By Lena Knight
For decades, we’ve been telling ourselves a comforting lie: B2B purchasing decisions are made by the logical head and not by the heart.
It’s time we faced the truth.
The person signing off on that six-figure enterprise software purchase is a human with emotions. They likely just spent their morning arguing with their teenager, worrying about their aging parents and, yes, being moved by something they saw on social media.
Human emotion is found in the boardroom, too. Recent Agnostic Business to Person research – The Emotion Equation – revealed that, in fact, 60% of business decision makers admit that emotions influence their purchasing decisions. One quarter say emotions have “a great deal of influence.”
The emotional equation
When we asked Canadian business leaders what factors matter most in their purchasing decisions, trust tied with logic at 96%, showing that the emotional and rational are inseparable in B2B decision-making.
What’s more, alignment with company values (81%) and sense of partnership (79%) ranked among the top factors influencing these decisions. These aren’t cold, clinical considerations. They’re deeply human. Yet, only 23% of decision makers can recall a B2B marketing campaign that created a strong emotional connection.
What’s more, nearly half (43%) of decision makers balance data and intuition equally when making purchasing choices, while only a tiny fraction – just 3% – rely entirely on data. Despite all our emphasis on data-driven decision making, the vast majority of business decisions incorporate emotional factors.
Our research also mapped the complex web of influences that actually drive business purchasing decisions. We found that 54% of business decision makers are influenced by colleagues, 44% by business experts and thought leaders and 34% by friends.
Additionally, one-third of B2B decision makers have made purchasing decisions influenced by a social-media campaign. The boundaries between professional and personal digital spaces have blurred beyond recognition.
While LinkedIn and Facebook tie at 17% each for influence on B2B decisions, decision makers are consuming content across platforms that B2B marketing often ignores, including Instagram, YouTube and X. People don’t wake up in the morning and say “I’m a B2B buyer today.” People simply consume content wherever they find is relevant.
There is seismic potential for work that is performance based and led by human truth. Look at SightWalks by Sol Cement in Peru – a B2B concrete company that transformed simple sidewalk tiles into a navigation system for the visually impaired.
Similarly, Sherwin Williams’s “Speaking in Color” campaign used AI technology to help architects and designers translate spoken descriptions into precise paint colours, driving a 37% increase in architect specifications.
These Cannes Lions-winning examples prove that when B2B marketing speaks to human needs rather than product features, it breaks through the noise of spreadsheets and spec sheets.
The industry is currently standing at an inflection point. Companies that recognize and adapt to the emotional reality of B2B decisions will capture disproportionate market share in the coming years. Because, in the end, you’re not selling to businesses. You’re selling to people. And people make decisions with both their heads and their hearts.
Lena Knight is SVP at Agnostic
