Only 5% of Buyers Are Active — the Other 95% Need a Good Talking to!

 

The first thing I try to do when I’m invited to discuss developing a promotional program is manage expectations — especially when I’m met with the classic line:
“Everyone in our sector is a potential customer.”

That’s when I usually introduce a simple but powerful idea:
“There’s THE Market… and within that, there’s YOUR Market.”

Understanding who’s actually in your market — and how they behave — is critical. Because how can you move forward if you don’t even know which direction you’re facing?

And here’s the kicker: YOUR market has just become even more fragmented, thanks to the latest thinking out of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute*.

We all love a good rule: 80:20, 50:50… and now there’s a new one — 95:5. The EBI’s research shows that, at any given time, only about 5% of your potential customers are actively in-market.

The other 95%? They’re not ready for your offer — but they definitely need a good talking to!

These are the people you want to stay in front of — your Talk-To-Me audience.
Keep them warm, check-in regularly, and when the time comes, you’ll be the one they remember.

So, how does all this affect the conversation around a promotional program?

As a marketing professional, you’re judged on results — so naturally, your focus is on lead-gen. You need to show you’re delivering value to the business.

But here’s the catch: you — and every one of your competitors — are chasing that same 5%.

It’s noisy. It’s crowded. And unless you’ve got a truly standout product story and the budget to shout about it, cutting through is going to be tough.

It’s a B2B brand recall war — plain and simple.

But the real opportunity? That lies with the other 95%.

At some point, they will need a solution like yours. And when that moment comes, they’ll go straight to the brands they already know — before they even think about researching anyone else.

So… where do you sit in their minds?
Are you even on the list?

Ready to engage the 95%?

This approach isn’t just about lead-gen — it’s about a long-term B2B marketing strategy that builds brand value before the buyer even enters the funnel.

I’m with Ehrenberg-Bass on this: we’ve got to stop measuring marketing success purely by immediate sales results.

If I were advising B2C clients, I’d probably recommend brand tracking studies, or some good old-fashioned qualitative and quantitative research to measure reach and recall during a campaign. All good practice — in that world.

But in over 30 years of B2B experience — including supporting some major, market-leading brands — I can count on one hand how many times proper research has been brought to the table. And when it has, it’s usually for one of two reasons:

       1. To quietly squirrel away budget for future marketing activity

       2. Or — more often — to figure out why something went Pete Tong!

Now, where I don’t fully agree with EBI is on their emphasis on Reach over Frequency.

Sure — focus on new customers within YOUR Market, not the whole world. But the idea that it’s better to reach more people even if it’s just once? That’s pie-in-the-sky stuff — like banking your next campaign on winning the lottery.

In the time-poor world of B2B, a single exposure won’t do the job — unless your message lands in a particularly sticky environment, like a product guide or supplement that someone might actually keep.

Otherwise? One-and-done doesn’t stick. That’s why any B2B brand building strategy should favour thoughtful repetition and useful content over scattergun reach.

Need proof? Look at Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetfulness:

We forget 67% of what we learn after just one day. By week four, that figure rises to 79%.

Ebbinghaus also found that regular updates or reminders significantly slow this decline.

That’s why frequency – applied sensibly – matters so much. It keeps you present before your buyer even knows they need you.

Make your brand distinctive — but make it meaningful.

Yes, your brand should stand out — but that takes more than just colour schemes, an eye-catching logo, or clever media placement.

The real challenge is earning space in your customer’s mind.

And that takes a clear, consistent message about what you stand for — and how it helps them solve a problem or move the business forward.

When times are tough, it’s the brands that invest in this kind of clarity and consistency that hold their ground. They’re less vulnerable to short-term pricing games — because plenty of customers will pay a little more for quality, service, and a brand they actually recognise and have come to trust.

But there’s another layer here — brand loyalty.

In price-sensitive markets, it’s often the loyal brands that hold their nerve while others race to the bottom.

Buyers aren’t just rational — they’re tribal.

They align with brands that feel modern, progressive, and values-driven because it says something about them, too.

That loyalty pays off: not just in resisting short-term pricing pressure, but in winning internal advocates, reducing the risk of switching, and earning goodwill when things don’t go to plan.

These aren’t soft metrics — they’re hard edges in a competitive market.

To recap:
YOUR Market is smaller than THE Market.
And within YOUR Market, only 5% are active — which means the other 95% are non-active B2B prospects who still need nurturing. You need to be remembered — so, keep talking to them!

Need help giving the 95% a good talking to — and want to talk it through? Then talk to me: steve@oilthewheels.com

*Source: https://marketingscience.info/the-955-rule-why-b2b-growth-starts-long-before-the-purchase/