McKinsey (2026) — B2B sales playbooks rewired with AI

Summary:

This report is McKinsey’s outlook on what defines stronger and weaker B2B sales organizations.

McKinsey says basic omnichannel selling and e-commerce are no longer special — they are the minimum needed to stay competitive. The report argues that the next edge comes from combining better personalization, more AI use, and tighter sales ownership.

McKinsey is a consulting firm that sells strategy and transformation work to large businesses. The findings come from its 2026 Global B2B Pulse Survey, based on responses from nearly 4,000 decision-makers across 13 countries and multiple industries.

Key insights:
• Buyers now use many touchpoints, with an average of ten channels across the journey, and they expect those channels to work together smoothly.
• Inconsistent information across teams is now the top reason buyers switch suppliers, followed by trouble reaching knowledgeable representatives.
• 71% of B2B companies now offer e-commerce, and for those that do, about one-third of revenue comes through digital channels.
• Comfort with large online purchases remains high, with 73% comfortable placing orders above $50,000 online.

Note that this is a vendor-published survey from a consulting firm whose services fit the report's recommendations.

Many headline comparisons rely on self-reported answers, including self-identified leader and laggard groups, which can overstate real differences.

The write-up gives only limited method detail beyond the rough sample size and country count, so it is hard to judge sampling, weighting, question wording, or how representative the results are.