6sense Research Finds That Vendors Need to Be Known and Preferred Before the Buying Journey Begins

The vendor buyers favor before contacting a seller wins 82% of the time, and 96% of buyers follow vendors between purchase cycles 

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--6sense®, the Agentic GTM Partner, today released its 2026 Global B2B Buyer Experience Report, an annual study of how B2B purchasing decisions are made. The research finds that the buying journey does not start when the evaluation starts. Buyers keep up with vendors between purchases, enter evaluations with preferences already formed, and choose the vendor they favored before contacting a seller 82% of the time. The study surveyed 4,611 recent B2B buyers across North America, APAC, Continental Europe, and the UK and Ireland. 

The Journey Between Purchase Cycles is Never-Ending   

Buyers in all buying group roles have 6-8 previous evaluation cycles in relevant solution categories, and nearly all (96%) stay up to date on vendors and solutions between purchases, most often through vendor websites (36%). Their views move during that time: 71% of buyers say their view of vendors changed somewhat or significantly between cycles. As a result, when buying groups form, most (73%) have two or more vendor preferences in place already, and the winner is on that list 92% of the time. The buying group’s job is more deliberation than discovery. This is possible because most relevant vendors have been around for a decade or more, and in software roughly 90% are at least 10 years old.  

Only a Quarter of Buyers Use LLMs to Discover Vendors 

Most buyers use an LLM somewhere in an evaluation (81%, down from 94% last year), and they use it to sort, summarize, and validate what they already know. Only 26% use LLMs to discover vendors. Instead, new vendor discovery is a more organic process, which takes place through buyers’ complex network of influences. Before contacting a seller, 21% cite LLMs as an influence on their view of vendors, compared with 34% who cite their own existing knowledge and 32% who cite internal discussions. 

"Vendors are being evaluated continually – between and within evaluation cycles. Buyers spend those periods following vendors and revising their views. Initial vendor shortlists are formed from the collective preferences of the buying group, and a vendor that doesn’t make that initial list has a less than 10% chance of winning," said Kerry Cunningham, Head of Research & Thought Leadership at 6sense.  

The Decision Is Mostly Made Before Seller Contact 

Buying groups spend roughly 60% of an average 10.3-month buying cycle in the selection phase, the stage before they contact a seller. In it, the group works out whether the category deserves investment and which vendor it prefers. More than half of buyers (56%) say justifying the category is as difficult as, or more difficult than, selecting a vendor. By the time the validation phase begins at seller contact, the group has a favorite, and that vendor wins 82% of the time. 

"What many revenue teams think of as the sales cycle is really the validation phase of a selection process that has already been unfolding for multiple quarters. The journey doesn't start when the evaluation starts," Cunningham added. 

Key findings from the study include: 

• 96% of buyers stay up to date on vendors and solutions between purchase cycles, and 71% say their view of vendors changed between cycles. 
• 92% of eventual winners are on the initial shortlist. 
• 82% of the time, the pre-contact favorite wins. 
• 56% of buyers say justifying the category is as difficult as, or more difficult than selecting a vendor. 
• 81% of buyers use an LLM somewhere in an evaluation, down from 94%. Only 26% use LLMs to discover vendors. 

What Triggers an Evaluation Predicts How It Ends 

Advances in available technology are the most common reason evaluations begin (39%). The reason also predicts the outcome. Internal growth needs were cited in 34% of evaluations that ended in a purchase and 19% of those that stalled or were abandoned. Dissatisfaction with the current solution shows the reverse pattern: it was cited in 11% of purchases and 22% of stalled or abandoned evaluations. 

Get the Full Report 

The 2026 Global B2B Buyer Experience Report is available for download here. Kerry Cunningham will host a webinar on November 17, 2026 to discuss the findings. 

About 6sense 

6sense is your partner for Agentic GTM, helping B2B revenue teams reach the right buying groups earlier, act with confidence, and convert more pipeline into revenue. Powered by 13 years of industry-leading intelligence from proprietary identity data, superior match rates, and predictive models trained on real buying outcomes, 6sense gives every team, tool, and agent the same trusted context. Intelligence only matters if it changes what happens next. 6sense agentic activations put it to work, whether teams run in the 6sense platform, through 6sense agents, or in their own stack via APIs and MCP. 6sense is GTM that makes sense.