The Number Every Vendor Sales Director Should Fear
Eighty-four percent. That's the share of enterprise IT leaders who now use independent Trusted Advisors — not vendor sales reps — when making technology purchasing decisions. This number, from the AVANT State of Disruption Report, represents the most significant structural shift in enterprise technology sales in two generations.
In 2019, that figure was 74%. In 2024, it's 84% and rising. The trajectory is unmistakable. The Fortune 10 long ago figured this out. Now the entire enterprise market is following.
And yet: walk into most boardrooms and ask the CEO, CFO, or even the CIO about the Trusted Advisor channel — and you'll get a blank stare. This is the gap that NexAdvisor exists to close.
What Changed — And Why It Changed Fast
The death of direct sales didn't happen because vendors suddenly became untrustworthy. It happened because enterprise IT became impossibly complex to navigate from inside a vendor relationship.
In 1990, a CIO might manage relationships with 8–12 technology vendors. Today, the average enterprise manages 900+ SaaS applications, multiple cloud platforms, hybrid data center infrastructure, multiple carrier contracts, and a cybersecurity stack that touches every layer of the business. No single vendor rep — regardless of competence — can help you optimize across that landscape. They're structurally prevented from doing so by the commission structure they work within.
The Trusted Advisor emerged as the solution. They represent the buyer — not the vendor — and their compensation is vendor-agnostic. The vendor who gets selected pays the TA's commission, but only after the TA's client has selected that vendor on the merits.
This alignment of incentives is the structural difference. It's why enterprise IT leaders, once they discover the TA model, rarely go back.
The Categories Where This Matters Most
The Trusted Advisor channel initially grew in telecom and carrier services — an area where vendor pricing complexity made independent advice obviously valuable. But the scope has expanded dramatically:
Why Most CEOs and Board Members Don't Know This Exists
The Trusted Advisor channel operates mostly invisibly. Vendors don't advertise it — their direct sales teams would prefer you didn't know about it. The advisors themselves are often too busy closing deals to build public profiles. The industry research is locked behind pay walls.
The result: a $16B market — one that is set to grow to $115B within five years — is systematically underutilized by most enterprises. The companies that do know about it use it aggressively. The Fortune 10 have been using the TA model for decades. McKinsey advises clients to build TA relationships as part of standard technology governance.
NexAdvisor exists to democratize access to this network. Not just for the Fortune 10 that already have relationships built over decades — but for the mid-market company with 500 employees that is overpaying on every contract and doesn't know why.
What This Means for Enterprise Leaders Right Now
If you are a CIO, CTO, CFO, or CEO responsible for technology spend above $1M per year, you should have at least one independent Trusted Advisor relationship. Not because we say so — because the data from 84% of your peer enterprises says so.
The specific actions: audit your current vendor contracts against TA-guided benchmarks. Engage an independent advisor before your next telecom or cloud renewal. If you have a cybersecurity initiative underway, bring in a security-specialist TA to validate your vendor selection.
And if you don't know where to find a qualified Trusted Advisor for your specific categories — that's exactly what NexAdvisor is built for. We match enterprises with the right independent advisors from our global network in 48 hours, through the global TSD network to your business.