Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Your Buyers Have Already Shortlisted You—Or They Haven't

Wed, Sep 2, 2026 | Posted by Sabrina Donley

Executive Takeaways

95% of B2B buyers purchase from the vendors on their initial shortlist, formed before any formal buying process begins.
That shortlist is increasingly built inside AI platforms your analytics can't see.
AI referral traffic is roughly 1% of total website traffic, yet 15% or more of conversions appear to originate from AI-influenced research, a gap standard attribution misses entirely.
If you're not on the Day One list, spend alone won't fix it.

Part 3 of our four-part series on the evolving AI search landscape and what B2B leaders need to know to stay competitive.

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Seven Considerations in Evaluating your Marketing and Sales Process

Sun, Jun 23, 2013 — I just finished reading several books that come at the changes in the marketing and sales process from different perspectives. Launch by Michael Stelzner, discusses how to use social media to grow your brand and your business. It includes some very pragmatic tools and examples for the marketing crowd. I highly recommend it as a primer for anyone interested in how to optimize their social media efforts. Sales Shift by Frank Belzer presents how the buying process has changed and how it will continue to evolve. Of particular interest is Belzer’s discussion of why sales skills that have worked in the past will no longer be effective going forward. When considering the combination of these two perspectives, the transformation of the commercialization process is significant.

Growth Insights for CEOs

Your Buyers Have Already Shortlisted You—Or They Haven't

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Seven Considerations in Evaluating your Marketing and Sales Process

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