"Buyability" — The New Enterprise Procurement Framework for the AI Era
Ty Heath, Global Director of Thought Leadership GTM Strategy at LinkedIn, presented a new framework at B2BMX 2026 that redefines enterprise buying dynamics for the AI era. The core concept is that B2B deals stall not because a competitor wins, but because the buying group lacks the collective confidence to make a decision. "Buyability" is about identifying and reducing the hidden commercial friction that prevents organizations from moving forward.
Key Data Points & Insights
- Growing Buying Committees: The average B2B buying group is now 8.2 people according to LinkedIn research, while Forrester's 2025/2026 Buyers' Journey Survey places it even higher at 13 internal stakeholders and 9 external participants for complex enterprise deals.
- The AI Research Filter: 94% of B2B buyers use LLMs (Large Language Models) in the decision-making process. This means the initial phase of research, credibility, and confidence building is being condensed directly into AI tools.
- The Power of Hidden Buyers: Traditional marketing targets specific users or champions, but "hidden buyers" in finance, legal, and procurement wield veto power. The research shows that if the entire recommending committee knows the brand at the start, the deal is significantly more likely to succeed:
"81% of the brand knew everyone at the start. In that scenario, you’re more likely to get the deal right, versus when only 4% of the recommending functions knew the brand."
- Emotional Defense vs. Functional Value: B2B buyers tie their professional reputation and job security to purchasing decisions. Instead of asking "will this product do the job?", they ask:
"Can I defend my decision versus confident that it would do the job?"
The Five Frictions of Buyability
To solve the buyability problem, founders and marketers must diagnose and eliminate five key types of friction:
- Risk Friction: Mitigating the buyer's fear of professional failure.
- Visibility Friction: Ensuring the brand and product are highly visible inside LLMs and AI research tools where early-stage shortlists are formed.
- Proof Friction: Providing highly relatable, context-specific peer validation rather than generic testimonials.
"People want to hear from people who are in a similar space as them. So as we think about case studies and testimonials, this is where you can go to work at talking to current customers."
- Alignment Friction: Aligning the diverse incentives of all 8+ stakeholders.
- Political Friction: Equipping internal champions with portable, digestible content to help them build alliances and navigate internal politics.
"The closer we get to the decision, we need more peer validation, more content, even thought leadership, authority, credibility, driving content to open the mind and the eyes of the people that are making a decision alongside their champion."