SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enable, the leader in commercial intelligence solutions, today released the 2026 Commercial Intelligence Survey, revealing five critical blind spots where commercial leaders report confidence in their pricing and rebate operations but lack business results to support it. These gaps are costing manufacturers and distributors an estimated 1–5% in margin annually.
Commissioned by Enable and conducted by InsightDynamo, the survey includes 301 C-suite, VP, and director-level leaders at manufacturing and distribution companies in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and ANZ with annual revenues of $350 million to over $4 billion. The research examined pricing speed, rebate ROI measurement, financial team alignment, margin visibility, and organizational readiness for AI.
"A team can be confident in its margin and still discover too late that rebates changed the economics of a deal. A price approved today can take a month to reach customers. Those gaps have a real cost," said Mark Gilham, VP of Global Advisory at Enable and the co-author of this study. "The survey shows that 97% of leaders experience rebate accrual or true-up surprises that force reforecasts. That tells us the market is asking for confidence—confidence in the numbers that drive decisions."
The report unveils these five blind spots:
- Margin Visibility: 90% of leaders say they know their true net margin after rebates and discounts. Only 51.5% have full visibility into rebate and discount liability when setting a price.
- Pricing Speed: 57% believe they reprice fast enough to protect margin. The average repricing cycle takes 30 days, and during that delay, 92% lose at least 1% of affected revenue; 32% lose 3–5%+.
- Rebate ROI Measurement: 98% say they can measure rebate ROI. Only 22% can prove to leadership that a program paid for itself.
- Financial Team Alignment: 81% say commercial and finance teams are aligned. 97% experienced a rebate accrual or true-up surprise that forced a reforecast in the past year.
- AI Readiness: 94% rank pricing and rebates as AI priorities. Only 30% report their underlying data is fully ready to support AI; 15% admit significant data quality gaps.
Recommended Practices to Close the Gaps
“The five blind spots look separate,” continued Gilham, “but they point to common challenges. The underlying challenge is that pricing, rebates, and financial operations often run on different data and timelines, and across different teams. Organizations can start by connecting those teams and decisions, and then agreeing on how they will measure the results."
To make progress towards commercial excellence, Enable recommends the following practices:
- Unify pricing and rebate data: Give commercial and finance teams a shared, current view of prices, agreements, rebate liability, and margin.
- Measure outcomes: Define what success means before launching a pricing or rebate program, then review ROI and performance each quarter.
- Assign margin ownership: Make one person or team accountable for the full post-rebate margin picture across pricing, sales, and finance.
- Improve data quality before scaling AI: Connect and clean the underlying data so automation and AI work from reliable information.
- Invest in adoption: Train teams as processes change and keep supporting them after a system goes live.
Join the Webinar and Download the Report
Enable will host a webinar on Tuesday, October 20 (register here) with InsightDynamo to go deeper into these commercial trends and also discuss potential remedies for companies that are facing these issues.
The full 2026 Commercial Intelligence Survey includes detailed findings by industry and role, benchmarks for commercial leaders to assess their own performance, and case studies from companies that closed these gaps. Download the report at https://insights.enable.com/2026-commercial-intelligence-survey-2725
Research Methodology
InsightDynamo conducted the survey for Enable in June 2026. It surveyed 301 senior commercial leaders at manufacturing and distribution companies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Respondents represented companies with annual revenue from $350 million to more than $4 billion. The 42-question survey measured self-reported perceptions and practices; results are subject to the limitations of self-reported research.
About Enable
Enable unlocks Commercial Intelligence across pricing, rebates, and commercial agreements, giving organizations the clarity, control, and confidence to proactively manage financial outcomes. Bringing together pricing and rebate data, processes, and strategies, Enable delivers margin performance management at scale—intelligent, real-time, and built for complexity. Enable's mission is to give every global supply chain customer the clarity to trade with confidence. Learn more at enable.com.
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