Some of the most important conversations about your work…
happen when you’re not in the room. (Yeah, that's always fun.)
Not during the pitch. Not on the call.
They happen after... between colleagues, in Slack threads, over lunch.
“What do you think about this?”
“Have we tried something like this before?”
“Do we even need it?”
And here’s the worst part—
They’re not quoting you. They’re translating you.
Sometimes it’s accurate. Sometimes, it’s... lost in translation.
Everyone talks about personas.
Decision-makers. Champions. ICPs.
But what about the people who don’t show up on your CRM…
...yet decide whether you get the meeting, the reply, the yes?
They tend to get ignored because they’re invisible. But they shape perception more than you think.
They’re the validators. The blockers. The internal skeptics.
The engineer who says, “We’ve tried something like this before, and it was a disaster.”
Problem is, they’re not hearing your pitch.
They’re hearing the secondhand version. An interpretation.
The TL;DR summary with their POV added.
Most messaging operates under a simple (and often flawed) assumption:
"You → Buyer → Decision."
In reality, it's more like:
You → Buyer → Ghost Audience → Decision.
These "ghost audiences" don't show up in the sales funnel... but they're lurking in the process.
The data backs this up: Only 5% of B2B buyers say the decision-maker acted alone. (CEB/Gartner) Seems kinda obvious, right?
So what can you do about it?
Give them a message that survives the retelling.
How to Identify and Craft Messages for Your Invisible Audience
To influence the people you’ll never meet—the blockers, skeptics, and quiet influencers—you need messaging that travels well.
This isn’t about writing better copy. It’s about engineering clarity, credibility, and confidence into the retelling.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Map the Invisible Web
Not every decision is made by the decision-maker.
Start by mapping adjacent influencers:
- Blockers (legal, compliance): Identify potential objections before they arise. Proactively address these concerns to mitigate delays.
- Validators (engineers, analysts): They need clear, jargon-free messaging. Equip them to champion your cause with straightforward value propositions.
- Amplifiers (internal champions, advisors): Leverage their voices. Use their influence to amplify your message and build internal momentum.
- Anti-champions (people burned by similar solutions): Don’t shy away from them. Address their concerns directly with empathy and solid facts to win them over.
These people rarely show up in your CRM. But they often shape perception behind the scenes.
2. Shift from a Single Buyer POV to a System POV
Most messaging assumes a straight line from you to the decider.
In reality, it's a network: multiple people, agendas, and conversations—many of which you’ll never be part of.
You send a pitch deck to a mid-level ops director. She loves it, but she now has to convince her boss, loop in IT, and get finance sign-off. If your messaging doesn’t give her a clear way to retell your value, you lose momentum.
Craft messaging that holds up in secondhand storytelling.
Could someone else repeat your pitch and still make you sound credible?
Use simple, defensible language that’s easy to repeat (like a one-liner or contrast frame):
“We help [the person they care about] win faster, without [the obstacle that slows them down].
“It helps [sales] close faster—without marketing needing to build custom assets every time.”
3. Build Objection‑Resistant Messaging
You might never sit in the room where the real push‑back happens, so disarm it upfront.
➔ Surface the scary questions first. Cost, security, compliance, disruption—list the predictable “yeah‑but” moments for each adjacent influencer.
➔ Embed micro‑proofs. A 2‑sentence case study, a bite‑size stat, or a one‑slide risk comparison beats a 20‑page appendix no one opens.
➔ Use the “Yes, and” pattern.
“Yes, switching platforms feels disruptive—And we’ve designed our onboarding process to minimize downtime by providing dedicated support and training tailored to your team’s schedule.”
Objection resistance isn’t reactive, it’s baked into the narrative before the first eyebrow goes up.
🎯 Build Your Invisible Audience Messaging Map
Messaging that only works when you're in the room won’t survive the real decision process.
This step helps you shape language that sticks when someone else tells your story:
List 3–5 people who might weigh in behind the scenes.
(Tip: Ask your champion “Who else needs to be comfortable with this?”)
For each one, answer two questions:
→ What would make them say “Hell yes!”?
→ What might make them say “Hell no!” behind closed doors?
Write one sentence for each that:
- Anticipates their concern
- Provides a defensible, easy-to-repeat response
- Uses their language, not yours
Your best message is built for the conversations you’ll never hear.
🤖 Bonus GPT Prompt: Help me rewrite this so it survives secondhand.
If you want to go a step further and stress-test your message for the conversations you’ll never hear, this prompt can help.
Use it as an add-on after you’ve drafted your messaging map. It’s designed to make sure what you wrote actually holds up when someone else repeats it.
And it works! See what it did for me after the prompt.
Prompt:
You’re helping me pressure-test a message that might be shared without me in the room—via Slack, a forwarded deck, or someone loosely paraphrasing it to a boss.
My goal:
I want this message to be clear, defensible, and repeatable enough that it doesn’t lose meaning (or momentum) when someone else shares it.
Here’s what I need from you:
- Summarize how a typical [role of an internal stakeholder] might repeat this message in their own words (1–2 sentences, casual tone).
- Highlight what’s likely to get misunderstood, watered down, or spark doubt.
- Help me rewrite it so it’s:
- Easy to repeat
- Hard to misinterpret
- Includes subtle proof or a defensible hook
- Bonus: Write a version tailored to a probable “ghost audience” decision influencer. (e.g., legal, IT, finance, a skeptical engineer).
Here’s my original message:
[PASTE MESSAGE HERE]
I used this exact prompt on a sales proposal I gave to a CEO and the feedback was bonkers—in a good way. It was so good I’ll probably add this tool to our Messaging Playground.
Here’s what I got for #1 and below:
How a CEO might casually repeat this to their team:
“We’re bringing someone in to help us clean up our messaging—make it tighter, clearer, and actually usable across teams. Think: one story we can all stand behind, and finally stop winging it.”
Then it went even further, with this:
Final Tip:
You might want to give your champion a one-sentence “why it matters” they can lead with. Try this:
“We can’t scale what we can’t clearly explain. This fixes that—once and for all.”
🔄 Your Challenge
This week, I’m challenging you to take your job, your product, your service, or your business idea..
Explain it to a friend, sibling, or partner (someone not in your industry).
Then ask them to repeat back what they think you just told them.
