Report: Why Brand-Led Growth Will Get You On Buyers’ Shortlists

In today’s crowded B2B software marketplace, buyers are inundated with choices. This means that your brand being top-of-mind can make or break your chances of landing on their shortlist. This is more important than ever, with our recent survey finding that the average number of products on buyers’ shortlists was shockingly small, at just 2.6. If you’re not one of the first two or three names that come to mind, you risk being completely overlooked.

79% of buyers know about the product they end up purchasing before they even begin their research, which means that vendors need to build brand awareness and own the narrative. If a vendor isn’t occupying buyer mindshare at the beginning of the buying journey, that vendor probably isn’t closing the deal.

• The average number of products on buyers’ shortlists was 2.6
  • Only 14% of buyers reported a shortlist with four or more products
• 79% of buyers knew about the product they purchased before they started their research
  • This increases to 89% for enterprise buyers (defined as those who purchased products that cost $100,000/year or more)
• 82% of buyers already had a top product in mind when they made their shortlist
  • 70% of buyers ended up purchasing that product

Methodology

The data in this report comes from proprietary TrustRadius research with verified technology buyers. It is a combination of data from our buyer research efforts. Data from the 2025 buyer research report, which surveyed over 2000 technology buyers and almost 500 technology vendors, was collected in January 2025. The TrustRadius team surveyed an additional 200+ technology buyers about buyer decision making criteria in the spring of 2025. 10 in depth interviews were conducted from this sample.

Now, let’s dive into some of the findings of our 2025 buyer research.

Most Buyers Identify Purchase Criteria Before Their Shortlist

Assuming you’ve built up enough brand awareness, winning depends on how well you align with buyers’ decision‑making criteria. But what if you haven’t? There is still a huge opportunity for vendors to capitalize on the key factors influencing buyer decisions to position themselves for selection if the buyer isn’t already familiar with the brand. 72% of buyers determined their decision-making criteria before making a shortlist, meaning that you can offer problem-centric content (like case studies, problem‑statement guides, ROI calculators, etc.) to educate potential buyers on what criteria should matter most before they even have to ask.

While decision criteria will differ from industry to industry and situation to situation, there are a handful of baseline factors that often make up the foundation of how buyers decide on a final tool. These include value for price (mentioned in 66% of purchases), perceived safety (mentioned in 33% of purchases), existing vendor relationships (mentioned in 31% of purchases), and confidence from customer reviews (mentioned in 24% of purchases). Vendors need to be able to meet these criteria and highlight this across a variety of potential research sources, such as their own vendor websites, review websites, YouTube, and more.

Review sites, including TrustRadius, provide vendors with an excellent opportunity to showcase their content and answer buyer questions. Buyers prefer to engage with self-serve data as much as possible in their buying journey. Ensuring that relevant information, such as common use cases, unique features, pricing, and demos, is easily accessible will ensure that buyers have both confidence and a positive perception of the product when they engage with a sales representative for the first time.

How to Get on More Shortlists

Clearly, it’s important to be visible where buyers are actually performing their research (like TrustRadius). However, that’s not the only action vendors could take to make the decision process easier for buyers.

Provide Baseline Information

80% of buyers used personal research to determine their purchase criteria. This means that you won’t always have the opportunity for a sales rep or hands-on demo to highlight key differentiators or value propositions. Instead, vendors need to make sure that basic information is accessible to users who are doing the majority of their research on their own.

This includes key websites and sources of information that potential customers are consulting during the process. 77% of buyers used Google, 52% used the vendor’s website, 29% used YouTube videos, and 25% used TrustRadius data. Notably, enterprise buyers use the vendor website (54%) and TrustRadius (33%) more than other segments, indicating a need for transparent, formal information about the platform and its value. Buyers visit an average of 2.9 sites directly, so providing this information on the product website alone is not enough.

This pattern is happening at the same time as the use of analyst rankings declines, with only 14% of buyers using these types of reports in 2025 (down from 35% in 2022). In turn, buyers seem to place a greater emphasis on social proof, including peer-to-peer recommendations, customer testimonials, reviews, and real-world use cases. If your website, case studies, and review site listings are out of date or lacking social proof, it could affect your ability to make the shortlist. Maintain an up‑to‑date profile, respond to reviews, highlight recent feature releases, and showcase third‑party accolades and recognition.

If you’re thinking, “AI is disrupting the tech industry. Is social proof really that important in the age of AI?” The answer is absolutely yes. Learn more about how AI is changing the technology buying landscape and why social proof is more critical than ever here.

Resolve Pain Points

Although sales reps and demos can be incredibly useful, most buyers don’t want to engage with sales reps until they’ve determined the product is likely to serve their use case and fit their budget. Similar to the personal research statistic mentioned above, it’s important to answer these early-stage questions across channels in an accessible way.

When buyers can’t filter out the noise and find precise, industry-specific proof points, their trust (and patience) wears thin. Vendors need to curate high-signal content like segmented review excerpts, FAQs pulled from common review topics, and more to reinforce their credibility and make it easier for customers to find the information they need.

Our research indicates that information overload not only undermines clarity, but trust as well (tying back to trustworthiness being the second most important purchase criterion). In the pain points above:

• 41% of buyers report “too much information and hard to know what’s relevant”
• 42% simultaneously report “not enough information about my use case”

Self-service research is becoming increasingly popular with users. One of the trends that surfaced in our survey data was the common sentiment that buyers don’t always want to speak to a salesperson to determine the pros and cons of a tool, or how many of the advertised features actually end up being used. In this way, many have turned to platforms like TrustRadius to identify these key areas and serve as a hub of self-service research.

Common themes in what buyers are looking for include:

• Information about their specific use case
• Available demos without talking to a sales rep
• Feedback from industry peers who already use the tool

Be Structured & Transparent

Enterprise buyers, in particular, rely on formalized procurement processes involving multiple stakeholders. As a result, vendors should structure their information so it’s not only easy to find but also easy to understand and organize. They should organize content around buyer-aligned criteria (price, security certifications, integrations, etc.) and state implementation timelines, pricing models, and other important factors.

Unsurprisingly, this more structured process means that enterprise buyers tend to take longer to make a purchase decision. We found that these buyers also experience more difficulty aligning with the actual purchase criteria. 35% of enterprise buyers found it “somewhat difficult” to align on these factors, compared to just 17% of all buyers. On the other end of the spectrum, just 2% of enterprise buyers reported alignment on decision-making criteria as “very easy,” compared to 10% of all buyers.

The takeaway here is to make the decision process as seamless as possible for potential customers. If buyers are struggling to align on criteria, make it easier by pointing them towards what’s important for their use case and how your product can solve their specific pain points. In the age of AI, the barrier to obtaining this information is lower than ever. Therefore, if vendors don’t provide it, users will find it elsewhere (and maybe not from the sources you’d like them to).

The key is to enable your buyers with transparent product information and social proof that’s available where they’re searching. If vendors can bolster this section of the sales funnel, it increases the likelihood of making it on the shortlist (and the very shortlist), increasing Closed Won deals.

Influence Decision-Making Criteria Before Your Competitor Does

Your influence doesn’t stop once a buyer’s initial criteria are set. Our survey found that the vast majority of buyers (83%) changed their decision criteria during the buying process. This is another important opportunity for vendors to be aware of, as 52% of these changes happen after researching and evaluating products. Spoiler alert: This is where your sales team can drive the most impact.

77% of decision-making criteria changes were a result of new information from the research process. Ensure that your marketing assets and sales talk tracks highlight key areas that buyers may not have considered at the beginning of their research, and you get to be the source of that new information. Emphasize why these factors should be part of their decision criteria and how your product meets and surpasses expectations. By doing so, vendors can reframe these factors and possibly influence changes that focus buyers on a product’s strengths.

A key source of information that both buyers and vendors have access to is user reviews — these can back up the importance of features, use cases, and more to show buyers where the real value is. For example, “95% of users rate our security module a 9 out of 10 or higher for compliance confidence.” Savvy vendors won’t stop there. Showcasing reviews from users in a similar role or industry to your prospects can build confidence that your product will genuinely solve the buyer’s problem.

What You Can Do Today

In the era of brand-led growth, visibility and trust across the digital landscape are your greatest assets. Many buyers are already entering the buying cycle with preconceived notions, and often reward vendors who demonstrate value, reliability, and social proof before a sales call. As self-service research becomes an increasingly critical part of landing on buyers’ shortlists, use your own website to arm buyers with assets like use-case-specific, on-demand demos, pricing information, and more. Vendors also need to elevate their presence on review sites like TrustRadius, where users are discussing use cases, pros and cons, and the value of their products. Lastly, leverage peer insights and user testimonials to shape evolving decision criteria. Making these adjustments will help get your products on more shortlists, converting more potential customers into loyal users and advocates.