Surveys say from start to finish, B2B prospects require a dozen touches or more, but behavioral data finds it may require hundreds of interactions
“Hidden buyers” is a buzzy new term floating around B2B circles. It conveys the idea that buying organizations have people who influence a deal but are not explicitly addressed in an ideal customer profile (ICP).
This is usually due to a job title. They meet the firmographic profile but are outside the target demographic. These are people in the buying organization with titles from finance, information technology, or even cybersecurity.
Buzzy words aren’t actionable
Marketers love these terms because, from our perspective, they bring clarity to the convoluted problem of marketing. Executives, however, may not find these terms relevant from their perspective.
Why? It’s not actionable. Believing in them requires a believer in long-held “marketing truths”, which from their perspective are part of the lore and mysticism of marketing. Terms like “dark social” and “branding takes place in the mind” also fall into these categories.
There may, in fact, be truth to these beliefs, but absent data, it’s hard to convince them of the problem. That in turn makes it harder to draw up plans – and execute those plans – to solve the problem.
The way to solve this is to illustrate the problem with data and benchmarks. We know more and more people are involved in buying decisions. We know buying decisions take more time than ever. And we know the whole process requires more touches or interactions.
But we still have to prove it.
5 benchmarks quantifying touches B2B prospects require
Fortunately, there’s quite a bit of data to put this into context. This post looks specifically at the touches and interactions surfaced by studies. Keep in mind that the size of the company, vertical market, amount of money involved in a deal all have an influence.
1. Survey: 15 interactions with nine different decision makers
A 2024 survey of 900 B2B buyers by 6Sense found that buying teams, which average nine members from various departments, engage in 15 interactions.
2. Survey: 15 digital interactions and 12 human interactions
A 2022 survey by Forrester found B2B buyers engaged in an average of 27 interactions with a vendor over the course of making a purchase decision in 2021. These 27 interactions are broken down into 15 digital interactions and 12 human interactions and buyers value both varieties.
3. Survey: 6.2 decision makers over a longer buying cycle
A 2021 survey of 261 buyers by Korn Ferry found an average of 6.2 decision-makers are involved in the B2B sales cycle. More stakeholders prolong the decision time as 52% report the buying cycles are getting longer.
4. Behavior: 28.87 interactions on average
A 2025 study by Focus Digital found that, on average, it takes 28.87 interactions to close a customer. Low-value transactions, defined as less than $100 in value, require 6.89 touches, while high-value transactions, defined as greater than $100,000 in value, require far more: 46.89.
The company says these benchmarks were “compiled data from internal client sources in addition to third-party data providers to report the average number of touchpoints per sale by industry in 2025.”
5. Behavior: 266 touches from impression to deal close
HockeyStack Labs says it takes an average of 266 touches to close a deal from start to finish. The vendor breaks this out into segments:
- 71 touches to make an MQL;
- 96 touches to turn an MQL into an SQL; and
- 99 touches to close an SQL.
Importantly, this is not based on survey data, but benchmarks derived from anonymized customer data across 150 B2B SaaS companies using their product. While the number is higher and the sampling of data is smaller, the reliability of behavioral data compared with survey data merits serious consideration.
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What to do with these benchmarks
There are several actionable steps marketing can take based on this data. The first step is to count how many touches it took to close the deals you’ve made already.
Next, look at the titles involved in those touches and then identify gaps in content. For example, if a CFO is consistently involved in those decisions, audit your content to ensure you are addressing their needs.
Finally, spend time with the sales team to understand the questions or objections these “hidden buyers” are asking during their buying process. Since many sales teams are using call recording tools like Gong for sales coaching, it’s very simple for a CMO to ask the head of sales to share the recordings of calls that will help inform this process.
Understand the problem, situation and needs
It’s also useful to keep in mind what studies say keeps the process moving forward. For example, the study by Korn Ferry cited above found that industry expertise counts the most.
When Korn Ferry asked what B2B buyers find most helpful in the sales cycle, 55% said the vendor “understood my business, my situation and my needs.” Conversely, when asked what roils a deal, 50% said the vendor “did not understand me or my business.”
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Image credit: Google Gemini and respective studies
