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Pipeline and Trust

The Hidden Buyer Economy: 71% of the People Deciding Your Deal Will Never Talk to Sales

May 5, 20268 min read

The meeting you're not in

Every B2B founder knows the feeling: the deal was warm, the champion was engaged, and then it died in a meeting you weren't invited to. The 2025 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report finally measured that room.

The headline number: 71% of "hidden buyers", the committee members who influence the decision, have little or no interaction with sales teams. They don't take your calls. They don't attend your demo. They form their opinion of you from what they can find and what gets forwarded to them.

What the hidden committee reads

The same research, drawn from nearly 2,000 global professionals:

  • 95% say strong thought leadership makes them more receptive to sales and marketing outreach.
  • 79% are more likely to advocate for your proposal in the RFP process if you consistently publish high-quality thinking.
  • 64% trust thought leadership more than product sheets and brochures when assessing what a vendor can actually do.
  • 63% spend more than an hour a week consuming thought leadership content.
  • Roughly 40% of deals stall because the buying group itself can't align internally.

    • That last one deserves a second read. Nearly half of stalled deals die of internal misalignment, and your champion walks into that misalignment armed with whatever material you've put in public. Your content is literally your side of a debate you can't attend.

    The uncomfortable implication

    Most B2B marketing is built for the visible buyer: the one who fills the form, takes the call, attends the demo. The hidden majority is served by... the company page, posting product updates into the void.

    Meanwhile, 53% of decision-makers in the same research say strong thought leadership makes brand recognition matter less. Translated: the hidden committee will shortlist a smaller firm whose thinking they rate over a bigger logo whose thinking they've never seen. This is the single most democratic mechanism in B2B, and most companies are not competing in it.

    What to do about a room you can't enter

    1. Publish for the forwarder. The unit of hidden-buyer content is the forwardable post: one sharp claim, evidence, no fluff, something a champion can paste into the internal thread.

    2. Cover the committee's risks, not your features. Technical evaluators need "how it works." Finance needs "why it doesn't overrun." The founder's POV alone can't cover the spread; a team of voices can.

    3. Be consistently findable. Hidden buyers browse on their own schedule across months. Burst posting misses them; cadence catches them.

    The room decides. The question is whether anything of yours is in the room.

    Source: 2025 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report.

    Common questions

    Who are hidden buyers in B2B?

    Hidden buyers are the members of a buying committee who influence or veto a purchase without ever appearing in sales conversations: technical evaluators, finance, end users, and executives who read and forward content internally. The 2025 Edelman–LinkedIn report found 71% of them have little or no interaction with sales teams.

    How do you reach hidden B2B buyers?

    Through the content they consume on their own schedule, primarily thought leadership on LinkedIn. In the Edelman–LinkedIn 2025 data, 95% of hidden buyers said strong thought leadership makes them more receptive to outreach, and 64% trust it more than product marketing when judging capability.

    Does thought leadership actually influence RFPs?

    Per the 2025 Edelman–LinkedIn report, 79% of hidden buyers say they are more likely to advocate for a vendor during the RFP process if that vendor consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.