Most B2B customers look at publicly available information and talk to their personal network before reaching out to a vendor's sales team, according to a report from CEB Marketing Leadership Council and Google.

The report, though current, was based on 2012 data from a survey of more than 1,500 decision-making customers of 22 large B2B organizations across 10 industries.

B2B buyers are already 57% of the way through the purchase decision-making process, on average, before reaching out to vendors' sales representatives, the survey found.

Most customers at all 22 of the B2B companies surveyed say they are usually at least 45% of the way through the purchasing process before engaging with a sales team.

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of more than 1,500 decision-making customers of 22 large B2B organizations across 10 industries.