Most B2B pipelines still treat the named budget holder as the buyer. The stall usually sits elsewhere. Legal, finance, procurement, and operations can halt a deal without ever joining a sales call. B2B thought leadership is one of the few tools that reaches those people while they are still forming a view, and before anyone books a demo.
That is not a content-marketing slogan. Dixon and McKenna’s JOLT research finds that 40 to 60 per cent of deals are lost to customer indecision, not to a competitor. Gartner’s public buying-journey briefing adds a second pressure. 75 per cent of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. If the people who can stop the deal are not in the CRM, a product sheet sent to the champion will not reach them.
Who the hidden buyer is, and why B2B thought leadership reaches them
Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, now in its seventh year, surveyed nearly 2,000 global professionals, including both target buyers and hidden decision-makers. The Edelman briefing on that report is blunt about the job these people do. They may sit in finance, legal, compliance, procurement, or operations. They may never use the product. They still hold a veto.
They are not waiting to be pitched. On Edelman’s hidden-buyer page, 71 per cent say they have little or no interaction with sales teams. The same group is not passive. 63 per cent spend more than an hour per week consuming thought leadership, nearly equal to target buyers. 81 per cent say high-quality thought leadership helps them understand previously unrecognized challenges or opportunities.
That is the practical opening. If sales cannot get a meeting, the work is to put a serious argument where those readers already spend time. The same briefing records that 95 per cent of hidden buyers say strong thought leadership makes them more receptive to sales and marketing outreach. Receptive is not a signed order. It is permission to be contacted without looking like a cold pitch.
What they trust, and what they will take into the room
Hidden buyers are reading to arm an internal argument. Edelman reports that 71 per cent of hidden buyers say thought leadership is more effective than traditional marketing or sales materials at showing a vendor’s potential value. 64 per cent trust thought leadership more than product sheets or brochures when they assess capabilities. Those two numbers sit close together for a reason. A brochure is a claim. A well-sourced brief is something a finance or legal reader can repeat without looking captured.
That repeatability is the commercial point. 79 per cent of hidden buyers say they are more likely to advocate for a proposal during the RFP process if the vendor consistently produces high-quality thought leadership. 51 per cent say it helps them convince C-level executives. 52 per cent say it helps them persuade other members of the buying group. You are not only educating a champion. You are handing quiet stakeholders a file they can walk into a meeting with.
Gartner is useful here as a second, independent frame, not as a restatement of Edelman. Its buying-journey page says buyers loop across six jobs, from problem identification to consensus creation, and that 99 per cent of B2B purchases are driven by organisational changes. The hidden reader is often the person living that change. They want to know whether your category understands the internal problem, not whether your logo is familiar.
That is also why a purely digital, rep-free preference does not make sales optional. Gartner finds buyers are 1.8 times more likely to complete a high-quality deal when they use supplier digital tools with a sales representative rather than on their own. Thought leadership is the digital half of that pair. It has to stand up without a rep in the room, then make the later meeting cheaper to take.
What this changes in a B2B content system
Most B2B programmes still score content on form fills from named accounts. Hidden buyers will not fill those forms. If measuring B2B content ROI only counts the champion’s download, you will starve the work that actually moves the buying group. Count assisted influence as well. Assisted influence is a later meeting that happens, a legal objection that arrives already framed, or an RFP that includes a problem you named in public.
The format has to match how those readers work. Edelman records that 57 per cent of hidden buyers prefer quick takeaways over dense reports, and 60 per cent associate unique format and design with higher quality. That is not a licence to ship empty carousels. It is a reason to lead with the argument, cite the source, and keep the artefact short enough to forward. A 40-page ebook that only sales reads is a brochure with a longer filename.
This is also where owned media systems that compound earn their keep. Hidden buyers return to sources they already trust. A one-off campaign cannot do that job. A dated, cited series on the same operating problem can. Keep the series on your own site. Syndication is optional. The file a procurement lead pastes into Slack should still point at a URL you control.
Discovery is shifting at the same time. If AI overviews and answer engines summarise your category, thin posts disappear first. The pieces that survive are the ones with a point of view and a source trail, the same standard we set in content systems that stay effective as AI reshapes discovery. Hidden buyers are a demanding version of that reader. They will check the footnote.
A working sequence for a mid-sized B2B team
- Name the veto roles. For your last ten stalled deals, write who actually stopped them. If you cannot name the function, you do not have a content brief. You have a guess.
- Write for that function’s risk. Finance wants control and cash timing. Legal wants liability and data rights. Operations wants implementation load. One artefact per risk, not one product story rewritten three times.
- Cite like a briefing, not like a campaign. Every headline number needs a primary source the reader can open. If you cannot cite it, cut it. Hidden buyers treat unsourced claims as marketing.
- Give sales a forwarding pack, not a script. The champion should be able to send one URL that a silent stakeholder can read without a call. That is the test. If it only works when a rep talks over it, it is not thought leadership.
- Score the later meeting, not the first click. Ask sales whether legal or finance arrived already briefed. That question is more useful than a gated PDF count.
African and Mauritius-based B2B firms selling into multi-stakeholder buyers face the same structure, often with thinner sales coverage across markets. The temptation is to compensate with more outbound. The Edelman figures say the people you cannot reach by outbound are already reading. Put the argument where they read, in language they can reuse, and keep the product sheet for the people who asked for it.
What to do next
Pick one stalled deal type. Write the veto function that usually appears late. Publish one sourced briefing that function could take into a meeting without you. Then ask sales, on the next live deal, whether that briefing showed up in an internal thread. If it never leaves your site, it is still a brochure.
B2B thought leadership is not a brand-awareness extra. It is how you brief the people sales never meet, in a buying group that now prefers to research without a representative, and that loses deals to indecision as often as to a rival. Write for the quiet reader who can stop the contract, and make the file good enough to forward.
Key takeaways
- JOLT research puts 40 to 60 per cent of lost deals on customer indecision, not on a competitor. Hidden stakeholders are a common source of that stall.
- Gartner reports that 75 per cent of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, while high-quality deals still rise when digital tools are used with a representative.
- Edelman and LinkedIn find that 71 per cent of hidden buyers have little or no sales contact, and that 95 per cent become more receptive after strong thought leadership.
- Those readers trust sourced briefings more than product sheets, and 79 per cent say consistent thought leadership makes them more likely to advocate in an RFP.
- Score forwarding into the buying group, not form fills from the named champion. If the silent stakeholder cannot reuse the file, it is still marketing material.
FAQ
Who counts as a hidden buyer in a B2B deal?
People in finance, legal, compliance, procurement or operations who can stall or kill a purchase without sitting in the sales meeting. Edelman treats them as distinct from the named target buyer.
Does B2B thought leadership replace the sales team?
No. Gartner finds buyers prefer less representative pressure, but high-quality deals are more likely when digital tools are used with a sales representative. Thought leadership briefs the people the rep cannot reach.
How is thought leadership different from a product sheet?
Edelman’s hidden buyers say thought leadership is more effective at showing value, and they trust it more than brochures. The test is whether a finance or legal reader can reuse the argument without looking sold.
What should a mid-sized firm publish first?
One sourced briefing aimed at the veto function that stalled your last few deals. Keep it short enough to forward. Cite every headline number. Do not start with a gated 40-page ebook.
How should we measure this if hidden buyers do not fill forms?
Ask sales whether legal, finance or procurement arrived already briefed, and whether your URL appeared in an internal thread. Form fills from the champion understate the work.
Sources
- Edelman, “The Rise of the Hidden Buyer: Rethinking B2B Influence Beyond the Obvious”, 26 June 2025. edelman.com/insights/hidden-buyer-b2b
- Edelman, “2025 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report”, 2025. edelman.com/…/2025-b2b-thought-leadership-report
- Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna, “What is the JOLT Effect?”, 9 October 2024. jolteffect.com/blog/what-is-the-jolt-effect
- Gartner, “The B2B Buying Journey: Key Stages and How to Optimize Them”. gartner.com/en/sales/insights/b2b-buying-journey
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