<b>The 95-5 rule: most of your buyers aren't in-market</b>

<b>The 95-5 rule: most of your buyers aren't in-market</b>

The question: at any given moment, what share of B2B buyers are actually ready to purchase — and what does that imply for content?

The dataset: the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute's B2B work, drawing on category-purchase-cycle data, estimates how many buyers in a category are 'in-market' in a given quarter versus dormant.

Three findings:
— Only ~5% of business buyers are actively in a buying cycle at any time; ~95% are out-of-market, not shopping.
— Purchase cycles for considered B2B categories often run 1–7 years, so today's content mostly reaches people who'll buy much later.
— 'Mental availability' — being the brand recalled when need arises — predicts inclusion in the consideration set more than in-the-moment persuasion.

Caveats: the 5% figure is a category-dependent average, not a constant; cycle lengths vary widely. Treat the ratio as a planning heuristic, not a measured truth for your funnel.

What it means for B2B: lead-gen content optimized only for the 5% ignores the 95% who decide your shortlist position years out. Brand-building isn't fluffy — it's memory pre-loading.

Bottom line: you're not closing today's buyer; you're being remembered by next year's.