How Sales Leaders Should Take Action Now

2026 will be the year of sales intelligence for decision-makers in sales organizations. Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) should keep three key points in mind in order to generate growth and keep their sales teams fit despite disruptive market changes.

Sales managers (CSOs) are under pressure, especially at the beginning of the year, to increase business and win new customers. They need to respond with new, agile structures. Disruptive changes in sales channels play an important role here. In a Gartner analysis, market researchers highlight perspectives and steps for sales managers.

These include, for example, strategic realignment, leadership requirements, and an active culture of innovation in order to build “resilient and high-performing sales organizations,” as the experts put it. At the same time, the trend in personal sales could not be clearer:

“When 61 percent of B2B buyers prefer an experience without sales representatives, traditional sales strategies are no longer sufficient,”

the Gartner experts note.

Sales Forces Are Somewhat Organization-Fatigued

This is no easy task for CSOs, as market researchers say that a certain organizational fatigue is spreading. For example, the number of organizational change initiatives rose by 67 percent between 2016 and 2024. At the same time, however, employee willingness to support these changes fell from 74 to 44 percent.

Change Management in Sales Also Needs Change

Specialists have observed that sales employees are becoming less willing to embrace change as the pace of change increases. This is an indicator that traditional change management strategies, for example, are no longer effective enough in light of the demands of the new era.

In his german column “Die Jammerei beenden, Resilienz aufbauen” (“Stop complaining, build resilience”), sales trainer Ralf Koschinski sums up the necessary actions: “In order to deal with the consequences of transformation in a constructive and solution-oriented manner, it is necessary to build up transformation resilience, for example by companies defining the 180-degree change as essential for improvements, further developments, and necessary realignments,” he explains on Springer Professional. This is aided by “a shift in focus, in which managers and employees in sales make it clear that they can influence the change processes in their own interests.”

Sales Teams Need a Framework for Action

Last but not least, the various performance types within sales teams, especially the middle range, depend on a stable framework for orientation and action. Managers must create this, as Wolf W. and Lara M. Lasko explain with their Result Frames approach in the german book “Internationale Vertriebssteuerung by Result Framing” (“International Sales Management by Result Framing”) (page 8). According to the authors, this approach makes everyday sales work much easier and leads directly to results without changing the individual personalities of the sales staff.

Freelance communications consultant Katja Lode and Dr. Matthias Huckemann, managing director of Mercuri International in Düsseldorf, have a similar view of the underlying change processes in sales: In every change process, there are “drivers, blockers, and the large middle ground, which can be won over with time and positive experiences.” Managers should use the drivers as ambassadors and focus their energy on “the large middle group, those who are willing to change, and make their successes visible,” advise the two sales experts in the Sales Excellence article “Vertrieb braucht Tempo, Change braucht Zeit” (“Sales needs speed, change needs time”) (issue 10-11/2025, page 22 ff.). In the article, they name various success factors for sustainable change in sales. These include explaining changes and creating a positive vision, enabling participation through dialogue and feedback formats, and adapting target systems with compensation and KPIs.

Successful Anchors for Realignment in Sales

According to Gartner, for successful change in sales management, CSOs should above all

• create a unified sales strategy that connects sales, marketing, and customer service and is geared toward greater coordination of sales functions.
• Train resilient salespeople. Sales managers must prioritize the differentiated skills of sales staff and relieve them of less important tasks.
• Build a flexible sales organization that can withstand change. For CSOs, this means creating an agile sales culture that promotes collaboration and makes teams fit for change.

However, not all sales managers are prepared for a transformation turnaround. The Gartner survey shows that, for example, only 12 percent of the sales managers surveyed said they would be able to maintain their productivity if they successfully implemented transformation measures. This is also illustrated by the following chart:

Sales Transformation Requires a Roadmap

Gartner experts therefore recommend creating a transformation roadmap that minimizes the risks of declining sales productivity. The roadmap should include topics such as decision intelligence, digital sales channels, long-term change management in sales teams, and a “gig sales force”—flexible, project-based work by sales talent to scale sales capacity in real time. This will ensure short-term sales productivity.

Digital Transformation Is Part of It

Of course, the requirements for sales organizations to respond to changing market conditions and leverage innovation to make sales teams fit also include looking at the digital transformation of sales, which is in full swing.

Andreas Zehetner, Professor of Marketing at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (FH OÖ), and Christopher Korntner-Kanitz, Professor of International B2B Marketing in the English-language Global Sales and Marketing program at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (Steyr campus), describe this in the chapter “Synergien von Marketing und Vertrieb in der digitalen Transformation: Eine Analyse von Rollen, Aufgaben und Integration in technischen B2B-Unternehmen” (“Synergies between marketing and sales in digital transformation: An analysis of roles, tasks, and integration in technical B2B companies”) with a focus on technical sales based on three studies. They note that the roles and tasks of marketing and sales departments in technical B2B companies are changing with new digital technologies such as big data, online communication, and social networks. They cite tools such as

• video conferencing,
• instant messaging platforms,
• chat rooms, and
• collaborative project management software

facilitate efficient and effective teamwork. They enable marketing professionals to collaborate with customers, sales teams, product managers, and other stakeholders. “This seamless collaboration simplifies the coordination of marketing and sales activities, leading to better lead conversion and customer loyalty (Hauer et al., 2021),” the authors explain.

Using a quantitative study, the researchers show that while some tasks are still clearly assigned to one function or the other, However, the boundaries between marketing and sales roles are becoming increasingly blurred for more and more tasks. This applies, among other things, to marketing and sales planning, customer acquisition, lead generation, preparation for and participation in auctions on electronic marketplaces, and involvement in innovation and product development.

Holistic Strategy Required

The different perspectives for sales decision-makers show that transformation is about sales intelligence, a holistic view of change, and the corresponding measures that sales decision-makers must initiate—in other words, a clear roadmap that takes sales teams along and does justice to their important role in working with customers. Among other things, 2026 will be a decisive year for salespeople.

This is a partly automated translation of this german article.