What does Forrester’s 2025 data reveal about self-service and the disappearing sales rep?
Forrester’s 2025 B2B predictions reveal that more than half of large B2B transactions over
What does Forrester’s 2025 data reveal about self-service and the disappearing sales rep?
million will run through digital self-serve channels — even for deals vendors assumed were too complex or relationship-driven to buy without a rep. Millennial and Gen Z buyers are driving the shift, with over half of younger buyers relying on ten or more external influencers instead of vendor sales teams. When self-service becomes the sale, the rep’s role doesn’t disappear — it changes to delivering value the buyer can’t get on their own.Research summary
Forrester’s 2025 B2B marketing and sales predictions reveal a fundamental shift in buying behavior that most sales organizations are pretending won’t happen to them. According to their research, more than half of large B2B transactions over $1 million will be processed through digital self-serve channels by 2025. The vendors that believed they were too complex, too strategic, or too relationship-driven to be bought without a sales rep are about to learn otherwise. Millennial and Gen Z buyers are driving this change, with over 50% of younger buyers relying on 10 or more external influencers rather than vendor sales teams to make purchase decisions.
Key findings
The data is unambiguous. Buyers want to research, evaluate, and purchase without talking to salespeople. Nearly 44% of Millennial buyers actively avoid sales conversations during the B2B purchasing process, and 40% would pay a premium for products that make the sales process easier. These aren’t buyers being difficult. They’re buyers who grew up making consumer purchases online and have zero tolerance for friction disguised as relationship building.
Gartner reinforces this with complementary research showing that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their purchase journey meeting with potential suppliers. The rest of their time is spent researching independently, and 90% expect a direct-to-consumer style experience when they do engage. The traditional sales motion built on discovery calls and multi-touch nurture campaigns is fundamentally misaligned with how modern buyers actually want to buy.
The shift extends beyond channel preference to information sources. When buyers need validation, they’re turning to peer networks, online reviews, and social media rather than sales development representatives. This explains why 100% of buyers now want to self-serve all or part of the buying journey. The sales team isn’t adding value at the moments buyers need it most.
Why this matters
This isn’t about adding a better website or enabling e-commerce. This is about accepting that the sale is happening without you, and your choice is whether you’re equipped for that reality or not. Companies that treat digital channels as supplementary rather than primary are leaving revenue on the table while their competitors build experiences that convert without human intervention.
The implications go deeper than channel strategy. If buyers are avoiding sales conversations, what does that say about the quality of those conversations? Most sales interactions fail to deliver insight buyers can’t find themselves, fail to accelerate decision-making, and fail to reduce risk. Buyers aren’t rejecting salespeople because they don’t need help. They’re rejecting salespeople because most salespeople aren’t actually helping.
Sales organizations built around relationship selling and consultative discovery are going to struggle. The buyers willing to sit through those conversations are aging out of decision-making roles, and the buyers replacing them have been trained by Amazon, Netflix, and Uber to expect instant access, transparent information, and zero friction. Vendors who can’t deliver that experience will lose deals to vendors who can, regardless of product superiority.
Our view
The companies winning in this environment aren’t eliminating sales teams. They’re redesigning when and how those teams engage. The mistake isn’t having salespeople. The mistake is forcing buyers to interact with salespeople before they’re ready, and then delivering interactions that don’t justify the interruption.
Best-in-class organizations are building digital buying experiences that do three things exceptionally well. First, they provide quantified business impact early in the buyer journey, so prospects understand value without needing a sales conversation to translate features into outcomes. Tools like ValueNavigator™ allow buyers to calculate ROI and justify purchases on their own timeline, using AI-driven benchmarks that deliver credibility without requiring sales engineering resources.
Second, they use AI to detect genuine buying signals so sales teams engage at the right moment with the right context, not according to arbitrary cadence schedules. This is where the 3.7x quota attainment difference comes from in Gartner’s research on AI-enabled sales reps. Better timing and better context create interactions buyers actually value.
Third, they train sales teams to deliver high-value consultative engagement rather than generic discovery. The ValueEdge framework addresses this directly through its focus on trust, narrative strength, and measurable impact. When sales teams do engage, they need to demonstrate charisma that earns credibility instantly, narrative clarity that inspires action, and business case rigor that removes purchasing risk. Anything less is noise buyers will tune out.
The vendors that resist this evolution will become increasingly irrelevant to the largest segment of business buyers. The vendors that embrace it are discovering they can win deals faster, command premium pricing, and build stronger customer relationships. They’re just not doing it through the sales playbook they used before.
What companies should do now
Stop treating digital self-service as a secondary channel. If half your target buyers want to purchase without talking to sales, your digital experience needs to close deals, not just generate leads. Build calculators, configure-price-quote tools, and business case generators that let buyers justify purchases independently.
Audit your sales interactions for value delivered. If your discovery calls sound like interrogations and your presentations sound like feature dumps, your buyers have better ways to spend their time. Retrain sales teams to deliver insight buyers can’t find elsewhere and to accelerate decisions buyers would otherwise delay.
Implement AI-powered buying signal detection so sales engages when buyers are ready, not when the CRM says it’s time to follow up. This requires integrating data across channels and training teams to interpret signals correctly, but the payoff is dramatic. McKinsey’s research on top-performing B2B teams confirms that success comes from timing, context, and creativity, not volume or persistence.
Finally, equip your buyers to sell internally. Most B2B purchases require multi-stakeholder consensus, and buyers need tools to build that consensus without scheduling another demo. Provide business cases with quantified value, industry benchmarks, and clear risk mitigation so your champions can advocate effectively when you’re not in the room.
The shift to digital-first, self-service buying isn’t reversible. The only question is whether you’ll adapt in time to capture the buyers who expect it.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
According to Forrester’s 2025 predictions, more than half of large B2B transactions over $1 million will be processed through digital self-serve channels — including deals vendors assumed were too complex or strategic to buy without a sales rep.
Millennial and Gen Z buyers are driving the change. Over 50% of younger buyers rely on ten or more external influencers, rather than vendor sales teams, to make their purchase decisions.
Not exactly — the role changes. Sales organizations built purely around relationship access are most at risk, while winning teams use AI to detect genuine buying signals and train reps to deliver value the buyer can’t get on their own.
Stop treating digital self-service as a threat, audit sales interactions for the value they actually add, implement AI-powered buying-signal detection, and equip buyers to sell the decision internally — because much of the journey now happens without a rep.
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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