Buyers decide before they call
The first conversation used to be where a buyer formed a view of a business. That is rarely true now. In its 2024 Buyer Experience Report, 6sense found that business buyers are around 70 per cent of the way through their purchasing process before they first engage a supplier, and that 81 per cent already have a preferred supplier when they do.
The research is about business buying in general, and it comes from a company that sells marketing software, so it is best read as a direction rather than a precise measure. The direction matches what most owners describe: by the time a new client calls, they have already compared you with the alternatives.
What a buyer can actually see
A buyer forming that early view cannot see the quality of your work, the care of your people or the problems you have solved quietly for years. They see a search result, a website, a handful of reviews, perhaps a proposal or a capability statement. From those few things, they decide whether you belong on the shortlist.
People judge more on appearance than they admit. When Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab asked thousands of people how they assessed a website’s credibility, the design look of the site was the factor mentioned most often, in 46.1 per cent of comments. The study is more than twenty years old, and the web has changed since. The principle has held up: people use what they can see as a shortcut for what they cannot.
Why good businesses fall behind their own standard
It is common for the presentation of an established business to fall behind its work, and it is understandable. Client work comes first. The website was built when the business was smaller. The logo, proposals and social channels were made at different times, by different people, for a different stage of the business. Each was reasonable when it was made. Together, they describe a business that no longer exists.
The result is a gap a buyer cannot see past. A practice that wins complex projects looks like a small local business. A contractor trusted with major shutdowns looks like a one-person operation. None of it is the business’s fault, and none of it is permanent.
Closing the distance
The fix starts with understanding. We look at the business as a new client would: every channel, in the order they are likely to see it. We compare that with how the best clients describe the business, and the distance between the two becomes the brief.
From there, the work is usually sharpening rather than rebuilding. Keep the recognition already earned, decide clearly what the business should be known for, and carry that through the identity, the website, the proposals and the reviews. The aim is simple: when a buyer forms their view before the first call, it should be the right one.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Search for your business as a new client would, on a phone, without logging in. Read the first result, the website opening, your Google reviews and your last proposal in that order. Write down what a stranger would conclude, then compare it with how your best clients describe you.