The Difference Between Capturing Attention and Creating Influence

Think about the last major supply or technology decision your organization made.

There’s a good chance the winning company was already on your shortlist before anyone from sales contacted you.

If that’s true, a more important question follows:

What influenced that decision?

Most marketing teams have become very good at measuring attention.

Website traffic. Downloads. Clicks. Engagement. Share of voice.

These metrics tell us who’s paying attention.

They don’t tell us who is earning trust.

And in B2B, trust is what influences business decisions.

Research from 6sense, Gartner and Forrester all points to the same trend. Buyers are making decisions earlier, researching independently and relying less on vendors and more on trusted sources.

According to the 6sense 2025 Buyer Experience Report, 95% of buyers purchase from a vendor already on their Day One shortlist, 94% rank vendors before engaging with sales, and around 80% buy from the first vendor they contact.

Gartner’s latest sales survey found that 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, researching and evaluating suppliers before speaking with sales.

Forrester also found that 86% of B2B buyers say objective, third-party content is critical to trusting a vendor’s thought leadership claims.

Together, these studies explain how modern B2B buyers behave.

What they don’t explain is why one company earns trust while another doesn’t.

As AI makes it easier than ever to produce more content, creating attention is becoming increasingly accessible. Creating genuine influence is becoming increasingly valuable.

After nearly 20 years helping global B2B brands grow across Japan, South Korea and the wider Asia-Pacific region, my experience has led me to believe that influence is rarely created by content alone.

Content earns attention.

Stories create memory.

Ideas start conversations.

Conversations build relationships.

Relationships build confidence.

Trust creates influence.

And influence shapes business decisions.

That’s the question we’re exploring through the APAC B2B Influence Study.

We’re inviting senior business leaders across Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia to share how content, storytelling, relationships and trust influence major B2B purchasing decisions.

If you’re involved in selecting suppliers, technologies or strategic partners, I’d genuinely value your perspective.

The survey takes around 12 minutes to complete.

As a participant, you’ll receive early access to the findings, an invitation to our executive briefing and the option to benchmark your responses against other senior B2B leaders across APAC.

Take part here:

https://aim-b2b.com/lp/b2b-survey-2026/

We already understand how buyers discover suppliers.

We have a growing understanding of when they make decisions.

The next challenge is understanding why they choose one company over another.

Because attention is easy to measure.

Influence is what grows businesses.