Rethinking Regional Approaches in B2B Marketing
As organizations expand into European markets, they often group countries into broad regions like BeNeLux, DACH, the Nordics, or Southern Europe. This approach makes sense from a go-to-market (GTM) perspective — it helps streamline operations, manage offices, organize teams, and centralize back-office functions. However, applying the same broad categorization to understanding buyer behavior can risk overlooking critical cultural and decision-making differences that impact marketing and sales success.
While these regional labels make business administration more manageable, they do not reflect a unified buyer behavior or market dynamic. Each country within a region has distinct cultural, economic, and business influences shaping how organizations research, evaluate, and ultimately select vendors. A one-size-fits-all approach to messaging, targeting, and engagement can lead to missed opportunities or even misalignment with local buyers.
A Collaborative Effort to Rethink the B2B Buying Journey
We’ve been working closely with 6sense for several years now, and our conversations have never been “just” about delivering their solutions to the market. From day one, we’ve exchanged ideas on how to raise awareness and make a real impact in B2B marketing and sales. These ongoing discussions naturally led us to question some of the traditional ways of thinking about buyer behavior and explore new ways to engage with modern B2B decision-makers.
One thing that’s always stood out about 6sense is their commitment to research. They’ve built a deep understanding of how buying groups operate, what drives vendor selection, and how businesses can engage buyers more effectively. Their research consistently challenges the idea that B2B decision-making follows a predictable, linear path. Instead, it’s often fluid, with multiple stakeholders coming in and out of the process at different points.
That’s why we were excited when we published “B2B Buyer Journeys: When One Size Doesn’t Fit All”, and it resonated not just with our audience but also with 6sense’s thought leadership team. What started as a few emails quickly evolved into deeper working sessions. As we dug into the findings together, one conversation in particular stood out: the challenge of applying broad, standardized approaches to different regions.
We kept coming back to the same question — does a "one size fits all" approach really work in B2B marketing, or are we overlooking something important? That discussion sparked a deeper dive into regional and cultural differences in European buyer behavior, and we set out to explore what’s really happening beneath the surface.
A Fresh Look at the B2B Buyer Journey
Traditionally, B2B buyer journeys are segmented into three stages: Education, Consideration, and Selection. While this framework helps marketing and sales teams align their content and messaging, it often assumes a linear progression. In reality, buying groups frequently move back and forth between stages, with members engaging at different points and playing varying roles in the decision-making process. 6sense’s research reframed this process into two primary phases:
- The Selection Phase (70% of the journey): Buyers research and rank a shortlist of vendors, gathering and evaluating information to define purchase requirements and establish a preferred choice.
- The Validation Phase (30% of the journey): Buyers confirm their top choice, often reaching out to their preferred vendor first and purchasing from them over 80% of the time.
A key challenge for vendors is that they typically only see the final 30% of the journey. But what happens in the hidden 70%? How do buyers reach their decisions before engaging with vendors, and could regional factors influence this early-stage process?
Examining European Buyer Behavior Through a Cultural Lens
Many B2B marketing strategies still generalize European markets based on broad regional labels. But is this an effective approach? By combining our experience with European markets with 6sense’s research, we investigated whether cultural and regional differences significantly impact buyer decision-making.
The research analyzed data from various European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Ireland. The objective was to determine whether behaviors aligned across regions or if distinct national differences influenced purchasing decisions.
Initial findings revealed that even within closely grouped regions, buyer behavior varies significantly. BeNeLux, for example, is often treated as a single market, but Belgium and the Netherlands exhibit key differences in their B2B decision-making processes. Assuming homogeneity within these regions may lead to missed opportunities and ineffective engagement strategies.
What's Next?
The insights from this research challenge traditional GTM strategies and highlight the importance of localized engagement. Understanding cultural nuances and decision-making patterns at a national level can help businesses refine their messaging, improve buyer engagement, and ultimately drive better sales outcomes.
Stay tuned for our upcoming report, where we take a deep dive into Belgium and the Netherlands — two markets often grouped together but with distinct buyer behaviors that could reshape how businesses approach their European strategy.
About the Author
Follow on Linkedin More Content by Zoe De Preter
