At 6sense, we've witnessed a major shift in B2B marketing and sales. The traditional approach of casting wide nets, generating thousands of marketing qualified leads (MQLs), and hoping sales can sort through them to find opportunities no longer works in today's complex buying environment.
The data reveals this new reality clearly. By the time a potential customer makes contact, 69% of their buying journey is complete. They've researched solutions, formed opinions, and often created vendor shortlists—all before a single conversation. But here's the crucial insight: 84% of buyers purchase from the first vendor they engage. This statistic should catch every B2B leader's attention as it represents the difference between shaping the buying journey or arriving after key decisions have already been made.
Through our work with thousands of marketing and sales organizations, we've seen how leading teams are adapting to this reality. They're shifting from measuring activity-based metrics like MQL volume to focusing on actual revenue contribution. They're moving beyond targeting individual leads to engaging entire buying groups. And they're using AI and intent data to identify and reach prospects during their anonymous research phase.
The market leaders featured in this report show this evolution in action. Their experiences offer valuable insights into measuring what matters, aligning marketing and sales as true revenue partners, and creating personalized experiences at scale. What's particularly striking is how these new approaches consistently deliver measurable results—larger deal sizes, higher conversion rates, and more efficient revenue growth.
At 6sense, we believe the future belongs to organizations that can identify in-market accounts before they raise their hands, engage buying groups with relevant messaging, and align their entire go-to-market teams around shared revenue goals.
The path forward requires both technological capabilities and organizational alignment. As you explore the experiences of these marketing leaders, I encourage you to consider how your organization can apply these principles to improve your revenue engine and outpace competitors in today's evolving marketplace.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.