Introduction: The new B2B growth reckoning The ground is shifting under B2B sales and marketing. What once separated market leaders from the rest of the field—digital tools, omnichannel engagement, and e-commerce capabilities—has become the threshold for survival. Those who seek to thrive in this new environment must adapt to deliver an entirely different level of execution—one that consistently delights customers through deep personalization driven by AI systems that know the customer at every step of the journey and disciplined sales management of account-based marketing (ABM) to drive sustained growth. This is not the first time B2B organizations have faced a decisive shift in buyer expectations. More than a decade ago, McKinsey research highlighted a major change in how business customers behave: B2B buyers were beginning to act more like consumers, expecting greater transparency, faster responses, and the ability to research and compare suppliers. A second inflection point came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel restrictions and remote work forced organizations to adopt new digital and self-service channels at unprecedented speed. Each of these moments reshaped the B2B landscape. Today, a similar moment is unfolding—one that cannot be explained by industry or geography but instead is defined by a set of new behaviors that are required if sales organizations are to grow. We’ve dubbed this moment “the great expectations of B2B buyers.” It is an age in which customers are more demanding than ever—and increasingly willing to switch suppliers if their expectations are not met. In this moment, advantage accrues only to sellers capable of delivering outstanding e-commerce capabilities and orchestrating the customer experience across all channels—serving and delighting customers wherever they happen to be. These findings emerge clearly from McKinsey’s 2026 Global B2B Pulse report, which gathers insights from nearly 4,000 B2B decision-makers across 13 countries and multiple industries. A decade into tracking buyer behavior and commercial response, this year’s data signals a decisive inflection point. Omnichannel presence and e-commerce enablement—once sources of differentiation—have become minimum requirements. Nearly every buyer now engages across in-person, remote, and digital channels, using an average of ten touchpoints along the purchasing journey. Today’s buyers expect seamless transitions, consistent information, and immediate access to expertise. When those expectations are not met, our research shows, they move on. At the same time, a measurable performance divide is widening. Sixty percent of market leaders (those whose market share has grown by more than 10 percent compared with last year) report double-digit revenue growth, compared with just 21 percent of laggards (whose market share has declined by more than 5 percent over the same period). Ninety percent of leaders report improved sales effectiveness, versus barely half of their peers. The organizations pulling ahead are those that have moved beyond simply tinkering with their sales models. Instead, they are redesigning their commercial systems around three reinforcing engines of growth: hyperpersonalization that delivers highly customized experiences to each customer, scaled deployment of gen AI tools, and disciplined account-based governance of sales activities. Together, these capabilities provide a flywheel effect that can enable companies not just to meet rising customer expectations but also to turn them into a lasting advantage that builds and accelerates. 3 The surprising economics of B2B growth: The new survival threshold—and what it takes to thrive