Buyer Signals Alone Don't Reveal What B2B Buyers Need Next
New research from McKinsey, Gartner, Forrester, and Salesforce shows B2B buyers now use an average of 10 channels across the purchasing journey, yet most marketers still rely on funnel stages that describe internal process rather than buyer intent. The gap between captured activity and real understanding is widening.
B2B marketers have more buyer signals at their fingertips than at any point in history. They can see who clicked, downloaded, visited, returned, and crossed an engagement threshold. But according to a growing body of 2026 research, that flood of activity data still leaves a fundamental question unanswered: what is actually happening inside a buyer's decision?
The tension between visible behavior and invisible intent is the central problem facing marketing technology teams this year. Funnel stages, dashboards, and attribution models describe where a buyer sits in a company's internal process, not necessarily what the buyer is doing or needs. A prospect can sit in the consideration stage of a CRM while already building a business case, evaluating competitors, and seeking consensus from three colleagues.
McKinsey's 2026 Global B2B Pulse, which surveyed nearly 4,000 B2B decision-makers across 13 countries, found that buyers now use an average of 10 channels across the purchasing journey. They move fluidly among in-person, remote, and digital interactions. The same research identified inconsistent information across teams as the leading reason buyers switch suppliers. In other words, the company sees stages, but the buyer experiences a single relationship — and contradictions between departments can cost the sale.
The visibility problem runs deeper. Gartner's 2026 research, based on a survey of 646 B2B buyers conducted in August and September 2025, found that 67% prefer a rep-free experience, and 45% used generative AI in a recent purchase. Forrester's 2026 Buyer Insights research, drawing on more than 17,500 global buyers, reached a similar conclusion: buyers are researching options and making decisions before a seller ever enters the conversation.
That means the first activity captured in a martech stack may not mark the beginning of the buyer's journey at all. Someone arriving on a website for the first time may already understand the category, know several competitors, have discussed the problem internally, and be narrowing a shortlist. The company calls it awareness because that is when it became aware of the buyer — a very different thing.
Yet the answer is not to abandon human interaction. Gartner reported in May that 70% of B2B buyers prefer a completely digital, self-service buying experience, but in the same research, 69% said they prefer to validate AI-generated insights with a sales representative. Buyers reported using an average of seven information sources during a recent purchase. That is not contradictory behavior; it is human behavior. Buyers want independence when it is useful and expertise when the stakes rise.
The strategic question is not whether the journey should be digital or human. It is whether marketing organizations understand enough about the buyer's context to know which experience will help next. That requires interpreting the signals already collected rather than simply adding more.
Salesforce's 2026 State of Marketing, based on a survey of nearly 4,500 marketers worldwide, found that 83% say customers increasingly want two-way conversations. Yet only one in four marketers is completely satisfied with how their organization unifies and uses customer data to create relevant experiences. The gap between data collection and data understanding remains wide.
Knowing that someone visited a pricing page three times does not reveal why. They could be ready to buy, preparing next year's budget, comparing a competitor, or trying to determine whether the product is remotely affordable. The behavior is visible; the meaning behind it is not always obvious.
For martech leaders, the next advantage will not come from capturing another signal simply because the technology allows it. It will come from getting better at interpreting the signals already available and carrying that context from one interaction to the next. The more useful question is not which stage a buyer occupies, but what that buyer is trying to accomplish right now — whether they need education, comparison, proof, reassurance, internal consensus, pricing clarity, or a conversation with someone who understands the problem.
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