The RepVue Q3 2025 Cloud Index is out—and the signals behind the numbers reveal a commercial landscape undergoing its most significant transformation in a decade.

When Lucrum Partners released our 2026 GTM Predictions, we framed the upcoming year around a simple but urgent message: Growth in 2026 belongs to the prepared.

by Lucrum Partners As we move into sales kickoff season, revenue leaders face a clear crossroads: either they run their playbooks like modern offensive coordinators, studying the defense (buyers), audibling at the line, adapting the play mid-game, or they rely on familiar “best practices” that increasingly resemble last season’s Hail Mary: flashy, hopeful, but lacking precision. At Lucrum Partners, we’ve seen enough performance data to know which path wins. The New Buying Gam

When landmark legislation passes, capital doesn’t just move, it accelerates toward new opportunity. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is doing exactly that. It’s been hailed as one of the most consequential tax and capital investment bills in modern U.S. history. By expanding 100% first-year depreciation, R&D tax incentives, and qualified production property (QPP) expensing, the bill effectively reprograms corporate investment math.

Across industries, B2B revenue leaders are feeling the pressure. Win rates are down. Customer experience is deteriorating. And buyer confidence, once predictable, is now scattered across bloated buying groups that can’t reach consensus.

2026 is shaping up to be the year when traditional go-to-market (GTM) strategies finally collapse under their own weight. The funnels, lead-hand-offs, and stage-gated campaigns that once powered predictable growth are now failing to keep up with a new kind of market dynamic—where buyers are self-directed, AI curates the shortlist, and alignment is the only multiplier that matters.

High seller turnover and missed quotas are becoming the most frustrating constants for today’s GTM and revenue leaders. For many, every new quarter feels like déjà vu: underperformance, reactionary hiring, and another round of “performance management.” But here’s the truth: If you’re tired of firing low performers, then stop hiring them.

Executives aren’t shopping for features. They’re hunting for partners who can help them diagnose growth constraints, de-risk big decisions, and move financial needles. Meanwhile, the buying landscape keeps shifting: buyers spend a sliver of their time with suppliers, most interactions happen in digital channels, and many decisions are shaped long before a seller is invited to the table. Below is a practical playbook—grounded in current research—for transforming a product-f

Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) are facing unprecedented pressure as they enter 2025. Gartner’s latest research shows that the role of the CSO is being redefined around one central imperative: improving sales productivity. But productivity isn’t just about doing more with less, it’s about designing a sales system that can thrive in uncertainty, adapt to rapid change, and stay unified around the customer.

For decades, sales training programs have promised to equip reps with the skills needed to hit quota and close deals faster. But in 2025, the very frameworks that once accelerated growth are now slowing it down. The traditional, static sales training model is failing. And it’s time we admit it.

Today’s B2B buyers navigate a radically different decision journey. Digital touchpoints abound—research is done online, peers shape opinions through communities, purchasing decisions get made long before any one-to-one engagement happens. Unfortunately, many B2B organizations are still operating under outdated mental models.

In today’s B2B economy, growth is no longer about adding more reps or doubling down on outdated playbooks. Boards and investors are no longer impressed by size—they want strategy. The winners in today’s marketplace are those who execute buyer-aligned, insight-led, and performance-measured client growth strategies.

Boards and investors may be sympathetic to market forces—tariffs, inflation, budget constraints—but they expect CEOs to create a plan to navigate around uncertainty and win. And "win" means something specific: ROI and shareholder value. Too many B2B revenue teams are operating with playbooks that were built for a buying environment that no longer exists. If your sellers can't navigate the very disruptions you're paid to overcome, then your sales system isn't designed to win

According to a 2024 McKinsey survey of GTM executives, the average C-level growth leader invests 45–70 hours per year in structured continuing education. Top-performing CROs: ~62 hours/year High-growth CMOs: ~54 hours/year Benchmark for digital-native leaders: ~72 hours/year

CEOs of B2B growth firms face a critical window. Markets are shifting. Buyers are changing. And strategies built in January may already be stale. The most agile firms—David-sized companies operating with insight and precision—are using this mid-year checkpoint to adjust before Q3. And they’re doing it faster and smarter than their Goliath competitors. At Lucrum Partners, we’ve synthesized the latest thinking from Gartner, Forrester, Corporate Visions, and SBI Growth

In 2025, sales enablement is no longer a support function—it’s a strategic lever. Or at least, it should be. Recent insights from Gartner’s 2025 Sales Excellence and Innovation Report offer a clear warning: if enablement functions fail to evolve into strategic consulting arms to the C-suite, they risk becoming irrelevant in driving growth, retention, and quota performance. At Lucrum Partners, we’ve worked closely with B2B organizations attempting to modernize their go-to-m

Most enablement and RevOps teams aren’t built for this mission. They’re still trained for peacetime operations—coordinating onboarding, pushing out content, and managing platforms. Meanwhile, sales leaders are deployed into combat zones with no forward intelligence, no air support, and no real-time guidance from headquarters.

As we approached 2025, CEO sentiment across industries was marked by uncertainty. Predictions of an impending recession, escalating tariffs, and geopolitical instability dominated Q4 earnings calls. Boards braced for impact. Growth plans were revised. Many leaders entered the new year hesitant—some paused hiring, while others slowed strategic investments. But as Q1 closed, many of those storm clouds never fully materialized.

The Disconnect in B2B Sales Despite rapid advancements in sales technology and enablement tools, modern B2B buyers remain unimpressed. According to Gartner, fewer than 20% of sellers are able to align their conversations with business impact—a stark indicator of misalignment between what buyers need and what sellers deliver.

Over the past few years, the role of sales operations has undergone a profound transformation. No longer just a back-office function focused on CRM hygiene and forecasting reports, today’s sales operations must operate as a strategic command center—one that fuels growth, enables executive decision-making, and equips sellers with the tools, intelligence, and systems they need to win.