The Authenticity That Actually Wins B2B Buyers

McKinsey surveyed 200+ European B2B CMOs about their strategic priorities for 2026, and Authenticity ranked #4 on the list. Marketing conferences are buzzing about it. LinkedIn thought leaders are preaching it. Everyone agrees: B2B needs to be more authentic.

But there's a problem. When marketers hear "authenticity," they interpret it as projecting personality. Humanising the brand. Showing vulnerability. Building emotional connection through relatable content.

They're not wrong to focus on these things. B2B buyers do want to work with vendors who feel genuine, warm, and human. But marketers have stopped there, and that's where the disconnect happens.

Meanwhile, B2B buyers say that what actually drives trust in vendor relationships is competence (30%), dependability (19%), and consistency (17%). They're sceptical of personality without substance. The word authenticity has become a Trojan horse, it sounds important and human, but in B2B, it's being executed incompletely, and that's costing you deals.

Here's the shift marketers are missing: authenticity in B2B isn't just about showcasing your personality. It's about demonstrating you understand theirs, and their reality.

The Dictionary Offers Two Definitions

The word "authentic" has multiple meanings:

Definition 1: Genuine and sincere; true to one's personality

Definition 2: Based on facts; accurate or reliable

Both matter. But B2B marketers have focused heavily on the first definition, projecting personality, humanising the brand, being relatable, while underweighting the second. And in B2B contexts, it's the second definition that creates the foundation for the first to actually land.

Being friendly without being competent feels hollow. Being personable without being precise feels manipulative. Definition 2 isn't replacing Definition 1, it's what makes Definition 1 credible.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Instead of opening an email with "I've been following your company's impressive growth trajectory and would love to connect..." (which could apply to hundreds of companies), you'd acknowledge the specific regulatory changes reshaping their industry, reference the competitive pressures their company is facing, and demonstrate you understand both what success looks like in their role and how they prefer to evaluate solutions.

This isn't about being cold or robotic. The tone can and should still be warm and human. But the foundation isn't your brand personality. It's your understanding of their reality.

That's the distinction: stop trying to be personable and start being personal. One is about performance. The other is about precision. And when you get the second right, the first actually works.

Where Personalisation Comes In

In McKinsey's Priority rankings, Authenticity sits at #4. Personalisation appears separately at #14. On paper, they seem like different initiatives. But in practice, they're inseparable.

You can't demonstrate authenticity - real credibility - without proving you understand someone's specific reality. And that's exactly what effective personalisation should deliver.

For years, personalisation meant surface-level customisation: first names in subject lines, city mentions, alma mater references, recent company news. We were broadcasting that we'd done the bare minimum.

There's a useful distinction here: personalising to someone versus personalising for someone.

When you personalise to someone, you're optimising for open rates, trying to win them over with carefully curated details scraped from LinkedIn. When you personalise for someone, you're optimising for their time, showing you understand their reality well enough to warrant a conversation.

That's the shift we need: building warmth and personality on a foundation of genuine understanding. This is what authenticity should actually mean in B2B - competence that earns the right to connection.

What Effective Personalisation Requires

Effective personalisation is about demonstrating you've done the work before asking for the meeting. This means layering context, not just inserting variables. Three dimensions separate signal from noise:

Industry Context: The Water They're Swimming In

Your buyer is responding to market forces: regulatory changes, supply chain disruptions, competitive threats, economic shifts. Ignoring this makes your outreach feel generic, even if you've personalised the greeting.

Healthcare executives navigate compliance costs and data regulations. Manufacturing leaders focus on supply chain resilience. Fintech teams manage security requirements and scaling challenges. When you demonstrate understanding of these sector-specific pressures, you're proving competence. That's authenticity.

Role Context: Their Professional Scorecard

A CFO measures success differently than a CMO. A CTO has different concerns than a Head of Sales. Yet most personalisation still treats all "decision makers" as interchangeable.

Role-based personalisation shows alignment. A CFO cares about ROI and risk mitigation. A CMO focuses on pipeline quality and acquisition costs. A CIO prioritises scalability and security. Same product, completely different value story for each.

Communication Style: How They Actually Make Decisions

This is about respecting how they prefer to receive and process information.

Decision-makers fall into distinct categories. Some are analytical, needing data-driven proof points and quantitative validation. Others are visionary, responding to strategic transformation messaging and future-state thinking. Some are risk-averse, requiring comprehensive evidence. Others are forward-thinking, wanting to hear about emerging capabilities.

Adapting your message to match their decision-making style ensures you're delivering information in the way they can actually absorb it. That's competence, not charm.

Why This Matters Now

The Association of National Advertisers named Authenticity as one of two Co-Words of the Year for 2025, describing it as "the enduring human values that brands must protect as technology accelerates." But buyers have built sophisticated defences. They can detect template language, spot mail merges, and know when you're performing rather than understanding.

The execution challenge is real. Creating truly contextual, multi-dimensional personalisation for every prospect sounds resource-intensive. And traditionally, it was. This is where technology like Ada's Intelligent Content Engine changes the equation. Rather than manually creating hundreds of variations, Ada understands industry dynamics, role-specific priorities, and individual communication styles to generate authentic personalised content that maintains your brand voice while adapting to each buyer's reality.

What to Do Next

This week, audit your last ten outreach emails. Ask yourself: How many demonstrate genuine industry knowledge? How many speak to role-specific value propositions? How many adapt their communication approach to match how the recipient makes decisions?

If they don’t pass this test, you're relying on surface-level personalisation, not genuine understanding.

And your buyers can tell the difference.