The 95/5 Rule in B2B: How to Engage Buyers Who Aren’t Ready to Purchase Yet

Welcome to the 95/5 Rule, a concept reshaping how high-performing B2B marketers plan demand generation and nurture long-term growth. If your strategy still hinges only on chasing in-market leads, you may be feeding short-term pipelines but starving tomorrow’s revenue.

In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, some truths remain uncomfortable yet undeniable. One such truth is what Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute brought into sharp focus. Only about 5% of B2B buyers are actively in-market to purchase at any given time. The other 95%? They’re not ready, but they will be, eventually.

Let’s unpack what this means, why it matters more than ever in 2025, and how you can engage those out-of-market buyers today so they choose you when they’re ready.

The Myth of the MQL and the Trap of Short-Term Thinking

For decades, B2B marketing revolved around MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads). The playbook. create gated content, run ads, collect emails, and hand them to sales. It worked when buyer journeys were more linear and when information was scarce.

Today, that’s changed. Gartner reports that B2B purchasing isn’t a clean funnel anymore; it’s a looping, messy maze. Buyers spend more time doing independent research and less time talking to your reps. And Forrester found that up to 70% of B2B content goes unused by sales teams, revealing a chasm between what marketers produce and what buyers want.

The lesson? If you only measure success by the volume of MQLs, you’re ignoring the vast majority of your addressable market, the 95% who aren’t raising their hands yet but are quietly forming brand preferences.

Who Are the 95%? Understanding Out-of-Market Buyers

The out-of-market segment includes future buyers, influencers, and decision-makers who don’t have budget approval or immediate pain, yet. They read your industry articles, watch your webinars, or follow your experts on LinkedIn. They’re building mental availability, the subtle brand memory that makes them think of you first when their problem becomes urgent.

A Gartner B2B study shows that 77% of business buyers do extensive research online before ever engaging a sales rep. By the time they fill out a demo request, the battle for mindshare is mostly won by whoever educated them best.

How Smart Marketers Engage the 95%

Winning 5% of in-market buyers is no longer enough. Real B2B revenue leaders in 2025 build brand preference with the other 95% now, so they become a warm, low-friction pipeline tomorrow. Here’s how to do it well:

1. Build Brand Memory Before There’s a Need

Out-of-market buyers aren’t looking for a sales pitch; they’re looking for trustworthy thought leaders. Modern B2B brands earn mindshare by publishing original research, compelling insights, and helpful industry analysis that answers the questions buyers haven’t even asked yet.

For example, companies like HubSpot and Salesforce have mastered this play. Their trend reports, playbooks, and state-of-the-industry studies don’t sell products directly, but they earn authority and familiarity. So when buyers eventually have a budget and a business case, they remember who educated them first, and they reach out on their terms.

Building brand memory early means your name comes up in internal buying committee meetings long before an RFP is issued, which dramatically shortens sales cycles later.

2. Create Non-Gated, High-Value Content

Modern B2B buyers crave instant access to helpful content. Requiring a form fill for every piece of value puts friction where you want trust. Smart marketers produce open-access resources comprehensive blogs, toolkits, benchmark reports, and video explainers, that freely educate and build goodwill with buyers in research mode.

This generosity pays off. Buyers who benefit from your free knowledge are more likely to view your team as credible advisors rather than pushy vendors. In 2025, marketers often reserve gated content only for late-stage conversion tools like ROI calculators or demos, where the buyer is signaling true purchase interest.

By striking this balance, you gain wide reach for brand awareness while still capturing high-intent leads at the right time.

3. Use Intent Data to Spot Early Buying Signals

Just because a buyer is officially “out-of-market” doesn’t mean they’re invisible. Early digital breadcrumbs like surging interest in related topics, job postings for key roles, or sudden spikes in engagement with competitor resources can hint at purchase intent months before formal outreach begins.

AI-powered intent platforms (like what we run at Intent Amplify®) scan millions of third-party data points to flag these subtle signals. Your team can then prioritize warming up these accounts with relevant thought leadership or light outreach, planting seeds well before the competition even knows they’re in play.

Brands that leverage this proactive insight see 2–3x higher conversion rates when the account finally enters the decision stage, because trust was already established.

4. Run Always-On, Light-Touch Campaigns

Engaging the 95% is not about bombarding people with daily sales emails. It’s about being quietly present where they spend time. Leading brands run always-on, low-friction campaigns. retargeted display ads that remind them of a helpful blog, sponsored LinkedIn updates with industry news, or a curated monthly email that shares fresh research without a sales push.

These subtle touchpoints reinforce your authority and ensure your brand stays top-of-mind, without feeling invasive. When buyers do signal they’re ready, you won’t be a stranger brand trying to force a cold call; you’ll feel familiar and trustworthy.

5. Align Sales and Marketing for the Long Game

Sales teams often want leads that close now, but engaging the 95% means nurturing accounts that may not buy for six or twelve months. To get this right, marketing and sales must agree on what “success” looks like at each stage.

High-performing teams train sales reps to recognize warm but future pipeline opportunities, so they can build authentic relationships without pushing too hard. Marketing, in turn, supports sales with tailored content, talk tracks, and clear signals from intent data about when an account is truly heating up.

When sales and marketing share this long-game mindset, handoffs happen at the right moment, buyers feel respected instead of pressured, and the pipeline stays healthy quarter after quarter.

Real-Life Example- How B2B Leaders Win Using the 95/5 Rule

Consider Salesforce, a world leader in sales automation and CRM. They don’t merely promote products via advertising; they frame the conversation around how today’s sales teams are supposed to be operating. A great example is their “State of Sales” report, an annual data-heavy study filled with trends, benchmarks, and insights gleaned from thousands of sales professionals across the globe.

These reports don’t directly sell Salesforce products. Rather, they assist sales leaders in diagnosing problems, comparing their teams to industry averages, and learning new best practices. This creates enormous credibility and trust over time. Readers begin to view Salesforce as much more than a software company but as a trusted advisor who knows the sales ecosystem better than anybody else.

So when a sales VP knows their CRM is outdated or their sales workflows require modernization, the brand they think of as providing authoritative insights is top of mind already. This accelerates the buying decision and reduces the influence of price, because trust was established long before the first-ever sales demo took place.

This is the 95/5 rule at work. Consistently providing high-value information to build relationships with individuals who do not yet need you, but will come to you first when they do.

How to Track ROI When Buyers Aren’t Buying Yet

There are many marketers who are afraid of spending on brand-building because of delayed results. Here’s what to monitor instead:

Brand Lift

Brand lift tracks how well your advertising is making your name stick in buyers’ minds, even before they’re in-market. Conduct quarterly or biannual surveys of your audience and ask them which brands first come to mind without prompting when they consider your category. An increase here indicates your brand memory is expanding, and when that 95% is ready, they’ll think of you, not a competitor.

Engagement Depth

Having eyeballs on your content is not sufficient; you want engagement. Keep an eye on metrics such as pages per session, average session length, and repeat visits over time. Longer, more in-depth engagement indicates that your audience believes there is value in your thought leadership and trusts you as an expert. Buyers who regularly engage with your resources are much more likely to convert later.

Direct Traffic Growth

Direct traffic is perhaps the strongest indicator of brand power. It indicates that people aren’t finding you via paid ads or chance searches; they’re actually typing in your URL because they remember your name. Monitor how your direct traffic increases month-to-month. A positive growth shows that your thought leadership and branding are being remembered by your audience, sending organic traffic. Pipeline Velocity

This is where your brand-building efforts translate to an actual sales effect. Compare how fast nurtured accounts, the ones you continuously educate and interact with, progress through the pipeline versus cold leads. Top-performing teams usually see that nurtured accounts close deals 20–30% sooner and with larger average deal sizes due to existing trust. This metric links your long-term content investment directly to revenue outcomes.

Consider Beyond Today’s Pipeline

The 95/5 Rule is not just a trendy statistic; it’s an invitation to think differently about B2B marketing. Closing today’s deals matters. Closing tomorrow’s deals, at volume and with lower cost per acquisition, is what differentiates market leaders from the rest.

Savvy teams don’t just create demand; they build it. They teach, they guide, and they form relationships way before buyers click “request a quote.”

Ready to Engage the 95%? Intent Amplify® assists B2B brands in unifying AI, intent predictive, and engaging content to reach today’s buyers and tomorrow’s. Need a turnkey ABM program or assistance for long-term demand creation? We’re here to create a strategy that endures market cycles.

FAQs:

Q.1 What is the 95/5 Rule in B2B?

It means that only 5% of your target audience is in-market at any given time, whereas 95% are not ready to buy yet, but they will be sometime in the future.

Q.2 Is marketing to out-of-market buyers a waste?

No, not at all. It creates mental availability, which increases your likelihood of being selected when they enter the buying cycle.

Q.3 What kind of content is best for the 95%

Educational, non-branded content such as industry reports, thought leadership blogs, and how-to guides establishes credibility without coercion.

Q.4. How do you measure ROI if they’re not buying today?

 Concentrate on metrics around brand awareness, engagement signals, direct traffic, and future pipeline velocity.

Q.5 How can Intent Amplify® assist with a 95/5 strategy?

We blend AI-driven audience intelligence, programmatic content syndication, and account-based marketing to reach both in-market and out-of-market buyers for long-term growth.

Speak with an Intent Amplify® strategist today and make your pipeline future-proof.

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