In a Google and Bain survey, 86% of B2B buyers already had a list of suppliers in mind, and 92% bought from it. Here is how a business gets on that list.
A plant manager who needs a new contractor rarely starts from zero. Before anyone types a search, a few names are already in mind: the company a peer mentioned, the one that presented at an industry meeting, the one whose article got forwarded around the office last spring.
Research calls this the Day One List, and it changes what marketing is for. If the buyer has mostly decided who they will consider before they begin, the race starts long before the first form fill.
A Day One List is the group of suppliers a buyer already knows they want to consider when a purchase begins. Google partnered with Bain to survey 1,208 people at U.S. companies in 2022, and the numbers are hard to ignore.
Two cautions belong beside those figures. They come from a single survey published as content sponsored by Google, which sells advertising, and they describe what buyers reported rather than a tracked record of every purchase. They're a strong signal, not a law. The same work also found that most buyers do more research and add at least one supplier, so a business that isn't on the list on day one can still get in.
Marketer Mark P. Jung made the practical point in a post on LinkedIn: most of your audience isn't shopping today, yet they're still forming an opinion of you. That work rarely appears on a dashboard, because the person who read your article in March may not call until October, and when they do, they type your name straight into a browser.
So a report can show that nothing happened while the thing you most want is happening. Judging everything by this month's leads tends to cut the very work that fills next year's list.
| When | What the buyer is doing | What helps you |
|---|---|---|
| Not shopping yet | Reading, asking peers, noticing names | Plain, useful answers to the problems they run into |
| Something breaks or budget opens | Writing down the names they remember | A name that's familiar and easy to find |
| Checking you out | Looking at your site, reviews and profile | Real projects, specific details, recent reviews |
| Adding one more option | Searching for the problem, not a company | Showing up in search and AI answers for that problem |
Watch for slow signals rather than instant leads. More people searching for your company by name, more answers on your intake form that point to something you published, and more calls that begin with "I've been following you" all suggest your name is reaching the list. None of those proves cause on its own, but together they show whether you're being remembered.
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We build the steady presence that gets a business remembered: useful answers on your site, a profile that reads well when someone checks you out, and search visibility for the problems your buyers actually have.
It's the group of suppliers a buyer already knows they want to consider when a purchase begins. In a 2022 Google and Bain survey of 1,208 people at U.S. companies, 86% of B2B buyers said they had one.
Yes. The same research found most buyers do more research and add at least one supplier. Showing up when someone searches for the problem, with real proof of your work, is how a late name gets added.
The person who reads your article may not contact you for months, and when they do, they often type your name in directly. A lead report credits that last step, not the earlier work that made them remember you.
Track searches for your company name, add a how did you first hear about us question to your form and phone intake, and note who mentions something you published. Together those signals show whether you're being remembered.
Sources
The Lab is original analysis by WebKing. We summarize and interpret developments from the sources above for industrial, commercial, and small business owners. Figures are reported as published by their sources.
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