevance. Most performance strategies were built for individuals, not buying groups.

Modern B2B decisions are made by large, diverse groups of stakeholders spanning departments, seniority levels, priorities, and generations. And while most marketers now acknowledge this reality in theory, their engagement strategies haven’t yet evolved to match it.

Instead of orchestrating personalized, multi-channel experiences across the entire buying group, too many organizations still treat demand generation like a numbers game—emailing long lists of contacts with one-size-fits-all messaging and hoping something sticks.

But it rarely does, and its quietly undermining performance marketing results.

Buying groups are bigger and more diverse

The rapid evolution of enterprise technology, from AI-driven platforms to automated systems and cloud-based infrastructures, has increased both the cost and complexity of purchasing decisions. As solutions become more strategic and more integrated across the business, leaders are bringing more voices into the room.

According to Gartner, B2B purchases now involve five to 16 people across as many as four functions all coming to the table with........

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