Bain and LinkedIn’s 2026 buyability research, based on a February survey of 750 buyers by NewtonX, finds finance, legal and procurement ‘hidden buyers’ hold roughly half of decision influence, and that vendors are far more likely to win when the whole buying group already knows and trusts them. About 40% of deals stall on group disagreement, not a competitor win.
For firms, marketing must arm the whole room early — with peer proof and a decision a sponsor can defend if it goes wrong.
The practical shift is to market to the people who can quietly end the deal. Finance, legal and procurement reviewers need their own content: total-cost and risk framing for finance, security and compliance evidence for legal, commercial terms and referenceability for procurement. Give the internal sponsor material they can forward without editing — a one-page business case, peer proof from a similar firm, and a clear answer to what happens if it goes wrong — because defensibility is what they are actually buying. Sales teams should multi-thread early and treat a single enthusiastic sponsor as a warning sign, not a pipeline stage.
