What is the “rule of thirds” and why does it destroy your channel strategy?
The “rule of thirds” comes from McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse Survey: at any stage of the buying journey, one-third of customers want in-person interaction, one-third prefer remote communication, and one-third demand digital self-serve — and that split holds constant across every geography, industry, company size, and deal value. Because B2B buyers now use an average of ten channels (up from five in 2016), a single-channel or one-size-fits-all go-to-market strategy no longer works. Winning means offering all three modes seamlessly, not betting on one.
Research summary
McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse Survey reveals what they’re calling the “rule of thirds,” a fundamental truth about B2B buying behavior that invalidates most go-to-market strategies. At any given stage of the buying journey, one-third of customers want in-person interactions, one-third prefer remote communications, and one-third demand digital self-serve options. This split holds constant across all geographies, industries, company sizes, purchase types, and transaction values. The research shows that B2B customers now use an average of ten interaction channels during their buying journey, up from five in 2016, and 42% use more than eleven different touchpoints. The companies winning in this environment aren’t the ones with the best product or the biggest sales team. They’re the ones delivering seamless omnichannel experiences that let buyers engage however and whenever they want.
Key findings
The rule of thirds emerged during COVID-19 when in-person interactions became impossible and remote plus digital channels spiked to compensate. Most executives assumed this was temporary, that buyers would return to preferring in-person engagement once restrictions lifted. They were wrong. The split became even across in-person, remote, and digital self-service, and it has stayed that way since. McKinsey’s research confirms this isn’t a temporary shift. It’s the new permanent reality of B2B buying behavior.
What makes this finding remarkable is its consistency. The rule of thirds applies regardless of country, industry, company size, or purchase type. Whether buyers are researching suppliers, evaluating products, placing initial orders, or reordering, the preference distribution remains constant. One-third want face-to-face meetings. One-third prefer video calls and remote interaction. One-third want to complete the entire process digitally without human involvement.
The research identifies three distinct buyer archetypes: Adapters, who are comfortable with traditional methods but willing to try new approaches; Innovators, who actively seek cutting-edge technologies including generative AI for supplier research; and Seekers, who demand seamless omnichannel experiences and will switch suppliers if they don’t get it. Despite their differences, all three archetypes adhere to the rule of thirds and use an average of ten sales channels.
The top three most frequently used touchpoints are company websites, in-person sales interactions, and video conferences. But buyers also expect email, mobile apps, e-procurement portals, online chat, and multiple other channels to work together seamlessly. Just as consumers switch brands when experiences disappoint, B2B customers now switch suppliers when channel experiences fail to meet expectations.
Why this matters
If your go-to-market strategy assumes buyers have a dominant channel preference, you’ve already lost. The data is unambiguous: buyers don’t want a single best channel. They want every channel to work flawlessly and to move between channels without friction based on context, convenience, and complexity.
Most sales organizations built their channel strategies around internal convenience rather than buyer preferences. They invested in field sales because that’s what worked historically, added inside sales to reduce cost-to-serve, and bolted on digital channels as afterthoughts. The result is disjointed experiences where buyers get trapped in the wrong channel for their needs or forced to restart their journey when switching between channels.
The companies that deliver seamless omnichannel experiences have a massive advantage. McKinsey’s research shows these organizations achieve higher win rates, faster deal velocity, and better customer retention. Buyers who can research digitally, engage remotely for validation, and close in-person for final negotiations move through purchase decisions faster and with more confidence than buyers forced into rigid channel structures.
There’s a subtler implication about sales team structure and skill requirements. If buyers use ten different channels and expect seamless transitions between them, sales teams can’t operate in channel silos. The rep who handles inbound digital leads needs visibility into prior in-person conversations. The field seller who meets executives needs to know what the buyer researched independently online. The inside sales team managing renewals needs access to the full relationship history across all touchpoints.
This isn’t just a technology problem. It’s a data integration problem, a process design problem, and a sales capability problem. Organizations structured around channel specialization will struggle to deliver the unified experience buyers expect.
Our view
The rule of thirds isn’t about offering more channels. It’s about making every channel excellent and connecting them so buyers experience one coherent journey regardless of how they engage. Most companies are failing at both.
The first challenge is channel quality. If your digital self-service experience can’t close deals independently, you’re forcing buyers into human interactions they don’t want. If your remote selling capability consists of video calls that replicate in-person meetings badly, you’re wasting buyer time. If your field sales team treats every interaction like a relationship-building opportunity when buyers just want specific questions answered, you’re creating friction instead of value.
This is where tools like ValueNavigator™ become strategic, not just tactical. Buyers researching independently need access to quantified business impact, not just product specifications. AI-powered ROI calculations, industry benchmarks, and personalized business cases let buyers justify purchases through digital channels without waiting for sales engineering resources. When they do engage sales, the conversation starts at strategic fit rather than basic value quantification.
The second challenge is channel integration. Buyers don’t care about your internal org chart. They expect you to know what they’ve already researched, what questions they’ve already asked, and what content they’ve already consumed regardless of channel. This requires unified data platforms, integrated CRM and marketing automation, and sales processes designed around buyer continuity rather than channel handoffs.
The ValueEdge framework addresses the human element of omnichannel selling. When buyers do choose to engage sales teams regardless of channel, those interactions must deliver value that justifies the interaction. The Charisma Edge ensures credibility and presence translate across video, phone, and in-person contexts. The Narrative Edge provides a consistent, compelling story regardless of touchpoint. The Impact Edge delivers quantified business value that builds buyer confidence whether delivered remotely or face-to-face.
Companies that structure sales teams around channels rather than buyer journeys will continue to struggle. The buyers categorized as Seekers in McKinsey’s research represent 36% of the market and explicitly demand seamless experiences. When they don’t get it, they switch suppliers. That’s not a threat to take lightly.
What companies should do now
Audit your buyer journey for channel breaks. Identify where buyers get trapped in the wrong channel, where information doesn’t carry over between channels, and where channel transitions create unnecessary friction. Fix the biggest breaks first, particularly those affecting high-value opportunities.
Invest in making your digital channels genuinely self-sufficient. If one-third of buyers want digital self-service, your website needs to close deals, not just generate leads. Build ROI calculators, product configurators, transparent pricing, and digital business case tools that let buyers complete purchases independently. Stop treating digital as a lead generation channel and start treating it as a sales channel.
Unify your data so every sales interaction, regardless of channel, reflects the complete buyer relationship. This means integrating CRM, marketing automation, customer success platforms, and any other system that captures buyer behavior. Sales teams operating without complete context deliver subpar experiences regardless of their individual skill levels.
Retrain sales teams for omnichannel excellence. Field sellers need to be as effective on video as in person. Inside sales needs to deliver the same strategic value as field teams, just more efficiently. Digital touchpoints need to feel as personalized as human interactions. This requires new skills, new tools, and new performance expectations.
Finally, implement buyer experience metrics that measure channel quality and integration, not just channel activity. Track how often buyers switch channels, where they experience friction, and how channel transitions affect deal velocity. Use this data to continuously improve the omnichannel experience rather than optimizing individual channels in isolation.
The rule of thirds is permanent. The only question is whether you’ll adapt your channel strategy accordingly or keep losing deals to competitors who already have.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
At any given stage of the B2B buying journey, one-third of customers want in-person interaction, one-third prefer remote communication, and one-third demand digital self-serve. McKinsey found this split holds constant across geographies, industries, company sizes, purchase types, and transaction values.
According to McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse Survey, buyers now use an average of ten interaction channels during their journey — up from five in 2016 — and 42% use more than eleven different touchpoints.
Because betting on a single dominant channel — whether in-person, remote, or digital — ignores two-thirds of buyers at every stage. Modern buyers move fluidly across modes, so any one-size-fits-all go-to-market approach leaves demand on the table.
Not the best product or the biggest sales team, but the ability to offer in-person, remote, and digital self-serve options seamlessly across a buyer’s many touchpoints — meeting each customer in the mode they prefer at each stage.
About ValuePros
ValuePros is a value enablement firm for organizations selling big-ticket B2B solutions. We help revenue teams work with their buyers to see, quantify, and capture real value, so their CFO can say “yes.”
We do that through a program we call the Value Edge: value narratives, CFO-ready value calculators, and value enablement training.
Let’s talk about how to lead your buyers with value.
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