Top-performing B2B companies have achieved higher revenue
When we talk about outperforming in business, we’re not aiming for “slightly above average.” We’re talking about doubling the growth rate compared to your peers, and that’s exactly what the top B2B firms did in 2024. According to Bain & Company’s 2025 Commercial Excellence Longitudinal Survey, winning firms hit 2.2 times the average revenue growth for their industry and region. Not only that, they also delivered nearly double the average gross margin. That’s not a marketing claim. That’s measurable performance.
At the other end, you’ve got the laggards. They posted just 0.2 times the average growth, the complete opposite of momentum. So, it’s not just about what market you’re in or what products you sell. It’s about whether your company is structured to win in any environment. These high-performing firms aren’t guessing their way to results. They’ve executed at scale, made key investments where it counts, and built operations that convert strategy into repeatable outcomes. That’s the real difference.
C-suite leaders need to ask themselves a simple question: Are you building systems that support consistent, high-margin growth? Winning companies are. They’re exceeding targets not because of luck but because they’ve inflated the right tires on the machine, investment in modern sales systems, smarter pricing decisions, integrated data strategies, and delineated accountability. That’s what it takes. Revenue isn’t a goal. It’s the output of elite execution.
B2B companies continue to face critical challenges in salesforce productivity
Beneath the top-performer curve, there’s a reality many companies are still dealing with, execution gaps. Bain’s study shows about a third of firms didn’t hit their targets in 2024. The core problems? Underperforming salesforces, pricing strategies stuck in the past, and outdated go-to-market systems. These aren’t minor issues. These are fundamental business drivers.
If your salespeople aren’t scaling performance across teams, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. If you’re still manually adjusting pricing and hoping it lands well with customers, you’re already behind. And if your technology stack is preventing you from moving quickly, on deals, customer segmentation, or demand prediction, you’re creating friction that compounds over time.
The solution is not more talk. You fix it by putting systems in place that increase output per salesperson, using pricing software that responds to economic movement in real time, and committing to modernizing your tech stack, not in phases, but with urgency. If you hesitate, your competitors won’t.
For executives, the takeaway is clear: there’s no room for incrementalism here. Productivity and digital capability are now requisites for business survival and scaling. This isn’t just IT’s domain anymore. It’s a core leadership responsibility. Make the call, make the shifts, and build teams that can actually deliver against what’s next.
Effective and scaled adoption of artificial intelligence differentiates market leaders from their competitors
Most companies talk about AI. Only a small group are using it to create meaningful impact at scale. The winners in 2024 didn’t spend the year experimenting, they operationalized AI across their sales, pricing, and customer-facing systems. The results show. According to Bain & Company’s 2025 Commercial Excellence Longitudinal Survey, companies that treated AI as a core tool, not just a test case, captured real gains in both productivity and growth.
You can’t get there if your data is outdated or siloed. Many firms still lack the basic technological foundation to support AI integration. They underestimate what’s required, clean, structured data, the right tools, and alignment across teams. Winning companies are different. They allocate budget to keep their tech infrastructure current, and they build processes that make AI usable by the people who actually drive revenue.
This is the line between surface-level effort and strategic execution. One B2B software executive interviewed in the study called AI a “force multiplier” in executing their go-to-market strategy. Another leader from wholesale banking is using AI for better customer segmentation and more predictive sales plays. If those use cases sound real, that’s because they are. Executives in winning companies are moving past the buzz and turning AI into a serious competitive advantage.
This means for leaders, the job isn’t just to approve budget for AI pilots. It’s to make AI scalable, usable, and central to your operational engine. Not doing so isn’t neutral, it’s a decision to underperform.
Implementing structured and repeatable sales play systems drives superior revenue growth
Sales plays are everywhere, but most aren’t producing real value. According to Bain’s research, 82% of companies say they run sales plays. Yet only 21% of those actually capture full value from them. That’s a big disconnect. The companies that do it well are running what Bain defines as a structured Sales Play System, repeatable go-to-market actions that are targeted at specific customer outcomes and continuously optimized. These organizations didn’t just grow. They achieved 2.2 times the average revenue growth in 2024.
These systems allow businesses to profile markets quickly, deploy best-practice plays effectively, and drive consistent performance across teams. It’s the operational equivalent of getting everyone in sync, with clear roles, data-driven insights, and motion toward the same business goals.
For C-suite leaders, the signal is clear. If your teams are improvising sales efforts every quarter, you’re underperforming by design. High-growth organizations have already moved to disciplined, scalable systems that promote consistency, accountability, and learning. That’s what you need. Strategic unpredictability doesn’t work when you’re trying to scale. And guessing doesn’t deliver compounding growth.
This is execution, not theory. And companies that systemize winning behaviors deliver results that outpace the market.
Dynamic, data-driven pricing strategies are instrumental in protecting and enhancing profit margins
With inflation cooling in 2024, broad cost pass-throughs have stopped working. Leaders in B2B markets haven’t responded by holding prices and hoping for stability. Instead, they’ve leaned into smarter, more adaptive pricing models powered by technology. These systems helped them maintain, or even expand, margins in an environment where pricing power became less predictable.
Top-performing companies aren’t pricing for averages. They segment their customer base, understand each group’s willingness to pay, and adjust in real time. This precision gives them strategic flexibility. When inflation stabilizes or demand shifts, they react not with panic, but with informed, targeted pricing. That’s key.
Companies with traditional pricing strategies are hitting limits. They raise prices too broadly or too late. Technology-backed firms don’t face the same bottlenecks. They’ve integrated tools that analyze customer behavior, market conditions, and cost inputs, then deploy pricing triggers before margin erosion kicks in.
For executives, this isn’t about algorithmic trivia. This is a margin control issue. You need systems that allow pricing to evolve with your market. Not having them means unnecessary revenue leakage. In a low-inflation environment, the margins won’t dig themselves out. Strategic pricing backed by real-time insights is the lever that protects the bottom line.
Sustained growth is fueled by long-term investments in productivity enhancements and capability development
B2B growth leaders are playing the long game, and their actions show it. As other companies scale back, winners are increasing their 2025 spending in key areas like AI, automation, frontline team development, and marketing precision. These investments aren’t random bets. They’re tied to multiyear targets designed to deliver compounding gains in output and return on effort.
According to Bain’s report, top performers are adopting a clear approach: invest in the systems that empower teams, automate inefficient processes, and get smarter about how resources are allocated. It’s not reactive. It’s proactive capitalization on what works, done with scale in mind.
That includes coaching sales teams to close faster and smarter. It includes refining marketing tools to be more responsive and targeted. And it includes deeper segmentation of customers to align offers, pricing, and delivery in the most efficient way possible. These are the investments that raise productivity over time, not for a single quarter, but sustainably.
For decision-makers, the message is simple. If you want a better return in 2025 and beyond, you need to pay into the core systems now. Chasing short-term gains without reinforcing your tech and talent foundations only delays what optimal growth looks like. Leaders who understand this are widening the performance gap, and they’re doing it with intention.
Future-proofing strategies are critical for navigating global economic and geopolitical shifts
2025 will not be defined by stable markets. Global trade dynamics are shifting. Tariffs are tightening. Protectionist policies are gaining traction across multiple regions. Businesses that continue to operate with rigid growth models are making a bet that the environment won’t change, and that’s a mistake.
Top-performing B2B companies aren’t waiting to adapt. They’ve already embedded flexibility and resilience into their growth infrastructure. According to Bain’s 2025 Commercial Excellence Longitudinal Survey, these firms are aligning their strategies to four core principles: scaled use of AI, disciplined execution of sales plays, dynamic pricing, and continuous investment in productivity. That’s not posturing. It’s deliberate preparation to handle volatility without losing momentum.
What sets these companies apart isn’t how much disruption they expect, it’s how fast they can realign with new realities. Winning firms are applying data across more functions, automating key processes, and constantly testing how to optimize decisions against market inputs. That includes sharper segmentation of markets, faster recalibration of pricing, and clearer management of go-to-market capacity.
There’s also a split in focus. Bain’s research shows winners are primarily concerned with maximizing the impact of AI and machine learning. Laggards, by contrast, remain stuck managing legacy pricing issues and navigating market uncertainty. That gap reveals something important: strategic focus defines resilience.
For C-suite executives, the path forward doesn’t rely on a perfect forecast. It depends on building capabilities that can pivot, scale, and adjust without friction. Success in an unpredictable global landscape doesn’t come from reacting faster, it comes from being structurally ready to respond. The top-performing firms in 2024 made that choice. Others should move quickly to catch up.
Final thoughts
If you’re in the position to shape how your company grows, this isn’t about trends, it’s about decisions that compound. The data is clear. The top-performing B2B companies aren’t outpacing the rest by chance. They’re building scalable systems, executing with discipline, and aligning their investments with outcomes that matter.
They’re using AI because it delivers productivity and precision they can’t get elsewhere. They’re running structured sales motions because guesswork doesn’t scale. They’re pricing with strategy, not instinct. And they’re investing now to stay ahead tomorrow, not just to hit next quarter’s number.
The gap between leaders and laggards is widening because the fundamentals are no longer optional. As economic pressures shift and global dynamics become less predictable, companies that move with speed, clarity, and focus will continue to dominate.
If the priority is sustainable growth, now is the time to operationalize what’s working at the top. Don’t wait for ideal conditions. Build systems that win regardless of them.
