Buyer Behavior

Forrester: 81% of B2B Buyers Now Dissatisfied With Chosen Vendor

Forrester's State of Business Buying shows 81% of B2B buyers are dissatisfied with their chosen vendor and 86% of B2B purchases stall before close.

By The Pull Desk·Today·5 min read
Buyer Behavior

Forrester: 81% of B2B Buyers Now Dissatisfied With Chosen Vendor

The short version

THE SHORT VERSION: Forrester's State of Business Buying reports that 81 percent of B2B buyers are now dissatisfied with the vendor they eventually chose, and 86 percent of B2B purchase processes stall before signature. B2B buyer dissatisfaction has become the default post-purchase state, and it is now the largest single input to churn and expansion risk.

What happened

Forrester's latest State of Business Buying survey, cited across syndicated coverage this month, documents two numbers that reshape how founders should think about deal cycles. 86 percent of B2B purchases stall at some point in the buying journey, and among those that do close, 81 percent of buyers report dissatisfaction with the vendor they chose. Gartner's parallel research puts the reason in sharper focus: the modern B2B buying journey now spans 6 to 12 months in enterprise tech, involves 6 to 10 stakeholders per deal, and is roughly 70 percent complete before a buyer contacts a vendor. Gartner's May 2026 update also found 69 percent of B2B buyers now turn to a sales rep specifically to validate AI-generated insights rather than to gather new information.

Why B2B buyer dissatisfaction matters now

From the publisher

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An 81 percent dissatisfaction rate means the average B2B buyer walks into month one of a contract already regretting the choice. That regret shows up as slower onboarding, delayed expansion, harder reference calls, and higher renewal risk. For founders it means the sale is not the finish line, it is the beginning of a repair window. Vendors who use the first 60 days to close the gap between what the buyer thought they were getting and what they actually got will keep the account. Vendors who assume the signature is a mandate will lose it at renewal or watch the buying committee quietly evaluate replacements while paying the invoice.

  1. Audit your first 60 days of onboarding
    Map every touchpoint from close to day 60 and rate each on whether it reduces buyer regret or amplifies it. Kickoff decks that repeat the sales pitch amplify. Handovers that surface unresolved buying-committee questions reduce. Rebuild any touchpoint that scores neutral or negative.
  2. Interview five recent buyers about the gap
    Run 30-minute calls with buyers who signed in the last quarter and ask what they expected versus what they got. Rank the gaps by frequency, then hand the top three to product and marketing to fix. Buyers rarely churn on the top gap. They churn on the third or fourth one that quietly compounds.
  3. Rewrite your pitch around post-signature outcomes
    If 70 percent of the buying journey happens before you get a call, your pitch has to survive being retold internally by a champion. Replace feature lists with 90-day and 6-month outcome milestones a champion can quote verbatim in a buying-committee meeting.

By the numbers: Gartner's May 2026 research finds 45 percent of B2B buyers used AI tools during their most recent purchase, and 69 percent then called a sales rep specifically to validate what the AI told them.

What to do this week

Pull your last five signed contracts and schedule a 30-minute buyer interview on each. Ask what they thought they were buying, what they actually got, and where the gap is. Score every onboarding email and call script against the answers. Then load the top three fixable gaps into your CS tool of choice, whether that is Gainsight or a lightweight Notion board, and assign an owner with a two-week due date on each.

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