The pressure on sales leaders to drive growth has never been higher. At the same time, economic uncertainty, evolving buyer expectations and rapid technological change continue to present new challenges. Chief sales officers (CSOs) must do more than manage change. They must lead it.
To deliver a strong start in 2026, CSOs should embrace key strategic shifts, leadership imperatives and emerging innovations to build resilient, high-performing sales organizations capable of navigating disruption with clarity.
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The cost of constant change
Between 2016 and 2024, the number of organizational change initiatives increased by 67%. In the same time, employee willingness to support those changes dropped from 74% to 44%, an indication of chronic change fatigue.
This fatigue is significantly pronounced in sales organizations. Our research indicates 41% of sellers are highly reluctant to change how they do their jobs. Seller adaptability is declining as the pace of change accelerates. It’s clear that traditional change management approaches are insufficient.
Gartner insights frequently capture a common sentiment among CSOs: My organization is often “back on its heels,” managing continuous change.
CSOs must recognize that their organizations are currently built for consistency — not disruption. To succeed in 2026 and beyond, leaders must shift to a mindset of leading change and deliberately engineer their organizations for constant disruption.
