For B2B sellers, one of the toughest parts of the job is adjusting to customer and market realities. It’s a daunting task. Buyers, particularly younger ones, now use digital buying tools and complete many tasks on their own – spending less time with sellers than they once did. Further, these younger generational buying cohorts are large and influential. Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2024 finds that Millennial and Generation Z buyers make 67% of purchases $1 million or greater globally. That’s influence.
The list of buying changes goes on. With buyers taking advantage of zero-click search, B2B sellers must recalibrate expectations about traffic, demand, and pipeline. Similarly, with growing buying complexity, sellers must work with an entire buying network and not just the buying group or buying champion. Meanwhile, buyers have tightened spending amid volatility, and sellers now endure longer sales cycles and greater deal risk. It’s not an exaggeration to say this is buying mayhem.
Artificial intelligence creates more mayhem. Buyers use AI at every stage of the buying journey, redefining interactions with sellers. Shockingly, Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025 reveals that 61% of business buyers already use or plan to use a private genAI engine to support the purchase process. The AI buying agents are here. What will sellers do as buyers use AI engines to shortlist vendors and weigh tradeoffs among them? Moreover, buyers will use agentic AI to create RFPs, evaluate RFP responses, and recommend commercial prices and terms back to the seller. That’s the new reality.
Buying Mayhem Is A Song For B2B Sellers
In this environment, salespeople need a fight song to do what they do best – successfully adjust to customer and market realities. So, I created one. It’s aptly named Buying Mayhem, which is also the theme of this year’s Forrester B2B Summits. Have a listen:
The Buying Mayhem Song Lyrics
Self-service tools and zero-click search
Buying agents digging up the dirt
I need leads, I gotta build some pipe
But something just doesn’t seem right
I’m beginning to see what this might mean
All buying roads no longer lead through me
Buying mayhem, more deals will stall
Fewer opps in the waterfall
Buying mayhem, some things don’t work
In a complex buying network
Digital selling and engagement
AI co-selling and enablement
Look now, personalizing at scale
This, the better way to make the sale
Consensus is reached, committee is done
In comes procurement, the start of the fun
Buying mayhem, it’s quite a show
They say it’s on, and now we know
Buying mayhem, I’m getting wise
I listen for the buyer cries
Time to unlearn, we can’t chase the past
We need more speed to go twice as fast
So, let’s adapt to the customer
As we do this work together
Buying mayhem, we’ll plow right through
A better path comes into view
Buying mayhem, let’s sing it loud
We won’t get lost in the crowd
Exploit Opportunities In The Mayhem
As with previous waves of innovation, the future will be both thriving and chaotic. B2B sellers who unlearn the past and adapt to the new dynamics of buying and selling will see outsized results. This is the time to exploit opportunities in the mayhem.
To understand how to achieve greater sales success in an AI world, read The Dawn Of A New B2B Sales Supercycle report (client access required) or schedule a guidance session.
