Lack of Trust Is Fueling Self-Service Journeys, 78% of Sales Leaders Say

There's an undeniable push and pull between wanting to create a frictionless self-service buying buying path and knowing that many deals aren't made without some kind of sales team intervention. Especially if your product has a complex setup or integration process.

B2B buying sentiment today is making the preference for self-service experiences all the more apparent.

LXA's 2025 State of Sales Enablement report shows 78% of organizations say buyers increasingly favor self-service journeys, while trust in B2B vendors has cratered to historic lows. Meanwhile, Spekit's research on the impact of sales enablement found that 80% of enablement content isn't being used.

It's a tricky combination that's driving a sense of urgency for companies to rethink how they enable sales teams, as buyers are skeptical of traditional sales approaches. Yet 99% of B2B decision-makers still say trust is essential when selecting a vendor, according to research from the Martal Group.

When no trust means no deal, B2B teams must rely on personalization and omnichannel techniques to bridge the credibility gap.

The trust gap that's killing your conversion rates

The erosion of credibility in B2B sales runs deeper than most revenue teams realize. In 2022, only 14% of Americans had a high or fair level of trust in large corporations, compared to 34% in 1975. This is not just a marketing problem. It's directly affecting sales performance in ways that traditional metrics miss.

The scale of buyer skepticism is also extraordinary. 90% of buyers click through to sources cited in AI Overviews for fact-checking, according to figures from TrustRadius — a show-me-the-receipts moment if there ever was one.

Even more concerning is that, in an article from Sales & Marketing Management from back in 2023, 77% of buyers didn't see salespeople as a helpful resource to solve their business problems.

It gets tougher when you look at behavior patterns. TrustRadius reveals that buyers tend to know about their chosen product before starting research, with 82% having a top product in mind by the time they shortlist their favorites.

Your sales content, scripts, and pitches are competing for attention and climbing uphill against established preferences and deep skepticism about your motives.

Show, don't tell: Real-world proof beats polished promises every time

We can start to close the credibility gap with what actually builds trust with modern B2B buyers.

Various sales and marketing blogs cite past figures from HubSpot and Content Marketing Institute that estimate 73% to 78% of B2B buyers read case studies during the consideration phase or find them to be the most influential assets in the decision-making process. The number of buyers who read reviews as part of the buying process sits between (77%), according to TrustRadius.

Between 2018 and 2020, the SaaS companies I worked for dedicated massive spend and resources to creating case studies and earning five-star reviews. Then, when work went fully online, those efforts faded. Now, with AI making its way into every workflow — and into the butt of many jokes — buyers are, once again, craving real-world validation.

Overall, they value authentic, multichannel review content (think: demo videos and accurate pricing) over scores or badges alone. In the same vein, Sales & Marketing Management reported that more than a quarter of buyers from small and medium-sized businesses say testimonials from satisfied customers can influence their decision, when those testimonials are credible.

The most telling signal is behavior. TrustRadius says 54% of buyers have conversations with actual product users (IMO, thanks to widespread access to forums like Reddit, where users aren't afraid to say how they really feel).

That's a shift from accepting vendor promises to demanding peer validation. Buyers don't just want proof. They want to verify that proof through their own channels and networks.

Sales action: What this means for your strategy right now

The implications for sales enablement are immediate. Pivot from feature-focused content to outcome-driven proof points that buyers can verify on their own. 90% of companies surveyed by Highspot in 2025 have either implemented AI or plan to do so this year, and the winners will use technology to amplify authentic customer voices, not to replace human credibility.

Timeline pressure is rising fast, with some saying that deals now require 12.4 touchpoints, while findings from TrustRadius show that cycles have shortened, with most closing within six months and the average at almost four months. So every interaction has to land with maximum credibility, with verifiable proof points instead of polished promises.

Some teams are already adapting. Martal Group data shows that sales reps using AI to personalize outreach see a 32% higher response rate. Pair that with verifiable customer outcomes and independently validated results for even greater success. The future belongs to sales teams that blend the speed of technology with real, trustworthy signals buyers can check for themselves.