Influencing Hidden Buyers in B2B and Tech Sales

influencing hidden buyers in b2b and tech sales

@Edelman-LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report

Going beyond decision makers

In the fast-paced tech and B2B sales arenas, influencing hidden B2B buying influencers has emerged as a key marketing and selling tactic. Reps and marketing folks have traditionally zeroed in on decision-makers but, now, hidden influencers hold powerful sway over buying decisions.

Ever wonder who sways the B2B decision-makers? Beyond the C-suite, IT leads, operations managers, procurement pros, and other unsung influencers hold serious clout in steering the final call.

Think they are passive? Think again!

Hidden buyers may be invisible to sales and marketing but they are anything but passive when it comes to influencing purchase decisions.

Important new findings

In the past 12 months reports from credible sources like Edelman, Momentum ITSMA, DSMN8, Dentsu, Thinkers360, and Forrester paint a very clear picture of what is influencing major purchases in B2B and tech.

For example, the Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report reveals that:

•  71% of B2B buyers find thought leadership more effective than traditional marketing 

•  91% say it helps them discover challenges of which they were not aware

 [Author’s note: Of the nearly 2,000 management-level people surveyed, about 83% were not executive level.]

@Edelman-LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report

Hidden B2B Buying Influencers: A Fortune 100 client example

Working through a content agency I recently wrapped a project for a Fortune 100 financial giant, crafting content for a solution that unlocks trapped capital to tackle complex CAPEX financing for automakers.

Initially, I was surprised to learn the white papers, thought leadership article, and other deliverables targeted only procurement executives—not finance, product management, or manufacturing. As the lead writer, I had to immerse myself into procurement’s world, weaving their unique challenges and priorities into a compelling narrative that resonated deeply with their perspective.

Their priorities included: 

• certainty of supply 

• achieving net zero score 3 emissions in external suppliers

These were not topics I would have normally associated with a financial services solution!

Excerpt from thought leadership article

Additionally, with improved liquidity, suppliers can provide a more reliable and consistent supply of goods and materials. This minimizes supply chain disruptions and ensures goods are available when needed. Well-financed suppliers are critical for minimizing supply chain disruptions.

By providing the necessary capital and incentivizing sustainable practices, internal financing can be a strategic tool for suppliers to achieve net zero emissions, especially in managing the complex and often indirect Scope 3 emissions associated with their value chain.

That is how a $175 billion financial institution is micro-targeting both key decision makers and hidden influencers.

@Edelman-LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report

The hidden buying influencer's role in B2B purchase decisions

How many of those targeted procurement executives gave the white papers— which they received in email campaigns—to trusted subordinates to read and make recommendations? Executive decision makers are relying increasingly on these ‘hidden buyers’ to do the legwork that helps determine ideal solutions, which they can recommend to other executive decision makers with confidence.

Until now tech and B2B sales and marketing teams have largely overlooked hidden B2B buyers. However these clandestine experts exert growing and powerful  influence over buying decisions. Legacy tactics like personalized emails with generic messages are a thing of the past for this group.  They are savvy and can spot thinly disguised sales pitches and lookalike marketing from miles away.

Why have hidden buying influencers emerged as a critical factor in B2B sales?

Complex sales are stalling across many industries, largely due to customer indecision. For much of business history salespeople have believed that clinging to the status quo was their biggest competitor in a complex sale. But in their book The Jolt Effect, Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna show that, now, customer indecision has surpassed status quo as a salesperson’s biggest competitor. 

Customer indecision comes from misalignment among players involved in the purchase decision. To illustrate, procurement may remain undecided because the vendor’s sales and marketing teams failed to address procurement’s priorities. If the key decision makers include the head of procurement, the deal will not happen.

This is why thought leadership aimed at hidden buyers is gaining traction in marketing. If you are selling a multi-million dollar accounting solution to a $10 billion company, it’s almost guaranteed there will be many decision makers and hidden influencers in the mix. They can be discovered and grouped by job titles and priorities.

@Edelman-LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report

How do hidden buyers think?

Unlike executives focused on big-picture strategy and execution, these buyers prioritize practical, actionable solutions. If they don’t feel confident in a vendor’s ability to address their specific pain points, they’ll hesitate to champion the solution internally.

A surprising finding from the Edelman-LinkedIn study is that hidden buyers actively discover, consume and evaluate thought leadership just like targeted decision makers. This makes perfect sense because almost everyone has a stake in how a new purchase will affect their job performance even if a decision maker executive hasn’t asked for their thoughts.

This is where discoverable thought leadership for the hidden buyer shines:

• Humans typically value most what they have discovered on their own.

• Niched thought leadership can speak directly to their specific concerns and job challenges.

Unlike traditional marketing, which often prioritizes brand promotion and immediacy, thought leadership focuses on delivering value through expertise, data, examples and real-world relevance. It doesn’t feel like a sales  pitch. Instead it provides credible, thought provoking content that speaks directly to individuals’ challenges without feeling like a sales pitch

Example: How Salesforce Does It

High valuation tech firms like Salesforce  have long used the power of thought leadership for swaying hidden buyers. Their blog and resource hub offers in-depth guides on topics like:

• “Optimizing CRM for Remote Teams”, clearly created for hidden influencers in sales and marketing who manage people that work remotely.

• “Ensuring Data Security in Multi-Cloud Environments”. In larger companies data security is its own separate function and is quite distant from sales and marketing. Yet IT security people will certainly be included in purchasing decisions for products like Salesforce.

These resources don’t just explain or promote Salesforce’s products—they provide actionable insights that IT managers and operations leads can use to solve real job challenges. By addressing niche challenges, Salesforce builds trust with hidden buyers, who then advocate for their solutions internally. This is a high ROI tactic since there are thousands of other CRM and MAP solutions available at less cost than Salesforce.

Creating thought leadership: the practical guide

For B2B companies creating a content strategy targeting hidden buyers key factors include:

• Identifying – this includes researching job titles, descriptions and hierarchies

• Creating authenticity – you must consume content from a variety of sources that talks about these targeted influences, their jobs and their challenges. Whatever you bring to the table from marketing creative will not work.

• Foregoing the sales and marketing pitch. Remember, these target audiences are not looking for immediacy, pricing  or promotion. They’re looking for fresh new  insights from subject matter experts that can help them do their jobs better and more efficiently.

If you would like to talk about how thought leadership can help you influence hidden buyers please reach out.