The 95/5 Rule Explained: If You Build It (The Brand) They Will Come

Sep 28, 2026 | 0 comments

September 2026. I listened to the voicemail from a lead that went cold over nine months ago. It was not uncommon for prospects to resurface a year after ghosting me on a detailed, customized proposal. I returned the call. He said he’d had my business card on his desk since we met at a conference where I was a speaker last October. I buy the thick business cards, with my picture on it, because I don’t want them to throw it away. It’s the cheap, flimsy cards that are the first to go, no matter how much you liked that person, when you’re rage cleaning your desk. It’s easy to let it go. A smiling face, though? A card with some weight? It sticks around longer.

A week later, the Scope of Work was signed and onboarding had begun. The contract was more than the original proposed nine months ago. What was different today than before? Plenty of variables that all boil down to the simple explanation: the time wasn’t right. 

This is one in hundreds stories I can tell about marketing and selling B2B services. Mine’s not unique. In fact, B2B marketing academics have a tidy numerical representation of this empirical phenomenon called the 95/5 rule. This means 95% of potential customers for a B2B product or service are not ready to make a decision today. 5% are ready to decide now. 

This rough guide to understanding your market potential is not a guide to derive more numbers: KPIs, budget allocation, forecasting outcomes, etc. Rather, it’s a gut check. It’s a reality check. 

A B2B marketing decision requires the input and buy-in from more than one individual, likely from different departments, with different perspectives and psychological inclinations that make it virtually impossible to successfully deliver a 5%-focused campaign for lead generation that delivers the right message, to the right person, at the right time, and nothing more. 

The question is not how to capture the interest of the 5%.

The question is how to strategically allocate marketing resources to make the decision-makers’ shortlist by memory when the 95% move into the 5%. 

Basically, how can your brand be the business card that sticks around longest?

Here are four ways to achieve this. Thick business cards not included.

Consistency On Brand

You want your target to remember your brand when the budget is cleared to spend on the solution they’ve been longing for. You achieve this with a combination of several techniques. Keep your visual identity consistent with brand awareness opportunities at industry events, sponsorships, advertising placements in thought publications, on website banners, and with corporate giving. These placements are less about how many words or CTAs you can jam in a space and more about a visual imprint one can call to mind easily. The next piece of brand consistency is within the same placements, creating consistent content that represents your brand. Write articles consistently for industry publications to establish your brand and employees of your brand as thought leaders with credible, trustworthy knowledge. Show up to conferences with on-brand content that further establishes trust and credibility. Whatever the content or outlet, ensure there is consistency across how you position your brand in the minds of your audience, all 100%.

Allocate Your Budget Strategically

Establish your marketing budget for the year and plan your spending to encompass 100% of your target audience throughout the entire year. The 95/5 rule is not a guide to budget percentage allocation. As long as you are measuring the appropriate outcome per channel, you’ll be able to establish a budget allocation once you have some sales to marketing rates. Once you have your sold-to-lead rate over year one, you’ll be able to reverse engineer your target KPIs from there. Time will only improve your insight, budget allocation, and forecasting provided you are consistent with data collection.

Build A Foundation For Nurturing The 95

Think high-quality, long-term exposure for the majority of your marketing efforts. AI-shortlisting in searches has condensed the amount of time decision-makers spend in the research phase of B2B buying. Concise, quality content on the internet is essential to making the cut and for building credibility both in the algorithms on the internet and in the minds of your target consumers. While the volume of quality content sets a pathway for your target to move towards becoming a lead, how well your brand stands out will be the trigger for brand recall when a target outside of your marketing web is ready to buy. Be unique, distinctive, and memorable for all the right reasons.

Prepare To Capture The 5

Design campaigns for a fast turn for the 5%. Implement retargeting ads to get in front of an audience that has signaled interest in your content and your offer. Use videos to demonstrate your product or service in action with an easy, no-friction call-to-action that delivers more than the prospect values their personal information and time. Consider options that have a low buy-in, but keep the communication near and frequent. Free trials, free webinar series, a discounted webinar series, or a well-planned follow-up post conference. When a prospect schedules a demo on your calendar, you know you have an interested party on the line. But are they ready? What you do after a hot lead doesn’t buy is just as important as the foundation you laid to get them there.

Brand-building is not a speedy endeavor, especially in the B2B sales cycle where decisions that take time are made somewhat infrequently. The 95/5 rule was created based on the research of Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. He says, “Corporations change service providers such as their principal bank or law firm around once every five years on average. That means only 20% of business buyers are ‘in the market’ over the course of an entire year…;” 

The key to success in B2B marketing is consistency, quality, and long-term thinking. The results may not be immediately or linearly visible. If you buy the business cards, spend the extra few bucks for the thick paper. Make each marketing choice worth the time, effort, and money. You want to be the first one they call when the time comes.

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