Guest post by Stefan Kalpachev.
By the time a B2B buyer agrees to a first call, most of the deciding is done. Around 4,000 buyers took part in the 6sense 2025 Buyer Experience Report, and on average they reached out to a vendor about 61% of the way through their journey.
By then the shortlist is usually settled. The winning vendor was already on the day-one shortlist 95% of the time, and four deals in five went to the vendor the buyer favored before speaking to anyone.
Buyers also seem happy to keep it that way. Two in three would rather skip the rep altogether: 67% said so in a Gartner survey out in March 2026.



