NewtonX and Pretzl Launch the 2026 Buyer Group Index

Commissioned by Pretzl and conducted by NewtonX, new global research on B2B buyer group marketing reveals the 28 GTM practices that drive commercial performance, with a live diagnostic so your organization can see exactly where it stands.

B2B buying has fundamentally changed. Buying group journeys are now self-organized, mostly hidden, and increasingly shaped by AI. For the first time, GTM leaders have a research-backed answer to the question: how well is your organization set up to navigate it?

The Buyer Group Index (BGI) evaluates organizations across 28 GTM best practices, weights each by its statistical relationship to five commercial outcomes, and produces a benchmark score that shows where you stand — and where to focus next.

Take the BGI Assessment →

The gap between awareness and action

Most GTM leaders understand that the fundamentals of B2B go-to-market have changed. Far fewer have translated that awareness into the operational changes required to keep up. The average BGI score across 200 organizations is 63.2 out of 100 — a market that is progressing, but still early in fully adapting to how buying actually works today.

The gap between the leaders and the rest is structural. Organizations in the top tier report up to 70% higher pipeline velocity and 59% faster time to market than those in the bottom tier. And that gap is widening: 60% of GTM leaders say most buyer research now happens outside their visibility.

What the research revealed

The BGI identified 28 practices that separate high-performing GTM organizations from the rest — and weighted each by its measured link to pipeline value, velocity, time to market, spend efficiency, and GTM confidence.

The clearest finding: connected data — having all customer and account sources linked to a single source of truth — ranks as the most important practice for commercial outcomes. It also scores near the bottom on performance across the market. The capability that matters most is the one most organizations handle worst.

Only 25% of organizations score in the leading tier (BGI 75+). 41% fall below 60, placing them at structural risk of falling further behind as leading organizations continue to evolve faster.

Read the full BGI report →

Methodology

• Quantitative survey: 200 senior GTM leaders, director-level and above, across Marketing, Sales, and RevOps at organizations with 500+ employees — 85% from companies with 1,000+ employees, spanning North America, UK, Europe, and Rest of World
• Qualitative interviews: ~30 AI-moderated interviews with GTM leaders and buyer-side executives, capturing both sides of the deal
• Regression analysis: each of the 28 practices weighted by its statistical relationship to five commercial outcomes
• Commissioned by Pretzl, in partnership with the ANA, and conducted by NewtonX

About

Pretzl is a full-service B2B marketing agency founded in 2025, built around customer science and buyer group strategy. Formed by uniting five award-winning B2B agencies under the Next 15 Group, Pretzl helps organizations navigate complex buyer journeys through its proprietary JourneyLab platform.

NewtonX is the only B2B research intelligence platform that delivers AI-speed insights with data you can trace. Trusted by Google, TikTok, Salesforce, Stripe, Microsoft, and Coinbase, with research cited by Gartner, Fortune, Forbes, Adweek, and The Wall Street Journal.