Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

O'Neil: Over Half of B2B Buyers Prioritize Experience Over Price

Theresa O'Neil · "Aligning Sales, Marketing, and CS to Scale Revenue and Retention" Theresa O'Neil, Showpad CMO · Jul 24, 2019 · at 1:29

This episode carries Theresa O'Neil's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.

Showpad CMO Theresa O'Neil explains how consumer expectations shaped by Amazon and Booking.com have shifted B2B purchasing behavior toward valuing sales experience over price or product features.

0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.7s

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“So now more than half of B to B buyers are buying based on experience over price or product.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

As of 2019, more than half of B2B buyers make purchasing decisions based on customer experience rather than price or product.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim accurately reflects the core conclusions of major industry research published leading up to 2019 (notably Walker Information, Salesforce, and Gartner), but slightly overstates the findings. Walker's widely cited 'Customers 2020' reports projected that customer experience (CX) would overtake price and product as the primary brand differentiator by 2020, while Salesforce's June 2019 'State of the Connected Customer' report found that 89% of B2B buyers viewed CX as equally important to products/services and 57% had actively switched vendors due to superior CX. Gartner similarly found CX drove over 66% of customer loyalty. However, direct procurement studies showed price and core product capabilities remained mandatory baseline criteria rather than being subordinated to CX.

Salesforce's June 2019 'State of the Connected Customer' survey found 89% of B2B buyers viewed CX as as important as products and services, and 57% had stopped buying from a vendor due to a competitor's superior CX.
Walker Information's 'Customers 2020' research benchmark projected that CX would overtake price and product as the primary B2B brand differentiator by 2020.
Gartner research found CX accounted for more than two-thirds (66%+) of B2B customer loyalty, surpassing price and brand combined.

Checked against

[1] providesupport.com [2] walkerxm.com [3] ttec.com [4] retailtouchpoints.com [5] agiliron.com [6] ronkaufman.com [7] salesforce.com [8] convinceandconvert.com

"Theresa O'Neil" "customer experience" "price" "product" Gartner "customer experience" "more than brand and price combined" "Walker" "by 2020" "customer experience will overtake price and product" Walker customer 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product Salesforce State of the Connected Customer B2B buyers customer experience price product Gartner B2B buying customer experience price product 2019 more than half of B2B buyers customer experience price product 2019 Salesforce "State of the Connected Customer" "80%" "experience" "products and services" 2018 2019

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

B to B buyers experience

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