Our media buyers receive 25 to 30 unsolicited messages every day.
Pitches come in from all angles: emails, calls, DMs, all offering the next big ad platform, placement or tool. Many are thoughtful. Some are relevant. But most blend together.
Not because the ideas aren’t interesting, but because the volume makes it hard to separate what’s truly valuable from what’s just noise.
So, we put a simple process in place: before we take a meeting, vendors fill out a short form. It helps us filter for fit, prioritize time and stay focused on what matters.
It also reinforces a broader truth we see playing out across the B2B landscape. When too much information comes at once, the good stuff gets ignored.
Buyer burnout isn’t about a lack of interest. It’s often the result of too much input, delivered too frequently, by marketing and sales teams trying to stay top of mind but ultimately wearing buyers down.
Here’s how those factors are derailing deals—and how to simplify the path forward.
1. The Overload Problem: Too Much of a Good Thing
B2B buyers are inundated with touchpoints at every stage of the journey. A recent study from 6sense found that a typical buying team encounters over 4,000 touchpoints while evaluating vendors. When another vendor is added to the mix, that number nearly doubles.
This isn’t just a matter of content quantity. It’s about mental bandwidth. According to research from Bloojam, two-thirds of the buyer’s journey is spent sorting, processing and reconciling conflicting information. Rather than gaining clarity, buyers often end up in a cycle of decision paralysis.
Gartner calls this a “crisis of confidence.” Ironically, even high-quality content can become counterproductive when delivered in excess. The sheer volume makes it harder for buyers to process, compare and make confident decisions.
2. The Journey Jam: Too Many Steps, Too Little Alignment
Modern buying groups are larger than ever. Data from Sopro reveals that complex B2B decisions often involve more than eight people, each with their own goals, filters and concerns.
That complexity is felt. In one survey, 87% of B2B buyers described their last purchase as “very complex or difficult.” And nearly 70% cited internal misalignment, unclear processes and competing priorities as major sources of friction during the buying process.
When buyers feel overwhelmed by the process itself with conflicting messages, unclear next steps and multiple decision-makers, it becomes easier to delay, disengage or default to the status quo.
What This Means for Marketers and Sales Teams
More touchpoints, more content and more tools do not automatically drive better decisions. In fact, Gartner found that buyers who conduct their own research without vendor guidance are 1.65 times more likely to experience purchase regret.
Instead of more, buyers need better. They need clarity, not clutter. Simplicity, not sales pressure.
How to Reduce Friction and Rebuild Confidence
Here are three practical ways to reduce buyer burnout by streamlining your strategy:
1. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
Focus on delivering only the most relevant content for each stage of the journey. One strong insight is more valuable than five generic messages.
2. Simplify the Experience by Design
Review your buyer journey from the outside in. Where are buyers encountering redundant steps, conflicting messaging or unclear CTAs? Eliminate the noise and reduce the number of handoffs.
3. Guide, Don’t Push
Your role is not just to inform. It’s to help buyers interpret and act on information. Tools like decision matrices, comparison summaries or stakeholder-aligned one-pagers can build trust while easing the cognitive load.
When decision-makers are overloaded, even the best message can get lost. Buyer burnout is not just something happening to our prospects; it’s something marketing and sales teams are often creating without realizing it.
Our media team’s simple intake form didn’t just help us manage incoming volume. It forced us to rethink what makes outreach meaningful, what earns attention and how to create more focus in a noisy space.
It’s a small but telling example of what many marketing and sales organizations need to do themselves: pause, simplify and prioritize the buyer’s experience over the push for more engagement.
Because the path to better conversions doesn’t start with more touchpoints. It starts with fewer, more intentional ones.
The brands that break through will be the ones that reduce friction, not add to it. The ones that help buyers breathe, not burn out.