Selecting a B2B vendor is no longer just about checking boxes on a feature list, it’s about finding a partner who can navigate complex terrain with you. Today’s buyers prioritize trust and deep industry knowledge over flashy technical specifications.
Driven by market noise and the swift adoption of generative AI, many vendors struggle to prove their worth before they even reach the negotiation table.
To cut through this complexity, we sat down with Ganesh Shankar, Co-founder and CEO of Responsive, to dissect the findings from the company’s What Shapes B2B Decisions report. This research pulls back the curtain on the modern buyer’s mindset, revealing why industry expertise has overtaken innovation as the top priority and how AI is rewriting the rules of discovery.
Demand Gen Report (DGR): Ganesh, thanks for your time. Let’s start here: why is industry expertise the top priority for B2B buyers in 2026?
Ganesh Shankar: Thanks for having me. Simply put, buyers need vendors that understand their terrain above any spec sheet or feature comparison in order to deliver the most value. Whether you’re looking for a partner to help orchestrate a cloud migration, secure your networks against particular threats, or outsource critical design elements for a new product, a vendor that doesn’t know their stuff, can’t empathize with your situation, or lean on experience in the given field, can be worse than no vendor at all.
Expertise showing up as the top priority in final decisions reflects a fundamental shift in buyer behavior, beyond simply evaluating products to a greater emphasis on domain awareness, operational context, and understanding of critical challenges. When vendors demonstrate deep sector knowledge, they signal competence in navigating the unique complexities buyers face, making them more trustworthy choices for high-stakes decisions.
DGR: How do request for proposal (RFP) responses influence 81% of B2B decisions, and what makes them effective?
Shankar: Our research shows that even though 61% buyers have a favorite going into the RFP process, more than half say they’re open to switching from their initial preference. And the RFP was the top factor shaping decisions.
It’s not just that RFPs have an influence. Buyers respond best when vendors make an effort to build a relationship early in the process and understand the specific needs. The most impactful responses demonstrate an understanding of a buyer’s priorities, provide relevant examples and proof points, and tell a coherent story throughout the evaluation process. There is no better way to show differentiation, capabilities, and understanding of the space than through tailored RFP responses, and no better way for buyers to compare prospective vendors than by this standardized tool.
DGR: What role does independent research play in shaping B2B decisions?
Shankar: It was the third most influential factor after RFP responses and vendor presentations cited by buyers as carrying major weight in their decisions.
As a consumer, I wouldn’t make a major purchase decision without actively seeking validation through third-parties or user reviews. The difference at the enterprise level is simply scale. Buyers are conducting due diligence through third-party sources, peer networks, analyst reports, and online research to verify claims and uncover information vendors might not voluntarily share.
For vendors, this means the buyer’s perception is being shaped by more and more touchpoints, making it essential to ensure consistency across all discoverable content, from websites to review platforms to case studies.
GenAI Impact
DGR: How does proof of concept impact B2B buying decisions?
Shankar: While slightly less influential than the response itself, proof of concept remains a key trust-building mechanism, particularly for complex or high-stakes purchases where the cost of selecting the wrong vendor is high.
Three in four buyers indicated that proof of concept makes a notable impact on decisions. So, the importance of conveying that a solution can deliver in the buyer’s specific environment still shapes a large portion of the final selection. It bridges the gap between promises and performance before committing, something many buyers are struggling with identifying in the current era of AI.
DGR: How has the increased use of GenAI tools transformed the B2B buying process? How are these tools being used in the discovery, evaluation, and supplier engagement stages?
Shankar: The adoption of GenAI has been swift. We’ve seen its proliferation in consumer practice but it’s becoming the norm in B2B buying. Nearly two-thirds of B2B buyers now use GenAI more than traditional search in order to be more efficient when evaluating vendors, and 80% use it at least as much as traditional search. Vendors need to adapt. If you aren’t showing up well online, your chances of getting left out increase.
Our research also shows that about half of buyers use AI for drafting vendor questionnaires and conducting broader market research, while growing numbers apply it to supplier engagement. More specifically, AI is being used in the stages that can bog things down the most, such as initial vendor discovery.
This transformation extends beyond simple search replacement. More than 4 in 10 buyers say AI has made it easier to compare vendors, reduce the number of RFPs issued, or help surface new vendors they wouldn’t have otherwise found, allowing for more opportunities for the vendors that optimize for AI search.
DGR: Why are buyers conducting research before first contact, and how does this affect vendor strategies?
Shankar: When asked how much they know about a vendor before first contact, only 10% of buyers do minimal research. Over a third conduct moderate research, 37% conduct thorough comparisons and competitor analyses, and 18% do extensive due diligence before ever reaching out. Needless to say, there’s a high likelihood that buyers will be more than familiar with your offering going into first contact than they used to be.
This pattern reflects buyers’ desire to control the evaluation process, arrive informed at negotiations, and avoid wasting time on unsuitable vendors. In the U.S., for example, only 3% of organizations engage vendors with just a little knowledge, and among enterprise buyers, 30% conduct extensive deep dives up front.
For vendors, this means it’s dangerous to assume minimal knowledge on the buyer side. It also means traditional outbound selling is less effective. Organizations need to ensure their value proposition, differentiators, and trust signals are discoverable during independent research, as first impressions are often formed long before any conversation occurs.
Building Buyer Relationships
DGR: What are the implications of buyers actively filtering vendors early in the process?
Shankar: This means it’s more important than ever for vendors to be ahead of the curve, build relationships with potential buyers and capture their interest through proactively sharing valuable information. While most buyers start with a long list of five to eight vendors, that narrows quickly as more than half shortlist just three or fewer vendors. Add to that an increasing reliance on AI-driven filtering, and companies that don’t put in the work ahead of time risk missing out on making the lists entirely.
This early-stage behavior also sets the tone for everything that follows. If an organization doesn’t surface in this phase or fails to impress, they may never make it to the table at all. Vendors must optimize for discoverability and initial impact rather than assuming there will be opportunities to recover from weak first impressions. Public-facing content needs to be curated, accurate, and consistent.
DGR: How do pricing and cost structure compare to innovation in influencing buyer decisions?
Shankar: Pricing sits just above innovation when it comes to what matters most in vendor selection. While both carry substantial weight, these days they are largely considered table stakes that must be competitive but are insufficient on their own to win deals.
We’re seeing that result in an increase to the relative weight tied to industry expertise, indicating that demonstrating sector knowledge provides more differentiation than either cost advantages or innovative features alone.
Expertise Matters
DGR: Why is market research and discovery the biggest challenge for B2B buyers?
Shankar: There is so much noise in the market. When asked which parts of the buying journey take the most time, market research and discovery topped the list at 75%, followed by evaluating and shortlisting vendors at 61%, then supplier engagement and decision-making both at 55%.
The discovery phase presents unique challenges because it’s inherently open-ended as buyers must identify potential vendors, understand capabilities across multiple solutions, assess maturity, and filter options without full visibility into what’s available. Unlike later stages where there are defined evaluation criteria, discovery requires broad exploration— often by buyers that don’t know exactly what to search for— across fragmented sources, making it both time-intensive and difficult to optimize.
It’s no coincidence that AI is gaining traction in these stages as a result. Nearly half of respondents said they are currently using AI for these more time-intensive parts of the cycle and are expected to further increase AI usage for these tasks in the year ahead.
DGR: Why does personalization carry less weight compared to industry expertise in B2B decisions?
Shankar: Despite the buzz around personalization, fewer than a third of buyers gave it significant weight. This finding challenges common assumptions about what drives B2B decisions.
The gap likely reflects that buyers distinguish between surface-level personalization and substantive expertise that demonstrates genuine understanding of their business environment like the tailoring of responses I mentioned before. While personalization may improve engagement, it doesn’t substitute for deep sector knowledge of regulatory requirements, competitive dynamics, operational challenges, and industry-specific use cases.
Buyers are looking for partners who know their world, can deliver on core needs, and inspire confidence. Personalization alone doesn’t demonstrate that competence. Industry expertise does.
