Today’s B2B buying groups are bigger, more networked, and increasingly led by digital natives. In Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025, 64% of business buyers (manager level and above) were Millennials or Gen Zers. These buyers bring B2C expectations into B2B, do far more self-guided research, and have less patience for generic outreach — creating a measurable gap between how most organizations market and sell and how modern buying groups buy.
The recently published report, OK, Boomers And Digital Natives, Let’s Talk B2B Buyer Behavior Changes, highlights two breaking points created by digital native behavior. First, many modern buyers form opinions before engaging sellers — which forces sales to “catch up” to an educated buyer who may already have a shortlist. Second, modern buyers don’t want information drip-fed through outreach; their preference is that the content is readily available in the formats and channels they trust, unlike the buying behaviors of their Boomer and Gen X counterparts.
The report digs into the details and covers topics such as:
How to shift sales efforts from prospecting to buyer enablement. Spend more time on account understanding, buying group development, signal monitoring, and helping buyers validate what they’ve learned.
Modernizing first conversations. Replace generic brand-overview openings with plays designed for educated buyers — faster access to product expertise, clearer paths to pricing conversations, and content that addresses real implementation and value-realization questions.
Expanding marketing’s remit from “generate leads” to “earn the shortlist.” Digital natives want to understand what it will feel like to be a customer, how value is realized, and what support looks like — before they reach out.
Using your multigenerational team as an advantage. Establish a common language for the disconnects you’re seeing, then test and optimize new messaging, channels, and techniques together.
If your revenue engine still assumes that buyers want to talk early, consume information sequentially, and rely on sellers to educate them, this report will help you reset. Explore the data behind the generational shift, the resulting “process gap,” and the practical changes that marketing and sales teams can make to meet digital natives where they are.
