Sales services reimagined: How next-generation operating models are reshaping growth

For more than a decade, sales outsourcing has been built around scale, coverage, and activity execution, with success measured through volume metrics such as leads generated, calls made, or sellers supported. That model is increasingly misaligned with how buying decisions are made today.

Buyer journeys are now fragmented and signal-rich, shaped by industry-specific dynamics, regulatory constraints, and growing ecosystem complexity. At the same time, generative AI (gen AI) and agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) are reshaping how sales work is executed, while revenue leaders demand greater predictability, clearer attribution, and measurable business impact.

By 2026, sales services will no longer be defined by scale or any single sales motion. Differentiation will hinge on how effectively providers help enterprises navigate expanding outsourcing scope, ecosystem complexity, multi-stakeholder decision-making, outcome-based engagement models, unified Revenue Operations (RevOps) execution, and human–machine sales orchestration.

Our research across the sales services landscape identifies six major shifts that will define this new model. Reach out to discuss this topic in depth.  

Enterprises will expand sales outsourcing from transactional to quasi-strategic and strategic work, driven by trust and AI-led complexity

As sales execution becomes more data-driven, AI-enabled, and operationally complex, enterprises will increasingly find it difficult to build, scale, and continuously adapt all sales capabilities in-house. While trust in providers remains a critical gating factor, AI and RevOps complexity are actively accelerating the expansion of outsourced sales services into higher-value work.

What to expect

Enterprises will continue to start with transactional sales operations outsourcing to validate execution discipline, data security, and reliability, before extending scope into quasi-strategic areas such as sales enablement, pipeline analytics, deal desk operations, and incentive design support

Strategic sales work will increasingly be unlocked through co-creation, whiteboarding, and pilot-led engagements rather than formal Request for Proposals (RFPs), even as enterprises retain governance and final decision authority

Why it matters

As AI accelerates sales complexity faster than enterprises can absorb internally, outsourcing will expand structurally into higher-value sales activities, reshaping the addressable market for sales services providers

Providers that fail to adapt their selling models toward consultative, co-creation-led engagement risk being confined to commoditized execution layers as strategic work bypasses formal sourcing processes

2. Marketplace- and partner-led sales motions will accelerate, increasing demand for ecosystem-focused sales services

As enterprises look to extend reach, improve efficiency, and access new buyer segments, marketplace- and partner-led sales motions will continue to grow alongside direct sales. Rather than replacing direct selling, these motions will operate in parallel, increasing the complexity of revenue execution and coordination.

What to expect:

Marketplace and partner management platforms will continue to mature, supporting partner onboarding, deal registration, attribution, incentive management, and performance tracking

Direct sales teams, partners, and marketplaces will increasingly operate concurrently, requiring tighter orchestration, clearer role definitions, and coordinated execution across the ecosystem

Why it matters

Indirect and marketplace-led motions are contributing to a growing share of Business-to-Business (B2B) revenue, driving demand for structured partner onboarding, co-sell orchestration, enablement, and incentive program management
As ecosystem-led sales scale, gaps in governance, attribution, and performance management will heighten risks around control and revenue leakage, increasing enterprise reliance on service providers for system-led operational execution

3. Decision-making for sales services outsourcing expands beyond sales leaders, reshaping how providers engage the enterprise

As sales, marketing, operations, and technology ecosystems converge, decisions around outsourcing sales services are no longer owned by sales leadership alone. While the Chief Sales Officer (CSO) remains central, buying decisions are increasingly anchored in the C-suite and shaped by a broader group of commercial, operational, financial, and technology stakeholders.

What to expect:

Enterprises will adopt multi-stakeholder evaluation models, with active involvement from sales, commercial, operations, finance, marketing, and technology leaders, each applying distinct success criteria across execution, cost, risk, and scalability

Technology leaders will play a growing role in shaping data integration, platform compatibility, security, and AI governance requirements for outsourced sales services, even when they are not the primary budget owners

Why it matters:

Even when sales leadership is the primary sponsor, outsourcing decisions increasingly hinge on providers’ ability to address operational, financial, and technology concerns in parallel. Providers that sell only to sales risk stalling or losing deals despite strong frontline sponsorship

Winning outsourced sales engagements requires providers to translate sales impact into enterprise-level assurance around scalability, governance, data integrity, and risk management, aligning short-term revenue objectives with broader C-suite priorities

4. Outcome and hybrid-based models become the default in outsourced sales services

As AI increases execution transparency and standardizes large parts of sales workflows, enterprises are reassessing how they pay for outsourced sales services. Pricing models anchored in Full time Employees (FTEs), hours, or activity volumes are increasingly misaligned with how value is created and measured in AI-enabled sales environments. By 2026, enterprises will increasingly favor outcome-linked commercial structures tied to measurable revenue impact rather than delivery effort alone.

What to expect:

Greater adoption of pricing models linked to qualified pipeline contribution, conversion improvement, deal velocity, or revenue outcomes, as AI improves visibility into execution quality and impact

Clearer definition of outcomes, supported by shared data foundations, aligned Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and agreed attribution frameworks, often introduced through phased transitions rather than abrupt contract shifts

Why it matters:

Outcome-linked pricing strengthens alignment between enterprises and providers by tying incentives to shared revenue objectives, repositioning providers from capacity suppliers to accountable revenue partners

Enterprises will increasingly prioritize service providers that can demonstrate measurable, repeatable impact over those that primarily offer additional sales capacity or execution bandwidth

5. RevOps platforms will become the operating backbone for cross-functional revenue execution

As enterprises seek tighter alignment across marketing, sales, and customer success, RevOps platforms are evolving beyond reporting and tool rationalization to become the operating backbone for revenue execution. The maturation of shared data models and AI-guided workflows is accelerating the consolidation of fragmented Go-to-Market (GTM) systems into more unified RevOps environments.

Rather than serving individual functions, RevOps platforms increasingly underpin how demand is planned, pipeline is governed, performance is measured, and handoffs are managed across the full revenue lifecycle.

What to expect:

Progressive convergence of cross-functional workflows across marketing, sales, and customer success, supported by shared data models, unified KPIs, and AI-guided processes that improve handoffs and lifecycle coordination

RevOps platforms providing near real-time visibility into GTM effectiveness, pipeline health, territory performance, conversion bottlenecks, and post-sale outcomes, enabling faster course correction and more informed decision-making

Why it matters:

Forecasting, planning, attribution, pipeline governance, and performance management increasingly require a unified system of record and control to support cross-functional alignment and accountability

Consolidated RevOps platforms reduce tool sprawl and operational friction while improving visibility, enabling enterprises to scale coordinated GTM execution rather than fragmented, function-led efforts

6. Agentic AI will enable end-to-end sales workflows, orchestrating execution across sales processes

AI in sales services is moving beyond copilots and isolated automation. By 2026, agentic AI will increasingly orchestrate end-to-end sales workflows across prospecting, qualification, deal support, forecasting, and post-sale motions. At the same time, sales talent models will be deliberately redesigned to work alongside these agents, with humans retaining judgment, accountability, and relationship ownership while AI manages coordination, prioritization, and execution flow within enterprise-defined guardrails.

Rather than replacing sellers, agentic AI will redistribute work across humans and machines, fundamentally changing how sales services are delivered at scale.

What to expect

Enterprises and service providers moving away from isolated AI features toward AI agent-led workflows that own defined outcomes across multiple stages of the sales lifecycle, supported by human-in-the-loop controls and auditable execution trails

Sales roles increasingly focused on judgment-intensive activities such as relationship management, negotiation, and contextual decision-making, while AI agents manage linked sequences of work across prospecting, follow-ups, pipeline management, forecasting, and execution coordination

Why it matters

Sales execution becomes less dependent on individual seller capability and more resilient at scale, as coordinated human–machine roles institutionalize judgment, best practices, and execution discipline across teams, clients, and geographies

Providers and enterprises gain the ability to scale complexity without scaling headcount, as agentic AI absorbs coordination and execution overhead while humans focus on trust, negotiation, and high-stakes decision-making

Final thoughts

Taken together, these shifts point to a fundamental reconfiguration of the sales services landscape by 2026. Differentiation will not come from isolated technology adoption, but from the ability to redesign sales operating models around qualified demand, coordinated execution, and accountable outcomes on a scale.

For enterprises, this requires rethinking how sales services are sourced and governed, with greater emphasis on outcome-linked engagements, clear accountability, and enterprise-controlled guardrails. For providers, success will hinge on their ability to support expanding outsourcing scope, operate within unified RevOps environments, and deliver consistent execution across increasingly complex sales ecosystems.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out, Rewiring Sales Services with Agentic AI: Orchestrating Outcomes through Systems of Execution – Everest Group Research Portal , which delves deeper into another topic relating to sales.

To continue the discussion on sales services and its evolution in 2026, please contact David Rickard ([email protected]), Divya Baweja ([email protected]), or Akshara Vaidhyanathan ([email protected]).