2. The shortlist is formed before you know the evaluation has started.

For Marketing

Most marketing investment goes into the later stages of the buying process, when buyers are actively evaluating vendors and willing to engage with sellers. The 2026 data suggests that moment is already too late.

The shortlist is not built during the evaluation. It is built in the months and years before it, through the accumulated effect of brand exposure, peer conversations, content encountered at industry events, and the general sense of who is credible in the category. 96% of buyers stay current on solution categories even when not actively buying. Nearly three-quarters change their vendor opinions between cycles. Your brand is either gaining or losing ground in those updates, whether you are doing anything about it or not.

This is the Brand-to-Demand Zone:

The critical transition space where buyers move from passive market observers to active evaluators.

It is a phase in the buying journey that most marketing departments do not systematically address.

Brand teams focus on those who are out of market. Demand generation teams focus on accounts showing in-market signals. But the zone in between, where some buying group members are already exploring while others in the same organization are still out of market, typically gets no dedicated attention from either function.

This is not a minor oversight.

It is a structural gap with commercial consequences. The buyers entering this zone are not yet raising their hand, but they are already forming the shortlist that will determine who wins the deal. A CMO who does not explicitly organize marketing investment and effort around this zone is leaving the most consequential part of the buying journey to chance.

As individual members of a buying group start to activate, they generate signals that can be detected using marketing automation and revenue intelligence platforms.

Those signals can be used to trigger targeted programs aimed at engaging those members and earning a place on their shortlist before the formal evaluation begins. This requires a different type of marketing, one that sits between always-on brand building and active demand capture, and it requires dedicated organizational attention, budget allocation, and technology to make it happen.

Our GTM 2027 recommendations

Shift a meaningful portion of your marketing investment to the period when buyers are not yet in market. Brand presence built now determines who makes the shortlist later.
Build content that speaks to the questions buyers ask before they start a formal evaluation: is this even our problem, what does good look like, what would it cost us to ignore this. These questions shape the shortlist.
Build content that travels well inside accounts. Think about what the second and third reader needs, not just the person who first found you.

Maintain an active and managed review site presence. Buyers consult review sites throughout the evaluation and it influences both pre-contact perception and final decisions.
If you are investing in answer engine optimization, build your approach around the different roles in your buying group. A single brand visibility score tells you almost nothing without knowing whose prompt generated it.