News & Announcements
If you're researching a vendor, and they don't have what you're looking for on their website, what do you do next?
Sep 8, 2026 — John Way
If you're researching a vendor, and they don't have what you're looking for on their website (ex: ballpark price, proof of ROI, rough timelines, etc.), what do you do next?
Let's assume you're semi-curious like 6 or 7 out of 10.
Here are your options:
1) Contact sales
2) Ask AI
3) Check 3rd-party sites
4) Ask your peers
5) Move onto another vendor
What would you realistically do next? Let me know in the comments.
For me, if I'm at a 7, I'm probably asking AI to fill in the blanks or at least give me its best guesses.
If AI results look promising, I'll check 3rd-party sites.
But if I don't find anything good, I'm moving on to another vendor.
I'm not booking that sales meeting. I'll be honest. Option 1 is my last choice out of the 5.
Anybody else do something similar? I don't think I'm alone here.
So, here's the question.
Why are so many vendor websites built like picking Option 1 is the *most* popular choice? How come so many vendors gatekeep all their critical information?
Now, I get it. They want me to book a sales call.
That's the way the game was played in the past.
But in 2026, I don't think a lot of buyers are playing that game anymore, especially since AI is just a prompt away.
So, Katie Lantukh, Lisa McGuire, Ed.S., Darrell Noe, and I asked 100+ Atlanta B2B buyers, people who purchased services between $5K and $250K+ in the last 9 months:
→ If you couldn't find an answer on a vendor's website, what would you do next?
For First-Time Buyers (people who never researched your type of services before), here's how they responded:
40% Ask AI
24% Visit 3rd-party sites
18% Contact sales
13% Move on to another vendor
5% Ask my peers
For Experienced Buyers? 37% ask AI. Only 12% will contact sales.
Now, talking to sales certainly isn't dead, but it's definitely not the favorite. And, I don't think this trend is going to reverse itself anytime soon.
So what about the clear favorite (Ask AI)? What are buyers actually asking AI? The answers is in our study ⬇️
