Why your B2B buyers don’t want to talk to you - and what you can do about it

ManufacturingIndustry InsightsCommercial Integration
Written By Michelle Haynes

Manufacturing buyers are submitting website enquiries they're not ready to follow through on. Not because they're not serious, but because they're using contact forms to get information that should already be available.

Gartner's recent survey of 632 B2B buyers found that buyers prefer digital self-service for searching for general information and learning new things. They only want to talk to sellers when they need contextual intelligence - help with solution fit, configuration, implementation.

But most manufacturers force buyers to contact sales just to access basic information, operating on the belief that getting someone on the phone means you can convince them to buy.

Buyers who aren't ready yet submit the form and go quiet.

Or they take the call, get pushed into a conversation they don't want, and go somewhere else when they're actually ready.

73% of the same buyers actively avoid suppliers that send irrelevant outreach. Which is what early sales contact becomes when buyers aren't ready for it yet.

This mismatch between what buyers need and what manufacturers provide creates five problems:

  • Marketing stops at lead generation when buyers need technical education.

  • The handoff to sales happens before buyers are ready for conversations.

  • Sales teams waste time on unqualified enquiries.

  • Competitors who make information accessible are winning your opportunities.

  • And the gap between marketing and sales - where buyers do most of their decision work - belongs to no one.

So why does this happen?

McKinsey's 2024 Global B2B Pulse surveyed nearly 4,000 decision makers across 34 sectors. Buyers now use an average of ten interaction channels in their journey - up from five in 2016.

Among companies that offer e-commerce, it's become the top revenue-generating channel, accounting for 34% of revenue. And 39% of buyers are willing to spend more than $500,000 per order through digital or remote channels, including in industrial sectors.

That means by the time a buyer contacts sales, they've already been through multiple channels doing their own research. They've looked at competitors, compared specifications, tried to understand pricing, figured out what questions matter for their application.

If your website doesn't give them what they need for that research, they're either forcing themselves through a sales conversation they're not ready for, or they're going to competitors who make it easier.

What buyers actually look for before talking to sales

Marketing can't stop at awareness and lead generation anymore. Buyers need technical content to make decisions before they're ready to talk to anyone. Configuration options, pricing guidance, comparison information, integration requirements - the detail that used to come out in sales conversations now needs to exist before the first contact happens.

Because buyers are doing that evaluation work themselves across multiple channels, with or without your help.

How B2B buyers are now researching

Forrester's 2024 Buyers' Journey Survey found that 89% of B2B buyers have adopted generative AI and use it as a top source of self-guided information in every phase of their buying process. They're researching vendors, creating RFPs, comparing options, and validating decisions using AI before they ever talk to sales.

Which means the technical information that used to live in sales conversations needs to be accessible digitally, in formats that both humans and AI can find and process.

Manufacturers are rethinking what information needs to be available at each stage. Some have built configurators where engineers can spec options themselves. Others have created detailed comparison tools, technical documentation, pricing frameworks - content that helps buyers understand whether this is even relevant before they commit to a conversation.

The sales team still matters, but it gets involved later, when buyers actually need help with fit and implementation rather than basic information gathering.

What changes when information is accessible

I'm working with clients now where this shift is already happening. When buyers can access technical information independently, they arrive at sales conversations already informed. Quote cycles get shorter because there's less back-and-forth clarification. Sales teams spend time on opportunities that are actually serious because buyers have already done the initial qualification work themselves.

The pipeline looks different - smaller maybe, but much higher quality.

For manufacturers still running the old model, the gap is widening. McKinsey found that more than half of respondents will switch suppliers if they don't get a smooth experience across channels. That number rises to 65% for buyers they categorise as "seekers" - the ones actively researching options.

The questions worth asking are:

  • Where does marketing's job actually end?

  • What information do buyers need to move themselves forward through their research process?

  • At what point does a sales conversation become useful rather than premature?

  • Is your current handoff helping buyers get what they need, or creating friction they have to work around?

Because currently, for most manufacturers, the line between marketing and sales is drawn where it's convenient internally, not where it's useful for buyers.

Marketing generates leads and hands them to sales. Sales tries to have conversations with people who aren't ready yet. Buyers submit forms because they can't find information any other way, then disappear because they're still in research mode.

And the gap in between - where buyers do their research, compare options, and decide if this is relevant - belongs to neither function.

What growth-focused manufacturers know

The companies getting this right have moved that line:

  • Marketing's job extends beyond awareness into technical education and decision support

  • The handoff to sales moves later in the journey, after buyers have self-educated

  • Self-service access to technical information compresses quote cycles and improves qualification

  • Competitive advantage goes to manufacturers who make information accessible

  • Someone needs to own the gap between lead generation and sales conversations

They're not doing more marketing or better sales. They're redesigning where one function ends and the other begins, based on what buyers need rather than how functions are organised.

I work with New Zealand manufacturers navigating exactly these commercial capability questions - particularly companies with strong technical foundations looking to scale domestically or internationally. If this resonates, I'd welcome a conversation.

I also send a fortnightly update with commercial insights for manufacturing leaders – sign up here if that's useful.

Sources

Michelle Haynes
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