We asked 100 B2B SaaS marketing leaders what their last big decision was based on. Only 9% said research with the buyers they're trying to win. Here's what the other 91% used instead, and why most teams hear from the market far less than they think.
B2B marketing teams are good at listening to customers and bad at listening to the market. 92% learn from sales conversations and 85% interview customers, but 53% research buyers who aren't customers once a year or less. When it's time to make a big call, leadership judgment wins: 32% of recent major decisions were mainly gut calls, and only 9% were mainly based on direct research with target buyers.
It isn't that research doesn't work. Half of leaders say research changed their messaging in the past year. It's that it rarely reaches the decision, and mostly hears from people who already bought when it does. Meanwhile, category-leader websites sound alike: across 445 sites in our Sameness Benchmark, only 12% of the average homepage's messaging is something no competitor says.
We asked leaders to describe their most recent significant marketing decision and what it was mainly based on. 32% said a leadership or gut call. 21% said internal performance data like pipeline and channel ROI, and 13% customer and sales feedback. Only 9% said direct research with the buyers the decision was meant to win.
Voice-of-customer research is close to universal: 92% learn from sales conversations, 85% interview customers and 74% run win-loss. Research with buyers who haven't bought is not. 53% do it once a year or less, and only 8% do it monthly. Customers are the people your messaging already worked on. The buyers it failed on mostly go unheard.
80% ticked at least one box for non-customer research in the past year. But earlier in the survey, before seeing that list, we asked them to describe the last time they tried to understand buyers. Half of them described only customers, the advisory board, sales feedback or internal discussions.
The rest lean on events, sales and prospect calls, and AI or desk research. Events reach whoever showed up, sales calls reach buyers already in the pipeline, and desk research summarizes what's already published. Only 42% mentioned any structured research that reaches the market directly.
Research works when it reaches the decision: 50% say it changed messaging or positioning, 38% channels and budget, 34% product and roadmap. The problem is how rarely it gets there. Several leaders described studies that were ignored, rejected as too complex, or outranked by an opinion.
We surveyed 100 marketing leaders at B2B SaaS companies on the Wynter panel of 86,000+ verified B2B professionals, fielded September 23-24, 2026. Seniority: 34% C-level (mostly CMOs), 62% VP and 4% Head of Marketing. Company size: 72% mid-market (200-999 employees) and 28% enterprise (1,000+). The survey ran 11 questions: closed questions on research methods and frequency, and six open-ended questions.
Open-ended answers were coded into themes. For the decision question, each answer was coded once by its main input; 21% didn't name a clear basis. Other open questions could carry several themes, so totals exceed 100%. Respondents come from a research panel, so they're likely more research-active than average, which makes the gaps above conservative. We also tested whether research habits relate to revenue performance and found no reliable link at this sample size, so we make no claims about it.
The complete 12-page report with every chart, the coded open-ended answers, and what to do about it.
This study was fielded on Wynter, our on-demand B2B research platform, with results in under 48 hours. ICP surveys, message testing, brand tracking and interviews with a panel of 86,000+ verified B2B professionals.
Each stat has its own link. Please cite Wynter and link to this page when you use them.