How CFOs, CTOs, and CMOs actually buy software
Learn how CFOs, CTOs, and CMOs evaluate software differently, and what it takes to win all three signatures.
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Behind every major B2B software purchase stand three critical signatures: the CFO who controls the budget, the CTO who sets technical standards, and the CMO who drives marketing transformation. Each brings distinct priorities, separate research methods, and different decision criteria to the table.
We surveyed 300 B2B leaders at companies with $50M+ revenue, including 100 CFOs and VPs of Finance, 100 CTOs and CIOs, and 100 CMOs and VPs of Marketing, to understand how they discover vendors, build shortlists, evaluate solutions, and make final purchasing decisions.
While marketing often treats "the buying committee" as a single entity, our research reveals three distinct evaluation tracks running simultaneously. Financial leaders focus on total cost of ownership and ROI validation. Technology leaders prioritize technical fit and integration capabilities. Marketing leaders evaluate problem-solution alignment and team adoption likelihood.
The challenge becomes immediately apparent: these three tracks rarely coordinate until late-stage decisions. Tech leaders test your product while CFOs question your financials and CMOs evaluate your customer service. One focuses on whether it can work while another asks if they should pay for it and the third wonders whether their team will actually use it.
The timing and depth of involvement varies significantly by role and purchase characteristics.
CFO involvement: Only 16% drive end-to-end selection
The majority of financial leaders engage based on specific triggers:
Price determines attention level more than any other factor. One CFO explained they jump into evaluations over $1 million in contract value. Another noted being involved in all purchases over $2,500, showing how thresholds vary dramatically by company size.
CTO involvement: Four distinct research styles
Technology leaders begin with problem definition before entering vendor research:
One CIO from healthcare tech explained their process clearly. They start with a long list and get it down to a short list of two or three. Then that shortlist will ultimately get to a side-by-side comparison of functionality, technical fit, vendor strength and stability, cost, and support services.
Company size influences approach dramatically. Enterprise organizations involve multiple stakeholders with rigorous security reviews and formal RFPs. Mid-sized companies balance thorough evaluation with speed. Smaller companies make faster decisions with fewer approval layers, with 27% preferring pure self-service purchasing.
CMO involvement: Context-driven and team-centered
Marketing leaders scale involvement based on strategic importance, cost, and complexity:
A CMO explained for smaller tools and investments, they let the team do 85% of the research and then they validate the findings and recommendation. But whatever approach the CMO takes with when and how they engage in decision making, it's clear they must own the decision and make the final call.
A fundamental shift has occurred in how B2B leaders discover software vendors. While Google remains important, it's no longer where most buyers begin their search.
The new discovery hierarchy:
Nearly three-quarters of buyers now begin vendor searches in private communities, marking a dramatic shift from just one year ago. CMOs leverage groups like CMO Coffee Talk for unfiltered vendor feedback. CTOs turn to technical communities for implementation insights. CFOs consult finance-specific groups for cost validation.
Why the shift? Three key drivers:
The trust advantage - Buyers want complete pictures of both successes and failures from people who've actually used the software, not just vendor-approved testimonials.
Stronger communities - Professional groups have evolved into knowledge hubs where leaders openly share what worked, what didn't, and why. Groups like CMO Coffee Talk have transformed from networking opportunities into substantive knowledge-sharing platforms.
Better quality insights - Private spaces foster candid conversations about implementation nightmares, hidden costs, and workarounds that never appear in public reviews.
For software companies, the implication is clear: your first impression no longer comes from your website or sales pitch. It comes from what existing customers say about you in spaces you can't control.
CFOs: Dark social → Google → review sites
Financial leaders follow a three-stage screening process. First, 72% start by asking people they trust before any formal research begins. Second, 64% use Google to compile lists and validate recommendations. Finally, 30% check review sites like Gartner as verification layers.
CTOs: Google → peers → analyst reports
Technology leaders take a more hands-on approach. Nearly three-quarters (73%) begin with direct searches. 53% consult their networks, often after initial research. Finally, 23% check analyst reports from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.
CMOs: Peer networks → review sites → Google
Marketing leaders prioritize social validation. 72% percent start in private communities before moving to public sources. After getting recommendations, 54% turn to review sites to verify what they've heard. G2 has emerged as the clear leader. Finally, 51% use Google search, but notably not as their starting point. Only 9% begin by googling a software category. Instead, they use Google as a verification tool to research specific vendors more deeply and uncover potential red flags.
One of the most dramatic shifts: 24% of buyers now use AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity for vendor research. In 2024, this number was zero. Current trajectory suggests 50% or more adoption by 2026.
How buyers use AI:
It's important to note that AI isn't replacing peer conversations. Seventy-six percent of buyers still prefer advice from real people. Instead, AI is becoming an extra helper in the process, accelerating research without replacing human validation.
Buyers typically start with 5-7 vendors before narrowing to a shortlist of 3 finalists. What makes a vendor stand out enough to make this cut varies significantly by buyer role and company size.
Being well-known gives vendors a significant advantage, though the impact varies by role:
However, a CTO offered a contrasting perspective:
What brand recognition signals to different buyers:
For CMOs:
For CTOs:
For CFOs:
While brand recognition helps, 38% of buyers explicitly said they would consider unknown vendors, but with specific conditions:
Requirements for unknown vendors:
Company size plays a significant role in risk tolerance. Larger organizations (500+ employees) strongly favor brand safety for business-critical tools and purchases exceeding $30,000 annually. Smaller companies show more willingness to try newer vendors due to tighter budgets, simpler needs, and greater flexibility.
CFOs build shortlists based on:
Financial leaders analyze multiple factors before narrowing their options:
CTOs prioritize:
Technology leaders focus on different criteria entirely:
CMOs evaluate:
Marketing leaders assess through yet another lens:
Ultimately, they're all looking for clarity, transparency and the reassurance that your tool can solve and fit into their exact business need.
By the time your sales team knows they're being evaluated, buyers have often completed extensive research and formed strong opinions:
This invisible evaluation phase determines whether you'll get a demo invitation at all.
The implication is clear: your website does most of the selling before any human conversation happens.
Financial leaders conduct thorough analysis across multiple dimensions:
Total cost of ownership (66%)
They look beyond year-one pricing to 3-5 year commitments:
Custom ROI frameworks (56%)
Reference checks (36%)
They verify claims by:
Technology leaders take an equally thorough but differently focused approach:
Website clarity (100%)
Every tech leader visits vendor websites expecting immediate answers about:
Interactive demos (83%)
They need hands-on experience before sales conversations to validate:
Peer reviews (70%)
They deep-dive review sites for unfiltered truth about:
Security documentation (44%)
For mission-critical systems, they scrutinize:
Marketing leaders focus on different pre-sales criteria:
Website problem-solution fit (100%)
They evaluate whether sites clearly explain:
Review site validation (54%)
They use G2, Capterra, and similar platforms to:
Interactive tools (46%)
Nearly half want hands-on product experiences to assess:
Social proof elements
Additionally, 54% follow companies on social media, 36% read blogs, and 27% follow founders to evaluate:
Our advice: Audit your digital presence through all three lenses. Can a CFO find ROI data without a demo request? Can a CTO test core functionality without talking to sales? Can the CMO see real value in using your solution? If not, you’re losing deals at the starting line.
The CFO's top priority (cost) often conflicts directly with the CTO's top concern (problem-solving capability) and the CMO's focus (strategic alignment). The best technical solution might not offer optimal ROI. The most cost-effective option might create integration nightmares. The strategically aligned choice might exceed budget.
This tension explains why so many deals stall in final stages. Without alignment across all three value systems, nobody wins.
The top five factors for CFOs:
Financial leaders build their own ROI models because 58% don't trust vendor-provided calculations. They want raw data to create frameworks that account for productivity gains, cost savings, revenue impact, and risk mitigation value.
What CTOs value most:
They scrutinize technical architecture and integration capabilities because poor integration can doom even the most feature-rich solution. For mission-critical systems, security certifications, compliance framework support, and data handling practices become non-negotiable requirements.
CMO evaluation criteria:
Marketing leaders recognize that even the most powerful tool fails if their team won't embrace it. They're evaluating not just what the tool can do but whether their specific team members will actually use it effectively.
To succeed in 2026, vendors must build business cases that satisfy all three stakeholder value systems simultaneously. Here's what each leader needs to justify decisions to the others.
Detailed cost & ROI analysis
Feature comparisons
Risk assessment
Clear differentiation
Hands-on validation
Peer validation
Problem-solution clarity:
Strategic impact:
Adoption confidence:
Buyer preferences for engagement vary significantly by role and purchase size:
Traditional sales demos:
Self-service options:
Rep-assisted self-service:
Despite rising self-service expectations, guided demonstrations remain valuable because they:
For purchases involving multiple stakeholders (typically 5 people, sometimes as many as 12 for larger buys), demos efficiently bring everyone up to speed when buyers have narrowed options to 3 finalists.
While demos remain important, self-service capabilities have become table stakes:
What they're looking for:
The shift reveals an opportunity: vendors who embrace interactive product experiences and self-service discovery stand out. Those who don't risk being filtered out before ever getting the chance to demonstrate value.
Success in 2026 B2B sales requires conducting three different plays simultaneously. The biggest revelation from our research: your role isn't just to satisfy audiences separately but to help them build consensus together.
This demands a fundamental shift from sequential selling (convince the CTO, then the CFO, then the CMO) to simultaneous enablement across all three tracks. Most vendors still optimize for the sales call that may never come, while winners optimize for the evaluation that's already happening invisibly.
Despite different priorities, all three buyer types share common requirements:
Peer validation carries more weight than vendor claims across every role and stage. The most persuasive sales pitch can't overcome negative peer feedback, while enthusiastic peer recommendations can overcome almost any objection.
Research happens extensively before sales conversations regardless of role or company size. This means optimizing your digital presence through all three lenses so technical buyers find integration details easily, financial buyers access ROI data without demo requests, and marketing buyers see clear problem-solution alignment.
Trust must be earned through transparency and proof, not claimed through marketing messages. Provide self-service access to critical evaluation information, share realistic implementation timelines and challenges, offer authentic customer references willing to discuss both successes and struggles.
ROI and risk assessment drive final decisions across all three roles. Help buyers build their own business cases with solid data, address risk concerns proactively with mitigation strategies, provide frameworks for internal stakeholder conversations, and show conservative projections that buyers can defend.
The B2B software buying process has fundamentally transformed. Future success requires understanding and adapting to several critical shifts:
1. Discovery happens in dark social, not search engines
72% of buyers start vendor searches in private peer communities. Your first impression comes from what current customers say about you in spaces you can't control.
Action: Invest heavily in customer relationships and advocacy programs. Make it easy for satisfied customers to recommend you. Build authentic presence in communities where your buyers congregate.
2. Three parallel evaluation tracks rarely coordinate
Financial leaders scrutinize costs while technology leaders test integrations and marketing leaders evaluate strategic fit, often without coordination until late-stage decisions.
Action: Design your sales process to address all three perspectives simultaneously. Create materials that help internal champions advocate across functional boundaries. Don't assume coordination is happening.
3. Evaluation happens mostly before sales contact
84% of tech leaders, 78% of finance leaders, and 88% of CMOs arrive at sales conversations having already completed extensive research and formed opinions.
Action: Make your self-service evaluation experience as good as your best sales demo. Ensure technical buyers can test functionality, financial buyers can build ROI models, and marketing buyers can assess strategic fit, all without sales interaction.
4. Brand recognition helps but problem-solving wins
While 79% of CMOs value brand fame, 39% of CTOs explicitly choose the best solution over the biggest name.
Action: For established vendors, leverage brand recognition while proving problem-solving capability. For newer vendors, focus on peer advocacy, security compliance, easy trials, and demonstrable innovation advantages.
5. AI is rapidly changing research behavior
24% of buyers now use AI tools for vendor research, up from 0% in 2024, with adoption trajectory suggesting 50%+ by 2026.
Action: Optimize your digital presence for AI discovery. Ensure product information is clear, structured, and easily discoverable. Monitor how your solution appears in AI comparisons and adjust accordingly.
The rules have fundamentally changed. Discovery starts in dark social spaces you can't control. Evaluation happens before sales contact in ways you can't directly observe. AI accelerates research in directions you can't fully predict. Self-service becomes mandatory rather than optional. Peer validation trumps vendor claims in every context.
Those who adapt to this new reality, who enable rather than control, who help buyers build consensus rather than pushing individual agendas, will win in the transformed landscape of B2B software sales. The question isn't whether to adapt. It's whether you'll adapt faster than your competitors.
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