📂 95% of your buyers aren't ready (YET)

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Today's newsletter is brought to you by my friend Alon Even. Alon is a fractional CMO that I've collaborated with on some of my European clients at Conversion Factory.

I first encountered Chet Holmes' Buyer Pyramid when I read his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine (see visual below).
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Early in my career, it completely changed how I approached marketing.

But before we get into the specifics, what does this really mean?

Holmes’ Stadium Pitch emphasizes engaging the entire audience of potential buyers, not just the 3% ready to buy now, but the larger 97% who aren’t yet in market.
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It’s now known as the 95:5 rule (out-of-market vs. in-market buyers), popularized by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, though the exact ratio may vary depending on your category.

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What's the big deal?

Holme’s approach was different because it focused on building long-term brand awareness, not just chasing “quick wins”, ensuring your brand stays top of mind when buyers are ready to buy.

And that shapes your entire GTM.
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Here’s why:

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As the graph shows, focusing on short-term strategies like demand capture and lead generation helps you reach the 5% of B2B buyers who are actively buying.

But sooner than later, you’ll hit a growth plateau.
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Because you're only targeting the small percentage of in-market buyers, which means you eventually run out of ready customers.
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That’s why you also need to invest in long-term strategies like brand marketing and demand creation to make you the easy choice for the remaining 95% that enter the market at a later date.
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And here’s the kicker- they actually work better together. Long-term strategies also help you drive short-term results.

To make a long story short, striking a healthy balance between short- and long-term strategies, depending on your stage of growth, is key to sustainable growth.

Not all buyers are created equal

95% of your buyers aren’t just an “unconvinced” audience.

They’re not in the market for three main reasons:

• They don't have a problem
• They are not aware of problem you solve
• They have a problem, but don’t prioritize solving it

Which means that if your marketing is aimed at convincing them, it’ll simply go ignored.

And that’s where the opportunity lies.
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What works with this audience is consistently building and refreshing brand awareness and creating demand. Simply put, you want to educate them about who you are, what you do, why you’re different, and why they should choose you.

And here’s the thing:
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You can’t force them into the market. You can’t control their timeline. But, by building that awareness, your brand will be top of mind when they decide to make a move.
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What about measurement?

Without diving too deep into the details, I'll just say this:

Traditional metrics like conversion rates or ROI work well for measuring short-term strategies, but they won’t fully capture the impact of your long-term efforts.

In fact, measuring long-term strategies requires a different mindset.

It’s about tracking metrics like brand recognition and recall, share of voice (SOV), engagement over time, branded search, and direct traffic, to name a few. These metrics give you a clearer picture of how well your GTM strategy is building future demand while complementing your short-term efforts.
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It’s not just about closing deals today, though that’s important, but also ensuring your brand stays relevant and top of mind for when buyers eventually enter the market.