GTM strategy is all the rage, as it should be. It encapsulates what businesses need to do to be successful—but it’s not new.
March 11, 2026
By Rachel Smith
We’ve all seen the statistic that B2B purchases involve a continually growing number of decision-makers. Depending on who you believe, it’s somewhere between 10 and 13 people. I have some very, very bad news. It turns out, those were only the people we knew about. The real number is twice that, more than 20.
A study by the B2B Institute, Bain, and NewtonX recently found that 49% of the decision-making influence on B2B purchases comes from hidden buyers. Who are these people? What do they care about? And how on earth do we reach them?
Hidden buyers are “internal stakeholders who significantly influence business purchases even if they are not the primary users of a product or service.” These are people who don’t show up as leads, they don’t get added to your CRM, and they don’t get captured by all the technology tools marketers use to find prospects. But don’t let that make you think they aren’t just as important as their target-buyer counterparts.
The B2B Institute study looked at more than 500 buyers from companies like Tesla, PepsiCo, Kaiser Permanente, Delta, and Pfizer. Their research uncovered that half of the decision-making team was made up of target buyers. These are the product experts—the people who are going to be using the solution. Target buyers are the ones we knew about. The other half of the decision-making team is composed of hidden buyers, who are process experts. These are usually individuals from legal, procurement, IT, or operations.
The role of target buyers and hidden buyers is not the same, and they exert their power at different points of the decision-making process. The B2B Institute describes a “hidden buyer gap” that happens in the buying process, where these hidden buyers essentially hold all the power. Target buyers generally control the long- and shortlisting of potential vendors. Before the purchase decision is made, however, there is a veto/validation stage that is completely in the hands of hidden buyers. The hidden buyers who you didn’t know existed.
Suddenly, it makes sense why 40% of B2B deals stall due to internal misalignment. There’s a secret stage we didn’t know about by a secret group we didn’t know about. Oh, and what they care about is totally different than your target buyers.
All this time, you’ve been focused on your target buyers and what they value—advanced features, transformational potential, and innovation. That’s what your sales collateral is focused on, it’s what you talk about in your webinars, and it’s what is all over your website. Hidden buyers don’t care about any of that. Instead, they are interested in reliable brands, peace of mind, and which vendors are trusted by their peers.
For hidden buyers, it’s all about risk mitigation and trust. They are 70% more likely to reject brands that are not well known to others, and they are 31% more likely to reject brands that they themselves don’t know. So, while you’ve been focusing all your content on innovation and product features, a bunch of people who don’t care at all about those things are about to determine your fate based on how well you’ve articulated your reliability.
It should also be noted that while your target buyers leave a digital trail of downloaded white papers, attended webinars, and LinkedIn likes, hidden buyers leave no trace. (That is the definition of hidden, after all.) If they are reading your LinkedIn content, you won’t know. If one of your target buyers passed along a one-pager to them, you won’t hear about it. (And if that one-pager was all about your product’s 12 new features, they wouldn’t read it anyway.)
It’s almost like you have to recalibrate your entire marketing and messaging approach.
The annual B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report by Edelman and LinkedIn draws insights from global professionals on how content impacts B2B decision-making. Their 2025 report focused on the hidden buyer and uncovered information about what content they engage with and what they’re looking for.
The 2025 study found that hidden buyers, although you may not see them actively engaging, look to thought leadership when weighing buying decisions just as much as target buyers.
What does this mean for you? It means your thought leadership content is even more important than you thought it was. This is especially true if you are a newer, smaller, or lesser-known brand than your competitors. Remember what hidden buyers care about when you’re crafting your thought leadership—reliability, peace of mind, and trust. There are a few other findings from the Edelman-LinkedIn study that should guide your content development—57% of hidden buyers favor quick takeaways over deep academic-style content, and 65% of hidden buyers prefer a more human, less formal tone over an intellectual one. Pay attention to the readability of your content. Aim for grade-level readability scores between six and eight.
Think about these hidden buyers as you develop your sales collateral as well. You’re talking to people who care most about innovation, but they are talking to people who care about reliability. Create one-pagers for your target buyers to pass on to legal or procurement that help foster trust. Encourage your target buyers to share case studies that highlight your credibility and tell stories of you delivering on your promises.
At some point in the buying process, about ten people you’ve never met with ninja-like stealth, no digital footprint, and total veto power are going to determine your fate. Make sure they’ve heard of you!
How can you ask your target buyers questions to uncover hidden buyers? Maestro’s Good Questions training is a good place to start. Reach out at mastery@maestrogroup.co to learn more.
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