In industrial B2B, more deals are decided before any real sales conversation begins than most teams expect.
From the supplier’s side, the process still looks familiar: a sales rep reaches out, meetings are scheduled, requirements are discussed, proposals are submitted. On paper, it looks like a live opportunity. The conversations go well, and then somehow the deal goes elsewhere.
Before you chalk it up to pricing or how the sales process was handled, it’s worth asking a different question: when did the buyer start forming a preference, and were you visible at that point?
How the industrial B2B buying journey works now
The selection phase used to rely heavily on referrals. A prospect would realise they needed something, ask around for recommendations, and reach out to whoever felt like the best fit. Relatively straightforward. Today, it looks a lot different.
According to 6sense’s 2025 Buyer Experience Report, the selection phase makes up the first 60% of the buying journey, during which buying groups collect information, explore options, and build a shortlist of potential partners, often with a clear favourite already forming. The final 40%, the validation phase, is when they reach out to the suppliers they’ve already pre-selected.
Where the real competition takes place
90% of B2B buyers turn to online channels as their primary way to find new suppliers. (Sopro B2B Buyer Statistics 2025) That research happens on LinkedIn, on Google, through industry publications, peer recommendations, and analyst reports. It happens when your salespeople are asleep. It happens across teams and committees, frequently without any outbound trigger from your side.
In this environment, your strongest competitor isn’t the one with the best pitch or the most aggressive cold caller, but the one showing up in the research consistently. The one with credible content. The one that looks established and trustworthy when a prospect is doing their homework.
Think about it this way: would you buy a laptop from a website last updated in 2015, whose entire social footprint is a half-hearted Christmas post from last year? We dare to assume not.
How to compete in the selection phase
Most industrial companies are aware of this shift. The challenge is that building visibility during the research phase doesn’t fit neatly into a sales budget or a quarterly target, so it tends to get deprioritised in favour of things that feel more immediate. The result is a pipeline that depends almost entirely on luck: catching the right buyer at the right moment with outbound.
There’s a more reliable way to approach it. Being present, credible, and useful before anyone’s ready to buy means that when the selection phase begins, you’re already in the picture. Three things need to be in place to make that happen.
1. Foundation: clarity on who you’re actually trying to reach
Have you done the work to define your ICP, aka Ideal Customer Profile, yet? Without that clarity, you end up trying to be visible to everyone, which can mean invisible to everyone who matters. Your website, your socials, your content, and your outreach all need to point at the same specific audience. If a prospect can’t immediately see themselves in what you put out there, they won’t stick around long enough to become a lead.
2. Content that lives in your prospects’ minds
Publishing a blog post and hoping for the best is one approach. A more effective one is creating content that answers the actual questions buyers are asking during the 60% phase: industry trends they’re worried about, operational challenges they’re trying to solve, technical questions they’re debating internally. If you’re visible when they’re searching for those answers, you’re already part of their thinking before they’ve even identified a need for a new supplier.
3. Consistent presence on the channels where they’re looking
For industrial B2B, this usually means LinkedIn, your website, and the industry publications your buyers read, though it varies by sector. What’s important is showing up consistently, not sporadically. One LinkedIn post a month or a brand video shot in the last decade won’t cut it. Your target audience needs to see your company regularly enough that when the time comes to build a shortlist, your name is already familiar.
The companies winning now started doing this two or three years ago. They don’t necessarily work harder on the sales calls or have lower prices, they just understood that the game had shifted and acted accordingly. If your competitors are pulling ahead, chances are they’re simply more visible where your buyers are doing their research. Naturally, outbound and in-person networking still generate a lot of opportunities, but the quality of those conversations changes considerably when they’re backed by solid brand visibility.
***
Your buyers are researching someone right now. Let’s make sure they find you. Reach out to Blackhole Media.