Commercial growth.
Grounded in evidence.

McKinsey assessed more than 200 commercial capabilities at 200 clients. Its research connects stronger commercial capabilities with stronger growth and emphasizes a shared fact base, clear priorities, ownership, and measurement.

What this means for your businessFor a growing organization, the useful question is where the team needs a stronger process: pricing, account management, sales support, or execution. Use the findings to decide what to build next.

Cross-industry client assessments; association with performance, not a forecast for an individual company.

McKinsey’s pricing research brings together customer value, transaction analysis, negotiation skills, and coaching. Its industrial examples show how pricing tools and the people using them belong in the same conversation.

What this means for your businessReview the price, the discount, and the explanation a seller gives the buyer. Then identify where the team needs clearer guidance or practice to deliver that explanation consistently.

Published management research and company examples; a practice framework rather than a universal uplift benchmark.

Gartner reported unhealthy conflict in 74% of buyer teams in a survey of 632 B2B buyers. The research was conducted in August–September 2024 and published in May 2025.

What this means for your businessMap what operations, finance, technical evaluators, and procurement each need to approve. Give your champion a business case that helps those people reach agreement.

Broad B2B buying research; the percentage is not a hardware-specific failure rate.

Bain’s framework identifies 40 elements of value across five categories, drawing on decades of customer research. It includes functional value, ease of doing business, and the concerns of individual buyers.

What this means for your businessTranslate the product’s capabilities into the outcomes, effort, and risk the customer cares about. Use those priorities to sharpen the sales message and explain the price.

A research-based framework for understanding B2B value; the elements are not a score or a required checklist.

First Page Sage’s manufacturing row reports a $47,800 median deal size, a 19% average win rate, and a 124-day typical sales cycle. Its 2025 analysis covered 247 North American B2B organizations across industries.

What this means for your businessCompare the timing and economics with your own customer segments before setting hiring plans, compensation, or pipeline targets. A capital-equipment deal and a repeat order can require very different plans.

Combined client, private-equity, and third-party data; manufacturing subgroup size is not disclosed. The current page title says 2026; the described data is from 2025.

If 25% of qualified pipeline value converts into revenue within the planning period, the implied coverage is 4.0× the revenue target. At 20%, it is 5.0×. This is arithmetic using a value-weighted conversion assumption.

What this means for your businessUse comparable deals and the same planning period. Account for slippage, changes in deal size, and opportunities that will close later. A deal-count win rate can distort a revenue forecast when deal values vary.

Illustrative assumptions, not an observed benchmark or a guarantee. Use your own qualified pipeline data.

McKinsey’s 2017 analysis across 30 industries reported average EBIT margins of 25% for aftermarket services and 10% for new-equipment sales.

What this means for your businessAn installed base creates questions worth asking about service, support, consumables, and upgrades. Evaluate the customer need, delivery cost, and team capacity before building the offer.

Historical averages across industries; actual economics vary by company and offering.

NSF’s 2025 I-Corps report describes experiential learning and customer discovery as part of turning research into commercial opportunities.

What this means for your businessTest the problem, the buyer, and the purchase process with customers. For an established team, the same discipline can help when entering a new market or introducing a new offering.

Program report covering fiscal years 2023–2024; the application to established organizations is Quarry North’s interpretation.

In G2’s March 2026 survey of 1,076 B2B software decision-makers, 51% said they start research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google.

What this means for your businessMake the company’s expertise, offers, evidence, and sources easy to find and understand. Clear reference pages give buyers material they can inspect, share, and use in their research.

B2B software buyers. Applying the exact percentage to industrial purchasing would go beyond this study.