As Rob Harlow, Sopro CEO, and Ryan Welmans, Sopro chairman, point out in Sopro’s latest annual State of Prospecting report, “AI has made it easier than ever to send messages and harder than ever to stand out. Buyers are harder to reach and harder to influence. But outreach isn’t broken. It just hasn’t kept pace with the evolution of buyer behavior.
“More research happens before a message. More decisions are made before a meeting. More brands are ruled out before they even know they were considered. The challenge isn’t reaching people. It is being relevant at the moment they are ready.”
In brief, key findings of their company’s report expand on the following themes:
- Buyers decide when the conversation starts. Self-directed research, closed platforms and AI-driven evaluations mean decisions often form before outreach is answered. Prospecting must align with how buyers already behave.
- Brand familiarity and consistent outreach lift performance. When buyers recognize the sender, reply rates, meeting rates and deal velocity increase. Visibility isn’t cosmetic — it’s commercial.
- Quality beats quantity every time. Sharper audience definition improves inbox placement, boosts engagement and makes messaging feel relevant. The best results come from tighter lists, not bigger sends.
- Integration beats accumulation. Most companies have the right tools but not the integration. The strongest performers unify channels, workflows and reporting around a single view of the buyer.
- In an AI-driven world, people still buy from people. Automation can start conversations, but humans close them. Credibility, proof and real responses now separate meaningful engagement from ignored noise.
“Social proof uses the voice of other people to build credibility,” says Vic Heyward, director of marketing at Sopro. “It’s not about landing in someone’s inbox as a stranger and saying, ‘Everyone loves us, trust me.’ That’s just arrogance.”
B2B purchases are now group decisions. The average buying committee includes at least four stakeholders, often more. Yet many outreach strategies still target one contact – typically the final approver – and ignore the colleagues who shape the decision earlier. Account-Based Engagement (ABE) widens that focus. It connects with every key player: finance and procurement teams, technical experts, end-users, and compliance reviewers. Each has different priorities – ROI, risk, practicality, or fit – and each needs relevant information to stay aligned.
Multi-threaded outreach ensures that every stakeholder has a reason to engage. It prevents deals from stalling when one person goes quiet or another raises new objections. In short, ABE turns one conversation into many, helping keep the buying group moving together.
The Sales Landscape
Top Lead Gen Channels
- Email 71%
- Referrals 56%
- Paid social media 51%
Outreach complexity
- 58% use multiple outreach channels …
- … but only 21% coordinate across channels
- 87% use intent signals in some form …
- … but fewer than half of them trigger or tailor outreach.
Buyer Behavior
- The average B2B buying decision now involves 4.05 people
- Sellers say deals involve more decision-makers this year 34%
The Erosion of Trust: Brand, Credibility, and Human Touch
- Vendors believe their audience is less trusting of prospecting than before 61%
- Lack of confidence or trust in providers cited as a leading blocker to signing deals 34%
- Most outreach they receive feels sales-led rather than helpful 71%
Approach Strategies
Coverage
- Recipients more likely to engage with outreach if it’s sent on their preferred channel 80%
- Average number of channels B2B buyers pick when asked how they prefer to be contacted 2.9 (up from 2.5 in 2025)
- Increased percent of closed deals delivered by AI-filtered audiences, despite lead volumes staying the same 356%
Relevance & Visibility
- Percent more likely to engage if there are relevant case studies or social proof 80%
- Percent who say outreach works best when combined with inbound 80%
- Percent who believe outreach is more effective when integrated with brand activity 77%
- Percent of buyers more likely to engage if they recognize the sender 84%
The State of Prospecting 2026
The fifth annual report features insights from more than 400 senior B2B decision-makers, analysis of 126 million emails, and more than 25 million multi-channel touchpoints and intent signals, paired with strategies from today’s leading outreach experts.
Sopro is a global multi-channel prospecting service for B2B businesses.
Source: Sopro’s whitepaper “The State of Prospecting 2026”
