Jonathan’s career began far from the usual technology hubs. Originally from Tasmania, he earned a place at college to study ecommerce at a time when digital commerce was still emerging as a discipline. That early exposure shaped his interest in how people actually make decisions rather than how organisations assume they do. His career has since focused on understanding customer behaviour, sense-making and decision-making in complex B2B environments, forming the foundation for his perspective on insight and customer-led growth.

In this episode of The B2B Experience | from Biglight, Jonathan speaks to Steve Borges, Co-founder of B2B UX design agency Biglight about how those early experiences shaped his approach to building digital propositions in B2B and centres on a persistent and often uncomfortable truth in B2B organisations: most businesses believe they understand how their customers buy but in reality they understand how they sell. The gap between those two perspectives is where many B2B strategies quietly fail.

Rather than focusing on technology platforms funnels or execution frameworks Jonathan returns repeatedly to one core idea. B2B growth depends on understanding how customers make decisions over time not on optimising individual transactions. This episode explores why traditional models of the B2B buying journey break down how internal assumptions distort decision-making and why customer insight is the most underdeveloped capability in many organisations.

The conversation challenges comfortable narratives and replaces them with a more human and more complex view of B2B customer experience.

Why B2B organisations misunderstand how customers buy

Jonathan begins by questioning a basic assumption that underpins much B2B thinking. The idea that customers move through a linear buying journey that can be neatly mapped staged and optimised. While this model is familiar and comforting it rarely reflects reality.

In practice B2B customer journeys are long non-linear and heavily influenced by context. Decisions unfold over time rather than at a single moment. Multiple people are involved often with different priorities concerns and incentives. Progress is rarely smooth and is frequently paused redirected or abandoned altogether.

Jonathan argues that many organisations mistake activity for understanding. They measure interactions touchpoints and conversions but fail to grasp the underlying decision-making process. As a result they optimise for visibility and persuasion rather than for clarity confidence and trust.

This misunderstanding sits at the heart of many B2B customer experience challenges. When organisations design experiences around how they want to sell rather than how customers decide friction is inevitable.

Buying journeys are not funnels

A recurring theme in the conversation is the inadequacy of funnel-based thinking in B2B. Funnels suggest predictability progression and control. They imply that customers move forward in response to prompts messaging and persuasion.

Jonathan challenges this model directly. In his experience B2B buying journeys resemble sense-making processes rather than pipelines. Customers explore gather information validate assumptions consult peers and revisit earlier questions. Decisions emerge gradually rather than being triggered by a single interaction.

This has important implications for B2B customer experience. If organisations assume customers are always moving forward they miss moments of hesitation uncertainty and doubt. They also misinterpret silence as disengagement when it may simply reflect internal discussion or competing priorities.

Understanding B2B customers therefore requires a shift in mindset. From pushing customers through stages to supporting them as they work through complex decisions.

The limits of transactional thinking in B2B

Jonathan also highlights how transactional thinking shapes internal behaviour. Sales performance metrics attribution models and pipeline forecasts reinforce the idea that progress equals activity and outcomes can be traced back to individual actions.

While these tools have operational value they offer little insight into how decisions are actually made. Closing a deal does not explain why that decision happened at that time or what nearly stopped it from happening at all.

This creates a distorted view of B2B customer experience. Organisations focus on moments they can measure rather than moments that matter. They invest in persuasion while neglecting understanding. Over time this leads to confident internal narratives built on incomplete evidence.

Jonathan is clear that this is not a failure of intent. Most organisations genuinely want to be customer-led. The problem is that their tools language and incentives pull them back towards simplified stories that feel manageable but obscure reality.

Customer insight as the missing capability

The strongest thread running through the episode is the importance of customer insight. Jonathan argues that many B2B organisations talk about being customer-centric while relying heavily on assumptions inherited from sales teams internal experience or historical success.

True customer insight requires listening rather than telling. It requires curiosity rather than confirmation. It also requires comfort with ambiguity because genuine insight often complicates decisions rather than simplifying them.

Jonathan emphasises the value of qualitative research conversations and open-ended exploration. These approaches surface how customers think what they worry about and how they frame risk. They reveal motivations and constraints that rarely appear in dashboards or reports.

Without this insight organisations fill the gap with stories that suit internal needs. Over time those stories harden into strategy shaping everything from messaging to product development while drifting further away from customer reality.

Voice of the customer in complex decision-making

Voice of the customer plays a critical role in addressing this gap but Jonathan is careful to distinguish between surface-level feedback and meaningful insight. Surveys scores and satisfaction metrics offer signals but they rarely explain why customers behave as they do.

In complex B2B buying journeys customers themselves may struggle to articulate their reasoning. Decisions are shaped by politics risk management budget cycles and personal accountability. Capturing these dynamics requires depth empathy and patience.

Jonathan suggests that organisations need to broaden their definition of feedback. Rather than focusing solely on validation they should seek understanding. Rather than asking customers to rate experiences they should explore how those experiences influence confidence and trust.

This approach reframes customer feedback as a strategic capability rather than a reporting exercise. It also places customer insight at the centre of long-term growth rather than treating it as a diagnostic tool.

Organisational resistance to customer-led thinking

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of customer understanding Jonathan observes strong resistance within organisations. This resistance is rarely explicit. Instead it shows up as discomfort with complexity impatience with ambiguity and preference for familiar models.

Linear journeys clear stages and simple metrics offer reassurance. They create the impression of control and progress even when they misrepresent reality. Challenging these models can feel threatening because it calls into question established expertise and authority.

Jonathan notes that resistance is often emotional rather than rational. Letting go of simplified views means accepting uncertainty and admitting gaps in understanding. For many organisations this feels risky especially when performance pressures are high.

Overcoming this resistance requires leadership that values insight over certainty and learning over immediate optimisation. It also requires reframing customer understanding as a strength rather than a vulnerability.

What B2B leaders can take from this conversation

Several clear lessons emerge from Jonathan Newman’s perspective on B2B customer experience.

First stop assuming that customers buy the way you sell. Sales processes reflect organisational needs not customer decision-making.

Second treat buying journeys as sense-making processes rather than funnels. Progress is rarely linear and silence does not mean disengagement.

Third invest in customer insight as strategic infrastructure. Understanding how decisions are made is more valuable than optimising individual touchpoints.

Fourth accept complexity and ambiguity as part of B2B reality. Simplified models may feel reassuring but they often conceal more than they reveal.

Finally recognise that becoming customer-led is as much a cultural challenge as a methodological one. It requires humility curiosity and willingness to challenge internal narratives.

Together these points underline a central theme of the episode. B2B customer experience begins with understanding how customers think not with designing how organisations want them to behave.

How this episode connects to key B2B transformation themes

This episode aligns strongly with customer-centred B2B customer experience by reframing experience as understanding rather than execution. It also connects to overcoming organisational resistance to change particularly resistance to customer-led thinking and insight-driven decision-making.

The conversation sits squarely within customer insight research and opportunity identification supported by customer feedback and experience insight in B2B. It reinforces the importance of research qualitative understanding and decision-context analysis rather than delivery-led approaches.

Topics related to this episode

Understanding how B2B customers make decisions

Non-linear B2B buying journeys

Customer insight versus internal assumptions

Voice of the customer in complex buying processes

Organisational blind spots in customer understanding

B2B customer research

Customer journey mapping

Customer decision-making research

Customer-led growth in B2B

Qualitative insight in B2B

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