Teresa Allan, Managing Partner, Magnus

The Bank of England held rates at 3.75% today. By the time you read this, the commentary cycle will have moved on. But the problem it exposes will not.

For the past six months, we have been tracking something more revealing than interest rates. Our GTM Confidence Index, a survey of 108 senior B2B commercial leaders across North America, Europe, and global markets, set out to measure how confident businesses are in their ability to deliver the growth they have promised. The answer should concern anyone in our industry.

Only 9% of leaders are highly confident they will hit their 2026 growth targets. More than half describe their organisations as aggressively pursuing growth. Among that group, just 12% believe they will achieve it. The mid-market is under the most pressure: only 3% report high confidence. Among PE-backed firms, where growth expectations are highest, more than half report flat or shrinking budgets.

Ambition is everywhere. Confidence is not.

The confidence gap is not a sentiment problem

It would be easy to read this as a mood issue, a side effect of geopolitical anxiety or post-pandemic caution. It is not. Our data shows that confidence is driven by tangible, operational factors, not by feelings.

Leaders who are very confident in their current sales pipeline are nine times more likely to be confident in their annual targets. Where budgets are fully aligned to growth goals, 20% report high confidence; where they are not, 63% fall into the low-confidence group. Where sales and marketing teams are fully unified, 28% are highly confident; where they are siloed, that figure drops to zero.

Confidence, in other words, is a function of execution readiness. It reflects whether the operational architecture of a business, its pipeline discipline, budget alignment, team structure, technology integration, and commercial capability, is fit for the growth it has promised.

Why this matters for consulting

As consultants, we are often brought in after the gap has widened. A PE-backed business misses two quarters. A mid-market firm launches an expansion it cannot resource. A board sets a growth target without reconciling it to budget or headcount.

The Confidence Index suggests these are not isolated failures. They are systemic. And they point to an opportunity for our industry to intervene earlier, not as fixers, but as architects of growth readiness.

Three patterns in the data stand out.

First, the pipeline-to-conversion gap. Nearly half of the leaders we surveyed said their biggest growth opportunity lies in converting existing demand, not generating new leads. Yet most GTM spending still pours into top-of-funnel activity: events, paid media, brand awareness. Only 14% of budgets reach revenue operations. The basics of qualification, hand-off, and shared accountability between sales and marketing remain the most overlooked lever.

Second, the AI maturity gap. 88% of leaders are exploring or using AI. Only 12% describe its impact as transformational. The dividing line is not technology but capability: 34% cite lack of internal expertise as the top barrier. Where AI is central to go-to-market strategy, 26% of leaders report high confidence. Among those still experimenting, that figure is 3%. AI works when the fundamentals are in place. Without a clear customer profile, a functioning pipeline, and an aligned team, it generates activity, not advantage.

Third, the alignment gap. Only 27% of leaders describe their sales and marketing teams as fully unified. Where support from the wider organisation is strong, 26% of leaders are highly confident. Where it is minimal, none are. This is not a soft issue. Misalignment fragments strategy, slows decisions, and erodes pipeline quality. For investors, it is a due diligence red flag.

The rate decision is a distraction

Today’s hold at 3.75% changes none of this. Neither would a cut. GDP growth is at 1.1%, energy costs are climbing, and the Iran conflict is adding uncertainty. But the businesses in our data that feel confident in their growth plans are not waiting for a tailwind. They have invested in the things they can control: sharper commercial strategy, stronger pipeline discipline, aligned teams, and the capability to make AI work in practice rather than in theory.

The lesson for our industry is clear. The most valuable thing we can offer clients right now is not a response to the rate decision. It is a rigorous, honest assessment of whether their growth ambition is matched by their execution architecture. In most cases, it is not. And helping them close that gap before it shows up in missed targets and difficult board conversations is where the real value lies.

Confidence is not optimism. It is a leading indicator of whether a business is ready to deliver what it has promised. Right now, the data says most are not.

---

Teresa Allan is Managing Partner of Magnus, an FT Top UK Management Consultancy and certified B Corp. The GTM Confidence Index FY26, based on a survey of 108 senior B2B leaders, is available at magnusconsulting.co.uk.