Picture the person evaluating your company right now. Very possibly, they already are. And if they aren’t today, the transition is closer than you think.
They research vendors the same way they book a flight: at night, on their phone, comparing options across four browser tabs. They want pricing information without a sales call. They want to know what other customers think before they talk to anyone on your team. They have already formed an opinion about your company — based on your website, your reviews, and how fast you responded to their last inquiry — before you’ve had a single conversation.
They are, very likely, already your most common type of B2B buyer — or about to become one.
Millennials and Gen Z now make up 71% of B2B buyers, according to Forrester.*1 LinkedIn’s 2025 B2B Buyer Report puts the millennial share alone at 73% of all B2B buyers, with 44% of final purchasing decisions being made by someone in that generation.*2
And nine out of ten of them — 90% of millennial and Gen Z buyers — report dissatisfaction with their vendors in at least one area. Compared to 71% of older buyers.*3 They are more likely to be unhappy, more likely to know they can find something better, and more likely to act on it. ShipperHQ found that 78% of millennial B2B buyers said they would switch suppliers if a competitor offered a faster, clearer, or more digital buying experience.*4
They already know what they want before they talk to you.
The shift that most B2B companies have not fully processed is simpler than the headlines suggest: the decision gets made before the conversation starts.
Younger B2B buyers — the ones now running procurement at construction firms, manufacturing companies, professional services firms, and logistics operations — consult an average of ten or more sources before engaging a vendor.*5 More than 50% rely primarily on external sources: peer reviews, LinkedIn, industry communities, and their personal networks. They arrive at the first sales conversation having already read your reviews, compared your pricing signals to two competitors, and decided whether your company feels credible.
If your website is slow, hard to navigate on mobile, or asks them to fill out a form just to see basic information, that evaluation ends before it starts. Not with a complaint. With a closed tab and a click on the next result.
Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report adds another piece to this: 68% of millennial B2B buyers prefer self-service research tools over speaking to a sales representative.*6 They are not avoiding your sales team because they distrust them. They are avoiding early contact because they trust their own research more, and they want to be educated before anyone tries to sell them.
The buying group is larger than it used to be — and less visible.
One more thing that has changed quietly: B2B purchase decisions now involve more people than they used to, and more of those people are outside the buying company entirely.
According to Sopro, buying groups among younger B2B decision-makers involve an average of 6.8 stakeholders — nearly double the 3.5 average for older buyers.*7 Forrester’s research adds that 30% of younger buyers involve ten or more people outside their organization in the decision process, including consultants, analysts, and peers in their professional networks.*8
This matters for two reasons. First, the person you reach is rarely the only person deciding. Second, the people you cannot reach — the ones comparing you in a Slack channel, asking in a LinkedIn group, or texting a colleague — are forming opinions about your company without your input. Your visibility in search results, the quality of your content, and what your existing clients say publicly are all doing marketing work that your sales team has no visibility into.
Three places where most B2B companies lose the younger buyer.
01
The website is built for the company, not the buyer.
Most B2B websites are organized around how the company thinks about itself: products, services, industries, about us. Younger buyers search with problems: “commercial HVAC contractor Boston,” “freight logistics software for mid-size manufacturers,” “B2B payment processing fees compared.” If the site does not meet those searches with clear, specific, mobile-optimized answers, it is not a marketing asset. It is a liability.
02
The response process assumes the buyer will wait.
A younger B2B buyer who fills out a contact form and receives a response in three business days has, in that window, evaluated two other vendors, watched a competitor’s product demo on YouTube, and read seven Google reviews. The response time does not just affect the deal — it signals everything about how you operate as a partner. Younger buyers read speed as competence.
03
The digital presence is invisible to anyone who didn’t arrive as a warm referral.
Referrals from trusted sources still close fastest in B2B — 73% of B2B executives prefer to work with vendors referred by someone they know.*9 But referrals do not replace search. They redirect it. When someone gets a referral to your company, their next move is to look you up. If your Google presence, reviews, LinkedIn page, and content are thin, the referral loses momentum. The trust your client built with their recommendation erodes the moment the buyer hits a weak digital footprint.
The construction company, the industrial supplier, the professional services firm — none of them are immune to this. The buyer evaluating your services next month is already operating this way. The question is whether your digital presence meets them where they are, or makes them work around it.
Who is evaluating your company right now
— and what are they finding?
Volp Agency
For more than five years, we’ve helped established businesses stop relying on referrals and build a predictable system for bringing in new clients — through targeted campaigns on Google and Meta that put your business in front of buyers who are already looking for what you sell.
*1 Forrester Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2023. Millennials and Gen Z constitute 71% of B2B buyers, up from 64% in the 2022 survey.
*2 LinkedIn 2025 B2B Buyer Report. Millennials make up 73% of all B2B buyers and hold 44% of final purchasing decision-making authority.
*3 Forrester press release, February 15, 2023. “Younger buyers are more demanding, with 90% citing dissatisfaction with their vendor in at least one area compared to 71% of older buyers.” — Amy Hayes, VP and Research Director, Forrester.
*4 ShipperHQ Millennials and B2B Buying Report. 78% of millennial B2B buyers said they would switch suppliers if a competitor offered faster delivery, clearer pricing, or a better digital checkout experience.
*5 Mezzanine Growth / multiple B2B sources, 2025. Younger B2B buyers consult at least 10 sources before making purchasing decisions.
*6 Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report. 68% of millennial B2B buyers prefer self-service research tools over speaking to a sales representative.
*7 Sopro B2B Buyer Statistics, 2025. Younger buying groups involve an average of 6.8 stakeholders vs. 3.5 for older buyers.
*8 Forrester Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2024 / Marketbridge. 30% of younger B2B buyers involve 10 or more people outside their organization in purchase decisions.
*9 Wynter / multiple B2B sources cited in Mezzanine Growth, 2025. 73% of B2B executives prefer working with vendors referred by someone they know.