How many people actually Google a company or person before doing business?

The behavioral pattern is consistent across every major stakeholder category: by the time a direct interaction begins, the other party has already searched. Google is the gating impression for nearly every business relationship.

B2B Buyers

• B2B buyers spend 70% of their buying journey doing their own research before talking to any vendor. (6sense, 2024)
• 85% of buyers have already established their purchase requirements before reaching out to a seller. (Demand Gen Report citing 6sense 2024 Buyer Experience Report)
• 87% of B2B buyers prefer to research product information on their own before speaking with a sales representative. (Brixon Group citing TrustRadius, 2023)

Journalists

• 94% of journalists always or almost always research a subject before making contact for an interview. (Sense About Science USA, 2016)
• 82% of North American journalists go to previous media coverage first when preparing for a CEO media interview; 58% go to the company website second. (Bianchi PR citing PRGN survey)

Why This Matters for Reputation Work

The implication is structural: reputation work is not a brand exercise; it is the infrastructure that determines whether stakeholders arrive at interactions with accurate context or with someone else’s framing. By the time a buyer, journalist, or investor makes contact, the first impression has already been set by the search results and AI synthesis they encountered on their own.