Most B2B marketers spend their time chasing leads—optimising campaigns, refining messaging, and building content to move buyers through the funnel. But what if 95% of your potential customers aren’t even in the market yet?
That’s exactly what the 95:5 rule suggests. Based on research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, the rule states that at any given moment, only 5% of your total addressable market is actively looking to buy, while the other 95% are not in-market.
For product marketers, this shift in perspective is massive. It means we can’t just focus on short-term lead generation and sales enablement. We need a strategy that influences the entire market over time—not just the sliver of buyers who are ready to purchase today.
What the 95:5 Rule Means for PMM
The traditional approach to B2B marketing assumes that prospects follow a linear buyer’s journey—from awareness to consideration to decision. The 95:5 rule challenges this thinking. Instead of assuming your audience is always ready to move to the next stage, it forces you to acknowledge that most of them aren’t even considering a switch yet.
That changes the role of product marketing in a few key ways:
1. Messaging Needs to Be Built for Long-Term Memory
Most B2B marketing is focused on immediate conversion. But if 95% of your audience isn’t in-market, your job is to make sure they remember you when they are.
- Distinctive, repeatable messaging wins. Instead of crafting endless variations of campaign slogans, PMMs need to create messaging that sticks over time.
- Category leadership matters. If customers only enter the market every few years, they’re not going to remember a one-off feature launch. They will, however, remember who consistently shaped the conversation.
- Repetition isn’t a bad thing. Just because we get tired of our messaging doesn’t mean the market has heard it enough. Consistency beats novelty when it comes to staying top of mind.
2. Competitive Positioning Is About More Than Just the Sales Cycle
If most buyers aren’t in-market, then competitive battles don’t just happen at the bottom of the funnel—they happen in the mind of the customer long before they enter a sales conversation.
- PMMs need to shape perception early. If you wait until a buyer is actively evaluating options to differentiate from competitors, you’re already too late.
- Brand building is part of competitive intelligence. The strongest competitive advantage isn’t just feature superiority—it’s being the company that buyers think of first when they have a problem.
- Thought leadership isn’t a vanity play. The companies that consistently educate their market don’t just generate leads—they create demand.
3. Sales Enablement Needs to Include Pre-Market Influence
Most enablement efforts focus on helping sales close in-market buyers. But what about the 95% who aren’t there yet? PMM has a role to play in ensuring sellers can influence future buyers before they’re ready to talk.
- Train sales on early-stage influence. It’s not just about objection handling—it’s about helping buyers recognise problems before they even start searching for solutions.
- Help sales teams build credibility before the sale. The best sales reps aren’t just deal closers; they’re trusted advisors who are active in shaping industry conversations.
- Equip sales with ‘first call’ content. When buyers finally do enter the market, they often reach out to the vendors they’ve already learned from. PMM should be fuelling that process.
What This Means for PMM Strategy
If the 95:5 rule holds true, product marketing needs to operate on two levels at once:
- Capturing demand from the 5% who are in-market today. This means sharp messaging, effective enablement, and well-executed campaigns that help convert active buyers.
- Creating demand among the 95% who aren’t ready yet. This means brand-building, thought leadership, and long-term positioning—ensuring that when buyers finally start shopping, they think of you first.
Most companies over-index on the first and ignore the second. But in markets where buying cycles are long and competition is fierce, winning the future market is just as important as closing today’s deals.
The Bottom Line
Product marketing isn’t just about serving today’s pipeline. It’s about shaping tomorrow’s market. If you focus only on the buyers who are ready today, you’re missing out on the far bigger opportunity: becoming the company that 95% of the market remembers when it’s finally their time to buy.