FTTH lead generation • Buyer research
What Network Planners and CTOs Actually Want Before They Take a Sales Call
By the time a network planner or CTO agrees to a sales call, most of the work is already done. They hold a shortlist, they have checked with colleagues, and more and more they have asked an AI tool. What gets you onto the call is what they could read, check and forward before it.
Quick answer: Before they take a sales call, network planners and CTOs want six things: proof they can check themselves, a signal of what drives the price, facts that match on every channel, content relevant to their own network, something to pass to the rest of the buying group, and a way to test your claims. The research behind this is general, not FTTH-specific. In Gartner’s 2026 survey, 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience (Gartner), and Forrester finds a typical decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers (Forrester). A five-day educational email course is one way to deliver all six before the call.
This page is for FTTH vendors, contractors, equipment suppliers and consultants who sell to network planners, CTOs and the groups around them. We found no published survey of FTTH planners alone, so the page draws on general B2B, engineer and telecom-buyer research, and says in each case how far the result stretches.
What does the research say about how buyers research before a sales call?
They research alone, they lean on AI and peers, and they decide from a shortlist that exists before sales is involved. The table lists nine sources from 2021 to 2026. The last column says how far each one stretches, because only one of them is about telecom buyers.
| Source | What it says | Read this carefully |
|---|---|---|
| Gartner sales survey (press release, 9 March 2026) | 67% of B2B buyers say they prefer a rep-free experience. 45% used AI in a recent purchase. Confident buyers are twice as likely to report a high-quality deal. | 646 B2B buyers, surveyed August to September 2025. General B2B, not telecom. |
| Gartner survey on AI and sales reps (press release, 20 May 2026) | 69% of buyers prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps. Buyers used an average of seven information sources in a recent purchase, and 70% prefer a completely digital, self-service experience. | 645 buyers from the same fieldwork window. The March release gives 646, and we use each release’s own figure. |
| Gartner sales survey (press release, 25 June 2025) | 61% prefer an overall rep-free buying experience. 73% actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. 69% report inconsistencies between information on the sales organization’s website and that provided by sellers. | 632 B2B buyers, surveyed August to September 2024. General B2B. |
| Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026 (press release, 21 January 2026) | The typical decision includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers. Procurement professionals are decision-makers in 53% of buying cycles. More than 60% of buyers now use a trial, and 78% do for purchases of $10 million or more. GenAI searches are the starting point, then buyers rely on internal and external networks to justify decisions. | The release gives no sample size. General business buying. |
| 6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report | Just under 4,000 buyers. They chose from their day-one shortlist 95% of the time, started 79% of first engagements and made first contact about 61% of the way through the journey. | Global B2B, mostly technology and services. Telecom is about 2% of the sample. |
| GlobalSpec, TREW Marketing and Elektor, 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers (PDF, March 2026) | About 62% of the buying process is done online before buyers engage sales (pp. 6–7). Pricing and inventory questions were the most common reason for first contact, at 26% (p. 9). Vendor engineering experts are the most trusted content authors, at 66% (p. 33). | Over 1,000 engineers. Telecom is about 7% of the sample. |
| Elektor, summary of the same study (30 March 2026) | 53% of technical buyers say brand familiarity influenced their most recent purchase, and 70% are more likely to choose a well-known brand when comparing similar solutions. Engineers check AI-generated information against trusted sources and expert insight. | A magazine summary. It gives no sample size, and we did not match these two figures to the PDF. |
| TelecomTV on a CC Group survey (2 March 2021) | Among 101 technology buyers in telecoms, internal business analysts were the most influential channel, with 57% calling them a deciding factor or major influence. Web searches, industry analysts, media, peers and events followed at 49% to 53%. | The only telecom-specific source here, but it is more than five years old and was run by a PR agency. |
| Edelman and LinkedIn, 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report (PDF) | 79% of the U.S. “hidden” decision-makers surveyed, in roles such as finance, operations and procurement, said they are more likely to champion RFP proposals from companies that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership (p. 25). | 1,934 executives, fielded 17 March to 3 April 2025. It measures stated intent, not behavior. |
Our reading: the evidence agrees on direction even where the samples differ. Buyers do most of the work before contact, they avoid sellers who waste their time, and they want to check what they find. That is the brief for everything you publish before the call.
What do network planners and CTOs actually want before they take a sales call?
Six things, each backed by at least one source above. The table is our synthesis, not a survey result, so the middle column states what the research supports and the last column says what a provider can publish in response.
| What they want | What the research supports | What you can publish |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Proof they can check | Vendor engineering experts are the most trusted authors, at 66% (GlobalSpec). Engineers check AI answers against trusted sources (Elektor). | A named engineer, a worked example, and a source link for every figure. |
| 2. A signal of what drives the price | Pricing and inventory questions are the most common reason for first contact, at 26% (GlobalSpec). | The cost drivers and the ranges that move them, even if the quote stays private. |
| 3. Facts that match everywhere | 69% report inconsistencies between a seller’s website and what sellers provide (Gartner, 2025). | One fact sheet that the site, the emails and the sales team all use. |
| 4. Relevance to their own network | 73% actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach (Gartner, 2025). | Content for one role and one build type, not a general brochure. |
| 5. Something to pass on | 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers; procurement decides in 53% of cycles (Forrester). | A one-page summary that a finance lead or a procurement officer can read without a call. |
| 6. A way to test your claims | More than 60% of buyers use a trial, and 78% for purchases of $10 million or more (Forrester). | A pilot design, a reference build, or a lab test the buyer can ask for. This is our reading, since Forrester’s figure covers business buying in general. |
The first want is where a technical reader decides whether you are worth a call. Our XGS-PON network design article shows the pattern: an optical loss budget, a capacity model, a launch-readiness checklist and a payback example, so a planner can check the reasoning before speaking to anyone. The same applies to people. A CTO who posts specifics that others can verify earns attention before the first call, which is what our network CTO LinkedIn post guide is built around.
Why does the sales call come so late?
Because buyers do most of the work first, and the shortlist is set before they talk to anyone. In the 6sense report, buyers chose from their day-one shortlist 95% of the time and made first contact about 61% of the way through the journey (6sense). GlobalSpec puts the share of the buying process done online before engaging sales at about 62% (GlobalSpec). Two separate studies land on a similar figure, though both describe technology buyers in general.
Gartner’s numbers point the same way. 67% of buyers prefer a rep-free experience, and 70% prefer a completely digital, self-service one (March 2026, May 2026). But Gartner also reports buyers still want sellers who act as “a sounding board” and offer “unique guidance” rather than generic information they can find elsewhere (Gartner, 2025). That is the opening for a course. It does the early education the buyer wants to do alone, and leaves the call for the judgment that only a person can give.
The caveat is the one in the table. Telecom is about 2% of the 6sense sample and about 7% of the GlobalSpec one, so these shares describe technical buyers broadly. A fiber planner may spend longer in the early stage, because a build is a multi-year commitment, but no source we found measures that.
Who else is in the room, and what does each want?
A typical decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, and procurement is a decision-maker in 53% of cycles. Both figures are from Forrester’s 2026 release (Forrester), which covers business buying in general and states no sample size. The planner or CTO is usually the first to read your material, but they are rarely the only reader.
| Reader | What they need before a call | Course email that supplies it |
|---|---|---|
| Network planner or CTO | The technical test: what to ask for as proof | Day 3 |
| Finance lead | What drives the price and what moves it | Day 2 |
| Procurement officer | A one-page summary with sources and terms to compare | Day 4 |
| Operations or construction lead | What a pilot or reference build would prove | Day 5 |
This table is our reading of how a fiber purchase divides up, so check it against your own deals. Its point is that the email that gets forwarded is the one that makes sense without the person who first read it.
How do buyers use AI before they take the call?
They start with it, then check it. Gartner finds 45% of buyers used AI in a recent purchase, and 69% prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps (Gartner, May 2026). Forrester’s reading is that GenAI searches are the starting point, then buyers rely on internal and external networks to justify the decision (Forrester). Engineers do the same, checking AI-generated information against trusted sources and expert insight (Elektor).
For a provider, the practical lesson is that the check is a gap you can fill. A buyer who has an AI summary and wants to confirm it needs a page with a named author, a date and sources they can open. That is also what AI tools tend to quote, though we cannot promise what any tool will cite. Write each page so its first sentence answers the question, put the evidence under it, and link every source.
Be wary of one reading. Gartner reports buyers validate AI findings with reps, which might suggest the call is safe from AI. The same survey shows 67% prefer a rep-free experience, so the safer view is that buyers want a human check at the end, not the beginning. The first half of the journey belongs to whatever they can read.
How would you turn these wants into a five-day course?
One email a day, each answering one of the six wants, ending with an offer to review the buyer’s own plan. This is an “Easy Templates” course, because each day gives the planner a checklist or a one-page form. The outline is an illustration, not a course we have run.
| Day | The buyer’s task | Want it answers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What to settle before you take any vendor call | Write the five criteria that would take a vendor off the shortlist | Relevance (4) |
| 2 | What drives the price | List the cost drivers for the next build and mark the two that move most. The 2025 medians of $18 per foot underground and $8 aerial, and labor at 72% and 64% of those costs, give a starting point (Fiber Broadband Association and Cartesian) | Price signal (2) |
| 3 | What to ask for as proof | Request a loss budget, a reference build and a named engineer from each vendor | Proof (1) |
| 4 | What to send procurement and finance | Fill in a one-page summary with every figure sourced and dated | Consistency and sharing (3, 5) |
| 5 | How to test before you commit | Draft a pilot with a pass mark, and book a technical review of the plan | Testing (6) |
The cost figures on Day 2 are U.S. survey medians, not a quote for any route, and the email should say so. Every claim in every email carries its source, because the buyer will check it, and may ask an AI tool to check it for them.
How do you name the course so buyers sign up?
Name it like a physical asset, say who it is for, make the bad outcomes concrete and answer the quiet objection. “Checklist” suits an Easy Templates course. The outcomes should be things a planner can picture, such as a sales call that starts from zero. This sample offer is our illustration, not a live offer.
| Type | Sample offer |
|---|---|
| Easy Templates | The Network Planner’s Pre-Call Checklist: Choosing A Fiber Vendor For Your Next Build? Use These 5 Worksheets To Avoid A Sales Call That Starts From Zero, A Price Nobody Can Explain To Finance, And A Pilot That Proves Nothing (Even If You Already Have A Shortlist) |
The objection in brackets matters because of the research. If buyers choose from a shortlist that already exists, a course that only helps buyers who have no list will be ignored. This one helps the planner test the list they have.
What should you measure to know the course works?
Measure what changes on the call, not the open rate. We make no promise about results, and no source we found tests an email course in FTTH sales. These four measures are our suggestions:
- Booked technical reviews from course readers, against reviews booked from other sources.
- Calls where the buyer arrives with the checklist filled in, which a sales engineer can see in the first five minutes.
- Forwards and new readers, such as a finance or procurement address that joins the sequence after a forward.
- The question each call raised that the course did not answer, which becomes the next email.
Ask one question on every first call: “What did you read before this?” The answer shows where the buyer’s research went and whether your pages were part of it.
Where does a specialist writer help?
In the step between “our engineer can answer this” and “a planner can check this before the call.” Most FTTH teams have the knowledge and little time to write it for a skeptical reader. In an engagement, we would organize it this way:
- We interview your engineer and propose the five days. You see the buyer roles, the outline and the proof for each email before anything is drafted.
- We write the sequence and a claim check. Each email gets sourced figures, and your engineer reviews rows of source wording, not whole drafts.
- You send it under your names. We agree that booked technical reviews come first, ahead of opens and clicks.
The same material can become the short public pages and the one-page summary that the course refers to, so the website, the emails and the sales team say the same thing.
Three honest warnings. We found no published survey of FTTH network planners, and the only telecom-specific source here is from 2021, so this page argues from general buyer research. Most figures come from research firms’ press releases and survey summaries whose samples we could not always see, and the six wants are our synthesis. We cannot promise a conversion rate, and we write about fiber but are not your engineers, so every technical figure needs your own expert’s sign-off. Check customer confidentiality and NDAs before you publish a build or a price, and follow the email and data laws that apply to you, such as CAN-SPAM in the United States, GDPR in Europe and Indonesia’s Personal Data Protection Law. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
What do network planners and CTOs want before a sales call?
Six things: proof they can check themselves, a signal of what drives the price, facts that match on every channel, content relevant to their own network, something to pass to the rest of the buying group, and a way to test your claims. These are a synthesis of general B2B and engineer research from Gartner, Forrester, 6sense and GlobalSpec, not the result of an FTTH-specific survey.
How much of the buying process happens before a buyer talks to sales?
About 62% of the buying process is done online before buyers engage sales, according to the 2026 GlobalSpec study of more than 1,000 engineers. In the 6sense 2025 report, buyers made first contact about 61% of the way through the journey and chose from their day-one shortlist 95% of the time. Both describe technology buyers in general, with telecom a small share of each sample.
Do B2B buyers really prefer to avoid sales reps?
Many do. Gartner reports 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience in its March 2026 release, up from 61% in its June 2025 release, and 73% actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. Buyers still value reps for judgment: 69% prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps. The two surveys had different samples, so treat the change from 61% to 67% as a direction, not a precise trend.
How are buyers using AI in vendor research?
Gartner finds 45% of buyers used AI in a recent purchase, and Forrester says GenAI searches are the starting point, after which buyers rely on internal and external networks to justify decisions. Engineers check AI-generated information against trusted sources and expert insight, according to the Elektor summary of the 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers study. A sourced page with a named author and a date gives them something to check against.
What should a fiber vendor publish before a sales call?
Publish a worked technical example with sources, the main cost drivers and the ranges that move them, a single fact sheet that the website, emails and sales team all use, role-specific content for one build type, a one-page summary for finance and procurement, and a pilot or reference build the buyer can ask for. Have a named engineer stand behind each page.
What is in TheWriter.id’s educational email course?
Our services page describes a five-day automated email sequence that walks decision-makers through budget and consensus frameworks before a sales conversation. It lists executive-level curriculum design, a lead capture and nurture strategy, a call-to-action framework for each email, and performance metrics with open-rate benchmarks.
Sources and how we checked
We read each source between October 13 and 14, 2026. Dates are shown so you can judge how current each one is. Page numbers refer to the GlobalSpec and Edelman reports as paginated in their PDFs.
- Gartner, “Gartner Sales Survey Finds 67% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience,” 9 March 2026.
- Gartner, survey on B2B buyers validating AI-generated insights with sales reps, press release, 20 May 2026.
- Gartner, “Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience,” 25 June 2025.
- Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026, press release, 21 January 2026. We read the release, not the report.
- 6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report. Field dates are not stated on the report page.
- GlobalSpec, TREW Marketing and Elektor, 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers (PDF, March 2026).
- Lobna Belarbi, Elektor, summary of the 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers study, 30 March 2026.
- Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV, “Meet the telecom procurement influencers…” (title shortened), 2 March 2021, on CC Group’s survey of 101 telecom technology buyers.
- Edelman and LinkedIn, 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report (PDF, July 2025).
- Fiber Broadband Association and Cartesian, “Fiber Broadband Association Reports Rapid Fiber Expansion Amid Rising Labor, Materials, Permitting Costs,” press release, 20 January 2026. We read the release, not the full report.
- TheWriter.id services page, for the description of the educational email course, and the two articles linked in the text: XGS-PON network design and LinkedIn post ideas for network CTOs.
Most figures come from press releases and survey summaries of general B2B or technical buyers, not FTTH planners. Gartner’s March and May 2026 releases give sample sizes of 646 and 645 for the same fieldwork. The six wants, the reader table, the course outline, the sample offer and the figures’ layouts are our illustrations. The measures in the measurement section are suggestions, not results. Figures are as of October 14, 2026.