B2B Commercial Trends Study 2026: Managing Ambition with Reality (Simon-Kucher)

Summary

• 68% of respondents have an optimistic outlook on 2026.p.21
• 80% are looking into launching commercial initiatives, but 37% lack the readiness to implement them.p.21
• Profit expectations for 2026: 29% expect unchanged profit, 36% expect +1% to +5%, 18% expect +5% or more, 10% expect -1% to -5% and 4% expect -5% or lower.p.9
• About 80% of companies consider commercial actions at least as important as cost cutting, and only around one fifth focus primarily on cost measures.p.14
• Attracting talent shows the largest execution gap at 95%pts, and increased economic uncertainty shows an 84%pts gap.p.18

Key insights

1. Execution capability is the decisive constraint between ambition and results.p.2
2. Optimism has softened compared with last year, particularly in Europe and the Americas.p.6
3. The UK is the least optimistic country, with about 25% negative about the outlook.p.6
4. Commercial operating model redesign and digital are the top priorities across all regions.p.15
5. Talent is the largest execution gap in every region.p.19
6. Planned price increases are expected to only slightly outperform the development in costs.p.10