Growth Is the Top Priority. So Why Do So Many Plans Stall?

Your growth plan has a reader you may never meet: the buyer’s CFO. CFOs or their delegates approve 78% of technology purchases, and they want evidence that is independent of the vendor.

That scrutiny arrives alongside pressure from the top. 64% of CEOs rank growth as their number one priority, according to IDC’s 2026 Worldwide CEO Survey.

Even with strategy, campaigns and messaging in place, growth plans stall at two checkpoints IDC’s analysis points to: a buyer’s CFO, who wants defensible evidence that doesn’t come from the vendor, and a buyer who increasingly trusts peers and industry experts over vendor content.

Same 12 months, different growth stories

A rising market doesn’t lift every company equally. In IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker, vendors measured across the first and second halves of 2025 show very different trajectories in individual software markets: an enterprise workflow platform speeding up, an enterprise-service platform slowing from an unusually high base, and a customer-engagement vendor whose two product lines moved in opposite directions.

Aggregate market figures can hide that spread, because they describe the market’s direction and say little about which companies are gaining. The full comparison is in the report.

The buyer you can’t see: Earning trust earlier

Growth plans also depend on reaching buyers who are harder to see and harder to persuade. A recent survey found that 51% say buyers place more weight on peer reviews and industry experts than on vendor content. Buyers also increasingly use AI tools before they visit a vendor’s website, and organizations report that more of the buying journey is invisible to them than it used to be.

Two challenges follow. The first is credibility. A persuasive campaign can generate interest, but buyers want outside perspectives to confirm what they’re hearing. The second is visibility. AI-powered research tools are changing how buyers discover and evaluate technology, and by the time someone visits your website, they may already have compared the alternatives. Much of that research happens outside the channels marketers use to monitor and reach prospects.

Your website, advertising and sales materials still matter. They work harder when third-party evidence supports them, evidence buyers can find and weigh on their own terms.

The CFO gate: Does your business case pass the test?

Picture the deal moving well. Your campaign captured attention, sales conversations are going well, and everything points toward a close, until the proposal reaches the buyer’s CFO.

At that point the conversation turns to whether the investment makes financial sense. A CFO wants evidence that stands on its own, and a business case that can’t withstand scrutiny loses momentum.

For marketing leaders, the CFO review works as a test of the messaging: every claim has to be one that someone else can defend. Third-party research, like the intelligence IDC provides, can back claims about business value and give sales teams reliable information to use with customers. It also gives buyers something to reference when they explain a recommendation to their own financial stakeholders.

What closes the gap?

IDC Multiplier brings together three connected capabilities: Understand, which uses IDC research and analyst expertise to validate where you can win; Activate, which turns that position into content backed by IDC data and analyst expertise; and Grow, which connects you with senior technology decision-makers through events and IDC-moderated roundtables.

Is your growth plan ready to move forward?

Start by finding where your plan is losing momentum. List the claims at the center of your growth story and ask whether each one has evidence a CFO and a skeptical buyer could check without taking the vendor’s word for it. Where the answer is no, that is the gap to close first.