Your prospective customers don’t want to talk to you.
At least, not for a while.
According to a study by 6sense, over 70% of the buyer journey now happens before a prospect ever makes contact with a business. There’s no denying the fundamental shake-up to the buying process we’ve known up to this point, and it’s arguably being driven by three primary factors.
Modern technology is such that much of our lives — once grounded in face-to-face interactions — now unfolds entirely in digital spaces. We socialise, seek entertainment, and shop for all kinds of goods and services through the screens of our mobile phones.
Truthfully, it’s becoming increasingly less likely that people will use their phones as phones, in the conventional sense; A 2024 survey by Uswitch revealed that 25% of individuals aged 18 to 34 have never answered a phone call, often opting to ignore incoming calls or respond via text. What’s more, 61% of this age group said they preferred texting over calling. What this adds up to is a customer base of people who are less willing to pick up the phone and speak with a sales rep.
In place of human interactions, the growing sophistication of search engines – and the rise of AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Siri and Alexa – has begun actively changing how buyers discover information, form opinions, and make purchasing decisions — often without ever needing to speak directly to a supplier, or only doing so when they’re almost ready to make a purchase.
For businesses that rely on their quick-thinking sales teams to work their magic and elevate their brand above competitors, this shift in culture makes the sales process a little tricky to navigate, but we feel this shouldn’t be seen as a threat – more of an opportunity.
With a little foresight and flexibility to shake up strategies in SEO and content, the potential rewards found in this new buying behaviour could prove to be beneficial – to everyone – in the long run.
In this article, we explore how AI and search are changing buyer behaviour and, most importantly, how your SEO and content strategy can adapt with it to stay visible, relevant, and competitive.
How Buyer Behaviour Has Evolved
Historically, sales teams were the Great Gatekeepers of information. Buyers would reach out early in their purchasing process, seeking advice, clarification, and guidance that would help them define their needs and compare options.
This put the salesperson in control of the narrative, allowing them to educate, inform, pitch products and subtly influence the decision-making process…ideally in favour of their own solutions.
Today, the power has shifted.
Buyers are acting with far greater independence — researching problems, solutions and providers with much more autonomy using search engines, AI tools and extensive browsing of supplier websites. They gather, verify, and refine information — comparing products, reviews and competitors with minimal supplier involvement.
For the most part, they now only contact suppliers once they have narrowed their choices and are nearly ready to buy.
Reinforcing this, research from Gartner reveals that B2B buyers now spend just 17% of their journey meeting with suppliers, while Salesforce reports that over half of consumers now use AI to research products and services before engaging with a brand.
In this, it’s reasonable to suggest that your first – perhaps even only – opportunity to make a great first impression comes through your on-site content and search presence. If your business is invisible or your messaging unclear during these early research stages, you may find yourself out of the running before you’ve even left the starting block.
Adapting To Support Today’s Buyers
Visibility in Search Is Vital
As AI and user expectations develop, so too does Google’s (other search engines’) methods for evaluating websites.
Modern search engines — especially those with AI-driven features like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) — prioritise content that directly answers user intent, rather than simply matching keywords. Keywords haven’t lost their importance, but there are now greater forces at play when it comes to topping the charts of search.
Without adapting their websites to deliver complete, transparent, and high-quality information, businesses risk being excluded from AI-powered featured results. This may also lead to reduced visibility in the organic rankings, as search engines favour sites that better satisfy user queries. What’s more, content may be summarised or bypassed entirely by AI tools, without ever driving users to the site.
Traditional SEO techniques may form the foundation of our business here at Brick, but we recognise that businesses cannot rely on these alone. Content needs to both rank well and be structured to survive summarisation — delivering value to such degree that either search engines choose it for top visibility, or users actively seek it out beyond AI summaries.
Given the new realities of buyer behaviour, we’d recommend a few adaptations to stay ahead of the curve.
Lead with Transparency
Modern buyers expect to find clear, direct answers online — without having to speak to anyone.
On-site content should openly share:
- Pricing (or at least have clear pricing structures)
- How your service or product works, step-by-step
- Timelines, processes, and what customers can realistically expect
- Limitations or situations where your solution might not be the best fit
Transparency builds trust, but it’s now a key factor of your website’s discoverability. Search engines increasingly favour content that satisfies user intent fully and honestly.
Structure Content for Search and AI
The way content is consumed is changing. Increasingly, AI platforms summarise, extract, and recommend information, delivering “cliff notes” to users and, in many cases, negating the need for further exploration on multiple sites.
To stay competitive in this new method of delivery:
- Write clear, structured content with logical headings and question-led formats.
- Use schema markup to make your content machine-readable and AI-friendly.
- Optimise for direct answers, not just keyword inclusion.
- Focus on depth and authority: build resources that position your site as the best source for a complete, trustworthy answer.
We’ve found, increasingly, that well-structured and intent-driven content now outperforms keyword-stuffed pages — and it’s our belief that this will only become more important in the years ahead.
Go Beyond Basic Information
Since buyers already complete much of their research independently, we’d suggest on-site content build that builds on and enhances their existing knowledge, rather than simply repeat facts they already know.
This might include:
- Deep dives into complex questions and nuanced challenges
- Original research, industry-specific insights, or exclusive guides
- Thought leadership that explores “what’s next” beyond the obvious
There’s no faster way to convince someone to click on another website than giving the consumer the impression that they know more than you do, so it’s best to take things one step further. Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) principles reward content that showcases real expertise, beyond the basics. There are multiple routes to success, of course, but we’d say that depth, nuance, and credibility are key differentiators in modern SEO.
4. Expand Your Content Beyond Your Website
Consumers today aren’t just finding answers via company websites — they discover brands through all manner of methods, including (but not limited to) voice search, featured snippets, AI-assisted recommendations and, of course, YouTube and other social media formats.
For an SEO strategy to succeed, we’d advise approaches that cater, as best possible, to matching these methods of discovery – meeting buyers wherever and however they choose to search. The approach to this can look very different, depending on your industry, but there are some tried-and-true methods baked into SEO practises that can get the ball rolling.
Sales and Marketing’s New Power Balance
The traditional model of B2B sales placed the burden of persuasion on the sales team. Marketing was often viewed as the opening act – generating awareness and a few warm leads – while sales carried the weight of educating, building trust, and closing deals.
As we’ve identified, that balance has shifted.
In the current state of things, where buyers complete up to 70% of their journey independently, the front-loading of trust, education and persuasion now falls to marketing. This means marketing teams are doing a substantial chunk of work once reserved for sales, through content, SEO, brand experience, and digital visibility. Sales teams, in many cases, now enter the conversation only once a prospect is well-informed and ready to make a decision.
This change doesn’t quash the need for skilled sales professionals – far from it. Instead, the role of a sales professional has evolved into something more complex.
What Sales Needs to Do Differently Now
Act as Trusted Advisors, Not Product Pitchers
As we’ve established, by the time a prospect reaches out, they’ve likely already formed strong opinions based on what they’ve read or watched online. Sales must validate and guide their perceptions, rather than trying to persuade from scratch.
Collaborate Closely With Marketing
Sales teams should feed real-world buyer objections, questions, and needs back into the content strategy. This tight loop ensures marketing creates material that genuinely prepares buyers.
Leverage Content Within the Sales Process
Use tailored content to reinforce conversations – case studies, ROI calculators, video explainers, etc. The job of sales is increasingly one of curating the right content, not just talking through a slide deck.
Be Ready to Close, Sooner
When buyers reach out, they’re often closer to a decision than traditional pipelines suggest. Sales must be equipped to move fast, with pricing, proposals, and onboarding details ready to go.
What It Means for Strategy
Ultimately, we’ve seen, first-hand, that businesses benefit when they stop thinking of SEO and content as mere lead-generation tools, and instead view them as the first — and sometimes most important — stages of the sales process. Visibility is no longer just about clicks, but about qualifying and educating prospects long before sales discussions enter the picture.
As we see it, the more your content answers questions, addresses objections, and demonstrates value, the smoother and shorter your sales cycle becomes. In a society where buyers may never want to speak to a human until they’re ready to seal the deal, being prepared for their arrival is key.
Key Takeaways
Despite the transition to a predominantly digital domain, the human element of the sales process isn’t disappearing outright…but it is happening later. The modern buyer, now able to sell to themselves through extensive research, only seeks conversation when they’re ready to seal the deal. In this, it makes sense that on-and off-site marketing strategies should carry more weight, and sales must meet prospects where they are: informed, empowered, and already halfway to a decision.
