¶01 Buyers do the research on their own now
Most ERP partners hear from a buyer after the shortlist is already made. If your firm is not on it by then, the first conversation never happens.
This is not just an ERP trend. In a Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers across industries, 67% said they prefer a rep-free experience (Gartner, 9 March 2026). 45% said they used AI during a recent purchase.
Those figures are cross-industry. Gartner did not study ERP or UK buyers specifically. But if your enquiries arrive later, better informed or less often than they used to, this is a likely reason.
¶02 Where an ERP partner shortlist actually gets made
The shortlist is built in places you do not see and cannot sit in on.
Google. A buyer searches for help with an implementation, a rescue or support, and opens a handful of firms.
AI answers. More buyers now ask an AI assistant who to talk to. We cover why AI recommends one firm over another in a separate entry.
Review sites and directories. Listings, ratings and partner pages are quick ways to narrow the field.
Peers. A recommendation from someone who has been through a project still carries weight. It is one source among several, not the whole story. Gartner reports buyers used an average of seven information sources during a recent purchase.
Your website. Every route above ends here. It is where a buyer checks whether you do what they need.
¶03 Why strong delivery firms miss the cut
Good delivery firms often rely on referrals and reputation. That works until the buyer has never heard of you.
A buyer comparing firms on their own can only judge what is public. Common gaps we see:
- The site says “trusted” and “leading” but not what you deliver, for whom, or at what scale.
- Proof is hard to find or cannot be checked.
- Listings and profiles disagree with the website.
- The firm does not show up at all for the questions buyers ask.
None of this reflects the quality of the work. It reflects what a stranger can see in a few minutes. See building routes to enquiries beyond referrals for more on this. To see whether search engines and AI crawlers can read your site at all, try our free AI visibility checker.
¶04 What buyers still want from a person
Buyers still want to talk to someone. They just want to do it later, and for a different reason.
Gartner found that 69% of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps (Gartner, 20 May 2026, a survey of 645 buyers run at the same time). The person is there to confirm what the buyer has already found and to reduce risk.
So the first call is not where you make your case. By then the buyer has already formed a view. The case has to be made in public, before they get in touch.
¶05 How we put you on the shortlist
We work only with specialist firms such as NetSuite and ERP partners. We make your firm easier to find, understand and check at each place buyers look.
- Pages that answer the questions buyers actually search and ask AI assistants.
- Proof that is specific, dated and easy to check.
- Consistent details across your site, listings and profiles.
- Clear routes from a page to an enquiry.
We do not promise rankings, AI mentions or lead numbers. We agree what to measure up front and report what changed. See NetSuite partner marketing, ERP partner lead generation and our case studies. If you would rather do the work in-house, our SEO and AI visibility playbook sets out the fixes as a 30-day plan.
¶06 Find out where you’re losing buyers
Start with the free Enquiry Leak Finder. It takes about three minutes and points to where buyers may be dropping out before they contact you.
Want a fuller picture? The free Visibility Review is a written assessment of your site and visibility, with a prioritised plan to keep.