Lighting Up the Dark Funnel: Strategies to Engage Hidden Buyers and Drive Demand in 2025-Webinar Slides - Lighting Up the Dark Funnel: Strategies to Engage Hidden Buyers and Drive Demand in 2025

Webinar Slides - Lighting Up the Dark Funnel: Strategies to Engage Hidden Buyers and Drive Demand in 2025

Pdf Summary

The presentation by Scott Conley, VP of Strategic Partnerships at INFUSE, focuses on uncovering hidden opportunities within the B2B buyer’s journey, particularly in the orthopaedics industry. Key insights highlight the concept of the "dark funnel," where 70-80% of the buyer’s journey happens unseen by sellers, as buyers independently research and evaluate options before vendor engagement. This dark funnel encompasses long, multi-stakeholder purchase cycles lasting 12-18 months, involving complex buying groups of around ten members spanning surgeons, supply chain, finance, IT, and operational leaders.<br /><br />Orthopaedic elective procedure volumes are rising (up 18% YoY), emphasizing the need for suppliers to gain early insight into buyer motivations and decision-making processes to avoid late-stage price pressure and margin erosion. Early engagement enables companies to educate committees, support champions with economic justifications, influence budget holders, and leverage storytelling to differentiate their offerings.<br /><br />The B2B buying journey is broken down into four stages: Awareness (recognizing a problem), Consideration (evaluating solutions), Decision (selecting a solution), and Post-Purchase (onboarding and support). To capitalize on these stages, firms must target the full buying group—overlooking most members risks missing significant influence—and tailor content strategies aligned with each member’s role and funnel stage.<br /><br />INFUSE recommends an omnichannel, personalized marketing and sales approach, repurposing content for various buyer personas (with tools like ChatGPT) to increase engagement and win rates. Recognizing that companies are currently setting 2026 budgets implies buyers are entering the awareness stage, signaling a critical window for early engagement.<br /><br />In summary, understanding and illuminating the dark funnel, engaging entire buying committees, and delivering role-specific, timely content can transform insights into greater qualified leads and revenue growth in complex B2B purchase environments like orthopaedics.

Keywords

B2B buyer's journey

dark funnel

orthopaedics industry

multi-stakeholder purchase cycle

early buyer engagement

elective procedure volume increase

personalized marketing

omnichannel sales approach

buying group influence

role-specific content strategy