For years, recommendation was the lead source that B2B marketers talked about in private and left off the plan. That’s changing. More of the buying journey now happens in dark channels: private messages, internal chats, closed communities and peer roundtables that no tracking pixel sees. In 2026, marketers must get comfortable with indirect influence, because that’s where decisions take shape.
Large language models are pushing this further. They now sit in the middle of the buying journey, making traditional analytics less reliable. Buyers now ask AI tools to research suppliers and draft shortlists, so a brand is increasingly judged in conversations it isn’t directly part of, by people and by machines. Both are forms of recommendation.
Recommendations drive pipeline
B2B buyers make most of their decisions before they speak to a vendor. Bain & Co. found that more than 80% of buyers have a shortlist in mind before they start researching, and 90% buy from it. If you’re not on that list, no amount of demand generation will win the deal.
Much of that list comes from people the buyer trusts. Forrester found buyers trust their colleagues (82%) and industry peers (72%) far more than vendor sales reps (58%). AI adds another layer. Those tools recommend brands based on reviews, citations and credible mentions, so the brands people talk about are the brands AI puts forward.
For pipeline, a recommendation accelerates everything. A recommended prospect arrives already warm, with a colleague’s endorsement behind them and less risk to manage. They need less convincing, bring their buying committee along faster and stay longer once they’ve chosen you.
We know it’s true because it built Velo
The research is persuasive, but we don’t need it to believe this. We built Velo as an agency on one principle: be good enough to recommend. It’s the test we apply to every brief, every hire and every piece of work. It’s how most of our clients found us or chose us in the first place, and what separates us from others.
We use it to set standards that deliver value
Being good enough to recommend is a higher bar than being good enough to keep. It forced us to define what “good” means in ways a client would notice and repeat. We publish a “Good Enough to Recommend” guarantee that commits us to turnaround times, access to talent and the impact of our work, and removes uncertainty around budgets and performance. It holds us accountable for value, not activity.
Recommendations can be managed, and grown
High standards keep clients. Recommendations need more: reasons and moments for people to talk about you. Over the years we’ve built habits that create those conversations, often without us in the room. These habits show our 6Rs Recommendation Marketing framework in action:
- Work that travels. Our champions rarely make the final decision on their own. So our reports and plans explain what happened, what will happen and why it matters, in language everyone from the CEO or CFO downwards can follow, and in a format that clients can lift straight into their own board or reporting packs. When our slide appears in a meeting that we’re not invited to, it makes the case for the work and for us. To do this, we combine storytelling and modern design with a clear link to organisational priorities.
- Operating as an extension of the team. Many clients use us as a wrap-around team rather than a supplier. We leave behind the artefacts that make them stronger: personas, messaging frameworks, playbooks and the documented knowledge they can use to train their own AI tools. Knowledge transfer makes our champions look good, and people recommend partners who made them more effective. It also gives us deep access across the organisation, revealing the stakeholders who matter most.
- Helping people when they need it. When a client, a former client or someone in our network calls with a problem, we help, whether or not there’s a project in it. We introduce leaders facing similar challenges to each other. People remember who made the introduction. We are always here for past and present clients.
- Asking for feedback. Our Pulse meetings check delivery, and our Vantage reviews align to strategy. We use what we hear to refine our work so we keep delivering value as clients’ needs change.
- Publishing what we know. We share our thinking openly, from The Recommendation Marketing Playbook and its 6Rs framework to podcasts and articles like this one. When a marketing leader needs agency support at one of the moments that matter in our sectors, such as a new product launch, a market entry or a change of leadership, we want them to find Velo with something useful to say. Regular awards, events and media coverage reinforce this and show that our point of view is respected.
What it has done for Velo
The approach has paid us back with client relationships stretching back 15 years and record client satisfaction rates. Our work is varied. It has protected people from danger, launched online conferencing, made insurance sexy (ish), transformed business travel and even connected power plants, yet all of these projects came from the same approach. Industry awards have recognised the impact of our work, most recently at the B2B Marketing Awards and the UK Agency Awards, and we’ve earned “Great Place to Work” status.
The business has grown beyond my expectations and now works with stakeholders on every continent. It’s navigated Covid-19 and wider economic volatility, with personal relationships built on recommendation helping us plot the right course.
Just as important to me are the people who made that happen. Well over 100 people have worked at Velo, and many have gone on to lead marketing teams, agencies and businesses of their own. They came for the challenge of making complex B2B brands easier to understand. They stayed because they could see the impact of their work, and nothing feels better than positive client feedback. Being recommended applies to how we treat our team as much as our clients. The people who’ve worked here are some of our strongest advocates.
The consistent thread since 2010? Every year, recommendation has been our strongest new business channel.
Practicing what we preach
We believe the best B2B marketing gets people talking on your behalf. Getting heard and getting recommended are not the same thing: plenty of brands are heard, far fewer are the ones a peer puts forward when it counts. It’s why our philosophy is simple: be the one they recommend. To champion the approach we live by, we’re sharing more of it in two places.
Lottie O’Donoghue and Helena Phillips will run a hands-on workshop at B2B Marketing Expo, where they’ll explain our 6Rs framework for marketers. You’ll put your own brand through it, find out what you’re really recommended for and leave with one action to grow recommended pipeline.
We’re also proud to sponsor Best Use of Influencer or Advocacy Marketing at this year’s B2B Marketing Awards. Influencer marketing in B2B doesn’t need huge followings. It’s about the people who matter to your buyers: customers, partners, industry experts and employees whose opinions carry weight. The category celebrates campaigns that earn their support and turn that trust into results. It’s great to see recommendation in the spotlight.
If you can’t wait until then, our free Recommendation Marketing Playbook at velo-b2b.com/ebooks sets out the thinking.