What is the Buyer Gap?

The Buyer Gap is the critical gap between knowing who matters in your deals—and who doesn't.

The tools we've bought over the years have been in an effort to close that gap. And while they helped with symptoms, none addressed the root cause.

The Universal Challenge in Complex Sales

Every sales organization faces the same invisible challenge

The Distance

Between who sellers contact and who actually controls the deal

The Blindspot

Between sales activity and true buyer influence

The Gap

Between knowing who matters in a deal—and who doesn't

Where Deals Get Stuck: Working the Wrong People

85%

Of top performers include Economic Buyers in their process

vs 8% of low performers¹
11.7

Average stakeholders involved in B2B purchasing decisions

2025 Gartner study²
18%

Of salespeople are classified by buyers as trusted advisors

Who buyers respect³

How the Buyer Gap Kills Deals

Real scenarios every sales professional recognizes

1

The "Champion" Who Wasn't

Sarah spent 6 months nurturing the VP of Operations who loved the demo. The deal was "95% closed" when procurement blocked it—Finance and the CFO had never been briefed. Her "champion" had no budget influence.

The Buyer Gap:

Activity with users ≠ Influence with decision makers

2

The Invisible Veto Power

Marcus mapped the org chart and got buy-in from IT, Security, and the CTO. Contract ready to sign when Legal raised data sovereignty concerns—a blocker with absolute veto power who never appeared in any org chart.

The Buyer Gap:

Org chart coverage ≠ Decision maker coverage

3

The Wrong Business Case

Jennifer built a compelling ROI case around operational efficiency. Unknown to her, the CEO's priority was customer experience, not efficiency. Her solution was seen as "nice to have" rather than "must have."

The Buyer Gap:

Stakeholder priorities ≠ Economic buyer priorities

The Research is Clear

Data from millions of opportunities and billions in pipeline

Buyer Behavior Study

Buyers prefer to engage sellers late in process57%
Say conversations with sellers offer no value6x more than 2018
Don't view sellers as valuable resource78%

⁴ Korn Ferry 2021 Buyer Preferences Study

Sales Performance Impact

Organizations seeing longer sales cycles43%
More opportunities lost to no decision44%
Face challenges from more decision makers84%

⁵ RAIN Group Global Sales Research

The Cost of the Buyer Gap

Based on analysis of 3.2 million opportunities:

$10M+

In lost revenue for typical enterprise companies due to misaligned buyer engagement

How the Buyer Gap Impacts Every Role

From the boardroom to the sales floor, everyone feels the pain

CEO/CRO Pain

  • • Forecasts consistently miss
  • • Pipeline conversion rates stagnant
  • • Sales cycles getting longer
  • • Win rates declining vs competition
  • • Revenue predictability broken

Sales Manager Pain

  • • Deals stalling in late stages
  • • "Sure thing" deals falling through
  • • Team missing quota repeatedly
  • • Unable to coach effectively
  • • Firefighting instead of strategizing

Sales Rep Pain

  • • Working deals that never close
  • • Surprised by late-stage objections
  • • Losing to "no decision"
  • • Can't access real decision makers
  • • Quota feels impossible

There's a Better Way

What if you could see the complete buyer group, understand the real decision-making process, and engage the right stakeholders from day one?

"86% of buyers say they're more likely to purchase when companies understand their goals, yet 59% of buyers say reps don't take the time to understand their business' unique challenges and objectives."

- Salesforce State of Sales Report 2024

References & Sources

¹ Ebsta Benchmark Report 2023: "State of Sales Performance" - Analysis of 850,000+ opportunities across 2,000+ sales organizations.View Report →
² Gartner 2025 B2B Buying Study: "Buying Group Complexity Report" - Latest analysis showing average of 11.7 stakeholders involved in enterprise B2B purchasing decisions.View Research →
³ Steve W. Martin Sales Research: "Buyer-Seller Relationship Study" published in Harvard Business Review.Search HBR Articles →
Korn Ferry Institute: "Buyer Preferences in the Digital Age" 2021 study of 2,300+ B2B buyers across enterprise organizations.View Research →
RAIN Group: "Top Performance in Sales Prospecting" - Global sales research study analyzing 42,000+ sales professionals.Access Research →
Adrata Analysis: Revenue impact modeling based on 3.2M+ opportunities from enterprise sales organizations (2022-2024).Methodology available upon request.