The way businesses buy from and sell to each other is changing. While some trends were emerging before the recession, the downturn has accelerated their adoption to create a very different business-to-business (B2B) sales environment. To find out how the B2B sales world has changed, we went directly to our clients, interviewing senior sales executives who are collectively responsible for more than $150 billion in sales, as well as buyers, at leading global companies across a range of industries.

Our clients identified three primary trends that will demand a place on the agendas of B2B sales organizations over the next three to five years. These trends are rapidly dominating the B2B landscape as both customers and vendors seek to maximize returns and minimize costs.

First, customers have become more demanding, insisting on both off-the-shelf products and more complex, customized solutions—with different levels of sales support. Companies accustomed to selling products and walking away are being forced to prove how they add real value. Second, companies servicing larger managed accounts are exploring lower-cost ways to make clients happier and to generate sales growth. Finally, organizations large and small are following the lead of business-to-consumer (B2C) retailers such as Amazon.com by making smarter use of customer data to predict behavior, drive sales, and deepen relationships.