The most overused stat in B2B history. “70–80% of B2B buyers don’t want to talk to sales.”
This line has been passed around for over a decade like it’s carved into stone tablets. It gets nodded at, screenshot, and worst of all, weaponized.
For a decade-plus, B2B has translated that stat into “Buyers want to self-educate. So, let’s drown them in content.”
Cue the avalanche of blogs, white papers, webinars, explainer videos, buying guides, comparison charts, and my personal favorite, the gated “request a demo” form.
And yet… pipeline still sucks. Sales still complains. Marketing still gets blamed. Everyone’s confused.
So let’s stop pretending this stat means what we want it to mean.
What Buyers Are Actually Doing
It’s 10:47 AM. You’re researching a tool for your team. You finally find a page that looks promising. You scroll. You skim. You think, “Okay… maybe.”
Then you see it. A form.
You pause and hover.
You consider using a fake email, then decide it’s not worth it.
You close the tab, because you know what happens next.
You know the moment you submit that form someone somewhere gets notified that “a lead is warm.” And then the follow-ups start. The check-ins. The calendar links. The emails that pretend they’re casual but absolutely are not.
You’re relentlessly bombarded with emails and phone calls when you’re just gathering information or have one simple, innocent question.
B2B Missed the Point
When B2B businesses heard that “70-80% of the buying journey is completed without a salesperson.” They heard what they wanted to hear. “Hey, we just need to make it easier for people to education themselves on their own.”
How convenient. Marketing gets stats, Sales gets volume, Executives get dashboards. Win, win, win!
The fact that the buyer just wants access to the information without the pressure never crossed anyone’s mind. You constantly hear,
“If we open the access, how will we know what’s working?”
“Our competitors will get the information?”
“We need this information to better understand what they need?”
They never ask, “How many people are we losing by gatekeeping info and bombarding people with calls and emails?”
The Reframe
Buyers don’t avoid salespeople. They avoid being sold to.
Every piece of content meant to help them “make a decision” felt like bait.
Ask a question, get chased.
Download a guide, get tagged.
Attend a webinar, get hunted.
Buyers learned quickly that curiosity comes at a cost.
So, they adapted. They waited and lurked. They asked peers quietly. They went to places where no one would slap a “MQL” label on their forehead for breathing.
That’s why they show up later in the buying process. Because they’re protecting themselves.
What “Safe” Actually Looks Like
Buyers already know how to find you when they’re ready. We act like buyers are wandering the internet confused, hoping someone will rescue them with a popup. They know where your Contact Us page is. This is 2026. No one is lost.
Here’s how to help them buy and make a safe space for them to engage with sales.
1. Put the pricing out there.
Yes, even if it’s “starting at.” Yes, even if it’s flexible.
This is the information people are looking for. It helps them make decisions. Set expectations without pretending every deal is “custom” out of fear.
2. Explain the real investment.
People want to know how long and what it will take to get started. Time. Onboarding. Internal lift. Support required.
Be honest. Trust compounds faster than hype.
3. Make product access frictionless.
Trials. Demos without ambushes. Clear docs.
Let people touch the thing. They want some help and guidance with the product, but they also want the option to say no without pressure or guilt.
4. Ungate what matters.
Ungated content is table stakes in 2026.
If your best content is locked behind a form, you’re signaling insecurity. And people can smell your desperation a mile away.
5. Make customers visible.
Not testimonials written by marketing.
Real stories. Real context. Real tradeoffs. Reddit, G2, Trustpilot. They want to hear from real people, the good, bad and ugly.
6. Let sales act like humans again.
Coffee. Lunch. Conversations. No quota panic.
Relationship-building without an immediate close. People don’t want to feel like another number or notch in your belt. A $100,000 deal shouldn’t happen overnight, help them feel good about it.
If You Only Change One Thing
Make it easier for someone to learn without triggering pursuit.
That’s it.
Start there. One page. One asset. One experience where curiosity is allowed to exist without harassment.
Watch what happens.
Buyers will engage earlier.
Conversations will be better.
Sales cycles will feel less combative.
Trust will stop being something you claim and start being something you earn.
Buyers don’t hate sales. They hate being punished for asking questions.
Build trust. Host curiosity. Let the sale show up when it’s ready.
It always does.
Follow Moni Oloyede at https://www.linkedin.com/in/moni-oloyede/
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