New global research from Adience puts clear numbers behind that feeling. Nearly 30% of B2B buyers say vendors are actively wasting their time, and it’s starting to show up in slower deals, weaker relationships, and declining trust. This isn’t a minor annoyance — it’s a growing backlash against sales experiences that feel repetitive, generic, and disconnected from real buyer needs.
Buyers aren’t saying they don’t want to talk to vendors. They’re saying they don’t want to sit through conversations that go nowhere.
The problem with “discovery” as theatre
One of the strongest themes in the data is frustration with what many buyers describe as performative discovery. Long calls. Lots of questions. Very little insight.
According to the research, 30% of buyers are fed up with repetitive or low-value discovery questions — the kind that could have been answered with basic preparation or a quick look at the buyer’s website. When buyers are asked the same surface-level questions again and again, it doesn’t feel consultative. It feels lazy.
This is often paired with generic follow-ups. Nearly 29% of buyers say they receive decks, PDFs, or demos that aren’t relevant to their situation. Same slides. Same features. Same story — regardless of industry, maturity, or use case.
From the buyer’s perspective, it’s a clear signal: “You didn’t really listen.”
Understanding the buyer still matters — more than ever
Another 29% of respondents said vendors simply didn’t understand their industry or use case. That’s a serious problem in B2B, where purchases are rarely simple and almost always tied to specific constraints, risks, and internal politics.
Buyers today are under pressure. They’re expected to make the right call, justify spending, and deliver results — often while juggling multiple stakeholders. What they want from vendors isn’t a feature tour. It helps think through decisions.
When vendors lead with product instead of perspective, or assumptions instead of understanding, trust erodes quickly. And once that trust is gone, no amount of follow-up emails will bring it back.
AI isn’t the issue — how it’s used is
AI is clearly becoming part of the B2B sales toolkit, and buyers don’t hate that. In fact, 33% say AI competence will define the best-performing vendor teams over the next two years.
But there’s a catch.
26% of buyers say poorly executed, or obviously AI-generated outreac,h turns them off. You know the kind: emails that sound polished but empty, surface-level “personalisation,” or messages that completely miss the mark.
Buyers aren’t rejecting AI. They’re rejecting carelessness.
Contributors from companies like Responsive and Spectro Cloud point out that AI works best when it supports human thinking — not when it replaces it. AI can help teams research accounts, spot patterns, and prepare better conversations. What it can’t do is exercise judgment, empathy, or context on its own.
Used well, AI makes vendors sharper. Used badly, it makes them forgettable.
Why trust has become the real differentiator
Taken together, these frustrations add up to something bigger than annoyance. They point to a trust gap.
Buyers are tired of being “sold to.” What they want is confidence — confidence that a vendor understands their world, respects their time, and can actually help them make a better decision.
That’s why the vendors that stand out today aren’t the ones with the flashiest messaging or the most aggressive cadences. They’re the ones who:
- Show up prepared
- Ask fewer, better questions
- Tailor conversations to real use cases
- Help buyers clarify trade-offs and next steps
This isn’t about speeding up deals artificially. It’s about removing friction that never needed to be there in the first place.
Trust Is the New Differentiator
The cumulative effect of repetitive questioning, irrelevant materials, shallow personalisation, and misused AI is a growing erosion of trust. Buyers don’t just want efficiency — they want confidence that a vendor respects their time and understands their world.
Today’s most effective vendors are shifting from “selling” to decision enablement. They focus on:
- Asking sharper, more informed questions
- Demonstrating real understanding early
- Tailoring content to specific use cases
- Offering clarity instead of complexity
This approach doesn’t shorten sales cycles by force — it shortens them by removing friction.
Adapting to the New Buyer Reality
The takeaway is not that buyers have become unreasonable — it’s that they’ve become more discerning. They expect vendors to show up prepared, informed, and aligned with their goals from the very first interaction.
As the B2B landscape moves toward 2026, the winners won’t be the loudest or fastest. They’ll be the teams that listen deeply, personalise thoughtfully, and combine AI capability with human insight.
The full report, “The B2B Buyer Backlash: How to earn trust in 2026,” is available here:
https://www.adience.com/blog/insights/the-b2b-buyer-backlash-2025-2026-report/
For vendors willing to evolve, the backlash isn’t a threat — it’s an opportunity to stand out by doing what buyers have been asking for all along.
