95% of your buyers aren't ready
And why you should factor it into your GTM
I first encountered Chet Holmes' Buyer Pyramid when I read his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine (see viusal below).
Early in my career, it completely changed how I approached marketing.
But before we get into the specifics, what does this really mean?
Holmes’ Stadium Pitch emphasizes engaging the entire audience of potential buyers, not just the 3% ready to buy now, but the larger 97% who aren’t yet in market.
It’s now known as the 95:5 rule (out-of-market vs. in-market buyers), popularized by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, though the exact ratio may vary depending on your category.
What's the big deal?
Holme’s approach was different because it focused on building long-term brand awareness, not just chasing “quick wins”, ensuring your brand stays top of mind when buyers are ready to buy.
And that shapes your entire GTM.
Here’s why:
As the graph shows, focusing on short-term strategies like demand capture and lead generation helps you reach the 5% of B2B buyers who are actively buying.
But sooner than later, you’ll hit a growth plateau.
Because you're only targeting the small percentage of in-market buyers, which means you eventually run out of ready customers.
That’s why you also need to invest in long-term strategies like brand marketing and demand creation to make you the easy choice for the remaining 95% that enter the market at a later date.
And here’s the kicker- they actually work better together. Long-term strategies also help you drive short-term results.
To make a long story short, striking a healthy balance between short- and long-term strategies, depending on your stage of growth, is key to sustainable growth.
Not all buyers are created equal
95% of your buyers aren’t just an “unconvinced” audience.
They’re not in the market for three main reasons:
They don't have a problem
They are not aware of problem you solve
They have a problem, but don’t prioritize solving it
Which means that if your marketing is aimed at convincing them, it’ll simply go ignored.
And that’s where the opportunity lies.
What works with this audience is consistently building and refreshing brand awareness and creating demand. Simply put, you want to educate them about who you are, what you do, why you’re different, and why they should choose you.
And here’s the thing:
You can’t force them into the market. You can’t control their timeline. But, by building that awareness, your brand will be top of mind when they decide to make a move.
To illustrate my point, just take a look at these stats: B2B buyers often make a list of vendors for consideration before even starting the search process. According to research by Bain & Company, 80%–90% of buyers already have a set of vendors in mind before they do any research, and 90% of them will ultimately choose a vendor from that initial list.
What about measurement?
Without diving too deep into the details, I'll just say this:
Traditional metrics like conversion rates or ROI work well for measuring short-term strategies, but they won’t fully capture the impact of your long-term efforts.
In fact, measuring long-term strategies requires a different mindset.
It’s about tracking metrics like brand recognition and recall, share of voice (SOV), engagement over time, branded search, and direct traffic, to name a few. These metrics give you a clearer picture of how well your GTM strategy is building future demand while complementing your short-term efforts.
It’s not just about closing deals today, though that’s important, but also ensuring your brand stays relevant and top of mind for when buyers eventually enter the market.
Between the lines
Although I mentioned Chet Holmes' book earlier, I didn’t want to be too obvious… Instead, the quote below offers a different perspective on building a strong brand:
When it comes to creating a memorable brand, the key is positioning the customer as the hero of the story, not the brand itself. It’s how brands build strong connections and stay top of mind, so customers think of them when they’re ready to buy.
I’ve read Building a StoryBrand more than once and regularly revisit it to refresh my memory. It’s one of the best books for applying storytelling principles to clarify brand messages and deeply engage customers.
Because, IMO, if you don’t know how to do this, you’ve already lost the battle.
Thanks for reading & see you next Saturday!
Alon
P.S. If you have a topic or question you want to hear my take on, just hit reply or leave a comment.
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