Introduction
It is clear that B2B buying groups are now self-reliant in the early stages of their buyer’s journey, often progressing independently before engaging with sales teams. While they still rely on sales support later in the funnel, today’s buyers value a self-paced approach, allowing them to explore options on their terms.
B2B buyers engage with vendors almost 70% through their research—a point when 85% of them have already determined their requirements. This means that most brand discovery happens through interaction with a brand’s digital and offline channels (6sense, 2024). This highlights the continued trend of buyers adopting a defensive stance, especially in their interactions with sales teams, a phenomenon already observed in Outlook 2024.
In 2025, establishing a client-centric demand generation strategy will be key to “imprinting your brand” and matching the preferences of current B2B buying groups, securing advantageous positioning in this complex decision making process.
Staying top of mind will require a carefully orchestrated brand experience that naturally integrates into the buyer’s journey. A flexible, non-prescriptive approach is crucial for building lasting relationships among these defensive buyers to foster brand advocacy.
Buyers seek a brand experience that is unique and mindful—and recognizes the importance of truly enabling buyers to find the right solution for their challenges.
This Outlook 2025 article explores strategies to foster buyer advocacy through client-centric demand generation.
“The future of demand generation lies in crafting authentic experiences that deliver value in every interaction, empowering buyers to navigate their own path toward a purchase.”
INFUSE
How to create a non-prescriptive journey that enables buyers
Developing a non-prescriptive journey requires a nuanced understanding of the behavior of each buying group member, as well as their individual and collective pain points. This is essential for crafting a nurturing experience that enables learning throughout the sales funnel, rather than encouraging buyers to follow a strict, linear path.
Therefore, interpreting and acting upon buyer learning patterns throughout the entirety of the sales funnel is more important than limiting the focus on tactics for specific stages, such as the progression from the top of the funnel to the middle.
Strategizing your brand-to-demand experience with an educational and consultative sales approach is paramount for matching the expectations of B2B buyers in 2025.
The three steps below seek to crystallize the unique value proposition (UVP) of your brand, via a self-paced journey that encourages buying groups to learn more about your offerings.
“Empowering key stakeholders within buying groups with knowledge, rather than pushing them through a process, will define B2B success in 2025.”
INFUSE
“Delivering a compelling buyer experience requires moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. Organizations must leverage their understanding of the unique behaviors and pain points of each buying group member to create a nurturing journey that empowers learning and flexibility, rather than forcing a rigid, linear path.”
INFUSE
#1 Make your offerings clear
Efficient productization will communicate the UVP of offerings succinctly, which is key in marketplaces with multiple competitors and noise.
Assigning clear names, feature sets, and unique visuals per product, allows offerings to be assimilated naturally by buyers in their self-paced journeys. The idea is to develop awareness of brand value through consistency.
#2 Strategize self-paced buyer discovery
The support of sales, events, and additional GTM motions is necessary to ensure that a brand is acknowledged as a potential solution.
Buying groups navigate a myriad of digital channels daily, placing them under pressure to filter through the noise to enable growth for their organizations. Brands seeking to succeed in this crowded environment must aim to decrease the complexity of the buying process.
Therefore, develop outreach that enables buyers to save time in their decision making process by effectively addressing knowledge gaps and de-risking solutions.
The framework below helps establish a self-paced journey for decision makers:
Recommendations for clear B2B productization:
- Create cohesive branding for all offerings across all channels
- A/B test product copy and visuals deployed on owned channels
- Conduct surveys to inform marketing, sales, and product development efforts
- Develop content that addresses common questions buyers have at each buying stage
- Craft lead nurturing that enables self-discovery through multiple channels
“In a self-paced buyer’s journey, the challenge is standing out without overwhelming decision makers. Success lies in guiding buyers through well-timed touchpoints, not adding to the noise they navigate daily.”
INFUSE
#3 Refine the brand experience via 4 pillars
To fuel your self-paced channel strategy, it is essential to refine your brand experience to ensure client centricity and buyer enablement. This, in turn, will result in greater brand awareness, perception, and loyalty.
To aid this process, structure your brand experience around four pillars. This not only sustains your brand but also the delivery of relevant and timely interactions with buyers throughout their journeys.
These four pillars are:
- Account Based Experience (ABX): To engage all buying group members at target accounts with personalized and relevant outreach
- Brand-to-demand: To establish a framework for generating long-term demand with your branding efforts
- Client success (CS): To support clients after a sale and encourage upsells and referrals, as well as build a pool of brand evangelists
- Consultative sales: To engage decision makers at the crucial middle (MOFU) and bottom (BOFU) stages of the sales funnel, addressing relevant pain points and securing favorable positioning
The framework below lists the steps to execute each pillar of this brand experience, and ensure a cohesive buyer’s journey for your key stakeholders:
“Creating a brand experience that truly resonates with the entirety of buying groups requires a commitment to understanding their needs and delivering value.”
INFUSE
“Exceptional brand experiences center every touchpoint on client needs and buyer enablement. By activating pillars like ABX, brand-to-demand strategies, client success, and consultative sales, brands can drive awareness, loyalty, and lasting demand.”
INFUSE
INFUSE buyer enablement example: Personalized content hub
Below is an example of a demand generation strategy developed and launched by our demand experts to engage key stakeholders for a leading Cloud provider based in APAC.
“Empowering buyers means simplifying their journey and equipping them with the right information to make confident decisions. By creating tailored content hubs that address specific challenges and speak directly to each persona's needs, you not only remove friction from the buying process but also build trust and alignment within buying groups.”
INFUSE
“Driving engagement requires crafting demand generation content that resonates with each persona's unique challenges. Personalized content hubs activated with strategic nurturing empower buyers to explore solutions at their own pace, fostering trust and clarity throughout the buying process.”
INFUSE
Key takeaways
When planning your client-centric demand generation strategy, consider these key takeaways to enable your buying groups:
- Deliver rich experiences to engage defensive buying groups: Organizations must implement client-centric demand generation to favor self-paced buyer journeys and facilitate brand discovery
- Align teams to fuel personalized strategies: Delivering memorable experiences and personalization relies on collaboration across marketing, sales, and client success teams to launch high-level strategies (such as ABX)
- Build relationships by demonstrating commitment to buyer needs: By monitoring engagement and buyer behavior throughout the sales funnel, organizations can gain valuable insights into pain points. Adopting a nurturing, consultative approach that addresses buyer challenges establishes a solid foundation for client retention and advocacy across the entire buying group
LAUNCH CLIENT-CENTRIC DEMAND GENERATION THAT ENGAGES DEFENSIVE BUYERS
INFUSE demand experts can design, launch, and optimize a buyer’s journey custom-tailored to the needs of your target buying groups—empowering you to generate long-term demand and achieve your growth objectives
Contact the team to craft your client-centric demand strategy and drive qualified engagement
