We are halfway through 2026 and face continued market uncertainty, additional geopolitical pressures, and shifting customer demand. At the same time, artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how companies operate — creating both significant growth opportunities and new competitive risks. Organizations are placing greater emphasis on value realization and pricing discipline as they navigate this evolving landscape. Some companies from Simon-Kucher's Future of Sales survey that lagged in prior years have repositioned through targeted investments and are beginning to see improved performance, while others are still evaluating how best to adapt.
These dynamics have shaped the agenda for this year’s roundtable, reflecting the topics that sales and business leaders are most focused on addressing. Simon-Kucher is proud to expand this annual forum focused on building world-class Sales & Revenue Operations capabilities to Chicago. Our goal is to address today’s most pressing challenges while helping leaders navigate uncertainty and position their organizations for growth.
This roundtable provides real-time insights into best practices from leading companies, using a highly interactive format where participants share perspectives, challenge assumptions, and learn from one another.
Key topics for this roundtable:
Transforming commercial strategy to accelerate breakout growth during uncertain times:
- Prioritize segments based on resilience, profitability, and risk exposure to focus resources where returns are strongest
- Align sales organization structure, channel strategy, and coverage models with evolving buyer behavior and demand volatility
- Deploy headcount dynamically to maximize impact across high-potential segments while maintaining efficient cost-to-serve
- Design incentive plans that reinforce strategic priorities - protecting core revenue while accelerating profitable growth
Winning on value in price-sensitive markets:
- Tailor value propositions by segment and buyer persona to reflect specific economic pressures
- Equip sales with playbooks and tools that articulate differentiated outcomes - not just product features
- Implement practical discount guardrails that protect margin without slowing momentum
- Elevate negotiation discipline to manage procurement scrutiny and defend price realization
Leading AI in the sales organization: strategy, impact, and agility
- Turn AI ambition into measurable commercial impact
- Define a clear AI vision aligned with commercial strategy and growth priorities
- Prioritize high-impact use cases (e.g., opportunity prioritization, pricing, personalization) tied to revenue and margin
- Mitigate data, compliance, and reputational risks while accelerating implementation
