Why most B2B marketing makes buying harder, not easier

In enterprise B2B, losing a deal rarely comes down to product capability.

More often, it comes down to confidence.

In a recent talk at Industry Dive’s CMO Summit, Adam Komack, VP of Enterprise GTM at monday.com, and Mimi Turner, Head of Marketplace Innovation at LinkedIn, explored a powerful idea: most B2B marketing tries to help buyers evaluate products, but it fails to help them justify their decision.

And in enterprise buying, justification is everything.

Here are the key takeaways.

1. Enterprise buying is emotional, political, and deeply human

Enterprise decisions are not purely technical comparisons. They are career-defining bets.

As Adam put it, the real question buyers are asking is:

“Do I trust this company enough to bet my career on them?”

Thousands of buying cycles show that sellers rarely lose because the product does not work. They lose because the decision is not defensible internally.

B2B buyers must be able to:

• Defend the decision to leadership
  
• Align stakeholders across teams
  
• Navigate internal politics
  
• Protect themselves if something goes wrong
  

That emotional weight is often missing from marketing strategies focused purely on features and ROI.

2. The #1 emotional job of B2B buyers is defensibility

LinkedIn and Bain & Company surveyed more than 750 enterprise buyers to understand what drives confidence in final vendor selection.

The top emotional drivers included:

• Confidence the solution will work
  
• Confidence they can manage bumps in the road
  
• Confidence the internal group is aligned
  
• Confidence the decision is easy to make

But the number one factor was clear:

Buyers want to choose a decision they can defend if it goes wrong.

This insight reframes how marketers should think about messaging. Once a vendor is on the shortlist, product differentiation matters less than organizational safety.

Enterprise buying is defensive by nature.

Marketing must help buyers feel protected, not just persuaded.

3. Trust now outweighs traditional brand signals

The research revealed something surprising.

The strongest drivers of “buyability” were not category leadership, awards, or even expert recommendations.

The top five attributes influencing purchase decisions were relational:

• Working styles that match the buyer’s own
  
• Recommendations from similar customers
  
• Recommendations from trusted colleagues
  
• A clear focus on companies like theirs
  
• A strategic partnership mindset
  

In other words, buyers choose companies that feel compatible.

People buy from people whose working styles match their own. That alignment must be made explicit.

At monday.com, we operationalized this insight in a creative way. Instead of showcasing product features at an event, they recreated their office environment inside a pop-up experience. The goal was not “come see the product,” but “come experience how we work.”

It was a tangible demonstration of partnership and culture, not a product demo.

4. AI is reshaping how buyers discover vendors

The traditional awareness-to-consideration funnel is eroding.

AI discovery tools and large language models are shifting influence from search engine optimization to what Mimi described as credibility optimization.

When buyers ask AI tools for recommendations, what surfaces is not keyword density. It is reputational surface area:

• Human voices
  
• Customer validation
  
• Expert commentary
  
• Use-case specificity
  
• Consistent, credible signals
  

This changes the marketer’s job.

Discovery is now driven by proof, not promotion.

The vendors that win are those whose credibility lives across networks, relationships, and trusted voices.

5. From awareness to viability

The traditional model optimized for awareness, familiarity, and repetition as proxies for preference.

But buyers no longer move in linear journeys.

Buyers enter the process with specific contextual pain points. They look for proof that a vendor will work for their situation.

This is where the concept of buyability or viability comes in.

Rather than stitching together fragmented KPIs across brand and demand, organizations should align sales, marketing, and finance around:

• Identifying priority buyer groups
  
• Building advocacy from relatable customers
  
• Increasing credibility across networks
  
• Measuring influence within the full buying group
  

Viability focuses on making the decision safe inside the organization, not just attractive on paper.

6. Make buyers feel safe, supported, and recognized

At monday.com, the enterprise GTM strategy centers on three principles:

1. Ensure buyers feel confident the decision is correct and defensible.
   
2. Help them secure internal stakeholder support.
   
3. Position them to be recognized and rewarded for the impact the decision creates.
   

When buyers feel protected, aligned, and empowered, the deal becomes easier to close.

Enterprise buyers do not just need proof that your product works. They need proof that choosing you will not put their credibility at risk.

In an AI-driven, relationship-powered buying landscape, trust is the ultimate differentiator.

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