Software buying behavior has changed, and today we’ll share how you can leverage these changes to win in the age of AI. Sydney Sloan, CMO at G2 and SaaStr fan favorite, shares insights from G2’s annual buyer behavior report to help prep you for the 2025 buying cycles.
The three key areas to pay attention to:
- The promise of AI is dictating purchasing behavior.
- The ability to win these limited software budgets and access decision-makers is harder than ever.
- The expectation of ROI is mismatched. Buyers want to see ROI immediately but aren’t seeing it fast enough.
Understanding buyer behavior isn’t just an advantage—it’s a necessity. The good news is that G2’s data shows that more people are going to be buying software in 2025 than in 2024, with only 6% saying they are going to buy less.
What’s driving this purchasing behavior?
The promise of AI.
People are already buying it. 56% of respondents said they already purchased an AI platform, and even more so, 77% said they genuinely believe that they’ve advanced AI technology in their products beyond merely capitalizing on the AI hype.
The promise of AI isn’t just hype—it’s fundamentally reshaping software purchasing. Sydney explains: “The advice for the go-to-market teams is, if you’re not yet, which I can’t imagine, but if you’re not yet leading with AI in your story, you better figure out how to do that fast because that’s what buyers are looking for.”
The AI Categories with the Most Traction in the Market
McKinsey found that sales and marketing teams are seeing the biggest gains with AI adoption, followed closely by engineering and customer success teams.
So between sales and marketing, let’s dissect first why Sales teams have been early adopters. 81% of sales teams are either experimenting with or have fully implemented AI (Source: *Salesforce’s July 2024 “State of Sales” Report.) A lot of us have already seen or experienced the use of sales-assisted messaging, AI sales SDRS, AI summaries, and automated calls.
With 70% of sales reps’ time spent on non-selling tasks (Source: *Salesforce’s July 2024 “State of Sales” Report), sales reps are turning to AI to become more productive with their time and utilizing AI-powered platforms for tasks such as:
- Company research
- Email copywriting
- Cold outbound
- Cold calling
- Meeting summaries and follow-ups
“I still believe as a buyer that people want to talk to people, especially for larger ASPs (average sales prices),” Sydney explained. “You’re not going to make a $50,000 purchasing decision without talking to somebody. And maybe it’s a way to stand out if everybody moves over to AI-based co-pilots. I don’t see that co-pilots are going to replace SDRs, but it may reduce the number of SDRs you have in your team over time.”
Now let’s analyze why marketing teams have become early winners and adopters in AI. On24 surveyed 520 marketers and found that companies who use AI on their marketing teams have a 7x higher lift in performance and were more likely to exceed goals rather than miss them.
Marketing teams are using AI-powered platforms for tasks such as:
- Promotional content development: ad creative and copy
- Content development: creating clips from longer form content, etc.
- Audience segmentation
- Webinars & virtual events
- In-person events
- Analytics
The market for marketing AI-assisted tools however is getting very crowded. Five years ago, there were only 20 companies on G2’s grid. Today, there are 488. That’s a lot of technologies to choose from which is making it more challenging than ever to win limited software budgets.
The Shrinking Shortlist: Winning in a Competitive Landscape
The buying process has dramatically transformed:
- Shorter Shortlists: In just one year, vendor shortlists have condensed from 4-7 products to just 1-3. Meaning buyers are comparing way fewer products before purchasing.
- Longer Sales Cycles: Buying time for a $20,000 ASP product has increased by 41% just in the last year.
- C-Suite Involvement: Executive participation in purchasing decisions has jumped 14% year-over-year.
Strategic Imperative: To stand out, you must:
- Leverage buyer intent signals
- Clearly articulate your unique value proposition
- Engage economic buyers (often the CFO) early in the sales process
3. Time to Value: The Make-or-Break Metric
The most critical insight? Expectations for ROI are misaligned:
- Expectation vs. Reality: 78% of buyers want to see ROI within six months
- Actual Delivery: Only 44% are achieving this
- AI Expectations are Even Higher: 67% of AI product buyers expect faster results than traditional solutions
Actionable Recommendations:
- Integrate customers into your product during the buying cycle
- Use digital adoption platforms to accelerate onboarding
- Create clear, automated milestone communications
- Track and celebrate early customer wins
The Bottom Line
The SaaS buying landscape is more competitive and nuanced than ever. Success requires:
- AI-driven innovation
- Laser-focused value propositions
- Rapid time-to-value strategies
By understanding and adapting to these emerging AI trends, go-to-market teams can transform these trends into opportunities for growth and customer retention.
For more on buying patterns, sign up for G2’s free Reach event on December 10th! Join C-suite execs, including SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin and GTM leaders, as he shares what it takes to win the AI race.
