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Understanding Buyer Timing and Its Impact on SaaS Marketing: Insights from the 6sense Buyer Experience Report

In the world of SaaS marketing, we’ve all heard the mantra, “right message, right time.” It’s a guiding principle that suggests if we can perfectly align our marketing efforts with buyer intent and insight, we’ll unlock tremendous growth. But according to the 6sense Buyer Experience Report, this idea may not hold as much weight in reality—especially when it comes to complex, B2B purchases.

The Reality of Buyer Timing

The major takeaway from the report? We don’t, and can’t, control buyer timing. Buyers have their own agendas, priorities, and decision-making timelines that are largely beyond our influence. This has critical implications for how we approach and measure marketing efforts in the SaaS space.

While we can certainly create strategies that attempt to align with buyer behavior, it’s unlikely that we can fully dictate or predict the exact moment when someone is ready to engage or make a purchase decision. The notion of nailing the “perfect timing” with marketing campaigns, therefore, is somewhat misleading.

Why "Right Message, Right Time" Isn't Enough

For simple consumer purchases, timing can make a difference. But in the realm of complex, high-stakes buying decisions, timing is less about precision and more about convenience. Often, when a marketing message seems perfectly timed, it's really because the buyer was already on a path toward making that decision. The marketing message simply provided a convenient entry point into a conversation they were planning to have anyway.

This is not to say that there isn’t value in creating such conveniences for buyers—there is. But the real question is: How much of that success is actually incremental?

In complex buying journeys, data shows that the majority of the vendor selection process happens before the first sales engagement. Buyers do their research, compare options, and develop their shortlists long before they engage with sales teams. That means marketing needs to focus on influencing buyers during this early, pre-engagement phase.

Why MQL Generation Isn't the Goal

Given the buyer timing dynamics laid out by the 6sense report, it’s clear that marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) should not be viewed as the primary objective. If much of the buyer’s decision-making process happens before they engage with a vendor, then generating MQLs is merely correlational, not causal. Just because someone engages with your content or hits a lead score threshold doesn’t mean your marketing caused that engagement—it could simply reflect their pre-existing intent.

The takeaway here is that focusing too much on MQL generation is short-sighted. It’s not enough to build nurturing streams and accumulate lead scores. Success in marketing SaaS isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about being in the right place early enough in the buyer’s journey to matter.

The Case for Brand Investment

So, where should the marketing investment go? The answer is clear: brand awareness.

In the 6sense report, data supports the fact that much of a buyer’s consideration set is formed around brands they already know and trust. By the time they’re deep into the vendor selection process, they’ve likely already narrowed down their options to familiar names. This means that brand awareness is the key prerequisite to being in that consideration set.

This insight has major implications for SaaS marketers. Rather than pouring resources into incremental lead generation and sales engagement, a significant portion of your investment should go into building and sustaining brand awareness. By establishing your brand as a trusted, known entity early on, you increase the likelihood that buyers will consider you when they’re ready to make a decision—regardless of when that might be.

Conclusion

The 6sense Buyer Experience Report sheds light on a critical truth: we cannot control buyer timing. In complex SaaS purchases, marketing’s role is less about hitting a bullseye with perfect timing and more about laying the groundwork through brand awareness and trust.

While MQLs and nurturing strategies may play a role in the buyer journey, they are not the end game. To influence buyer behavior and drive real results, SaaS marketers must prioritize brand investment. Because when it comes to the moment of consideration, buyers turn to the brands they already know.

Invest in your brand today, so that when buyers are ready, you’ll already be on their shortlist.