This is a profile image of Candace Lun Plotkin

Candace Lun Plotkin

PartnerBoston

Creates strategic-improvement programs in commercial functions for organizations ranging from industrial and advanced industries to high-tech and consumer industries

Candace is a partner in McKinsey’s Marketing & Sales Practice and the global coleader of our B2B digital sales and analytics work. Her expertise spans commercial excellence, marketing and sales strategy and execution, digital sales and marketing, e-commerce, go-to-market strategy, sales compensation, and B2B-customer decision journeys.

Candace specializes in helping businesses develop and deliver strategic-improvement programs in commercial functions across a range of B2B and B2B2C industries, such as industrial, high tech, medical technology, healthcare, and packaged goods. She is the architect of McKinsey’s go-to-market-excellence and commercial-excellence workshops, in which more than 3,500 top sales executives from around 1,000 marquee companies have participated.

Before joining McKinsey, Candace was the chief marketing and sales officer for a B2B technology start-up, worked at the US Mission to the United Nations, and worked in brand management for a global personal and household care products company. She frequently publishes on marketing and sales topics as a contributor to Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Forbes, and Selling Power.

Published work

Five fundamental truths: How B2B winners keep growing,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024

The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow,” McKinsey & Company, April 2023

Becoming indispensable: Moving past e-commerce to NeXT commerce,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

The new B2B growth equation,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

Busting the five biggest B2B e-commerce myths,” McKinsey & Company, January 2022

B2B sales: Omnichannel everywhere, every time,” McKinsey & Company, December 2021

How B2B sales have changed during COVID-19,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020

The B2B digital inflection point: How sales have changed during COVID-19,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Cultivating the omnichannel farmer,” McKinsey & Company, February 2019

Sales incentives that boost growth,” McKinsey & Company, October 2018

The secret to making it in the digital sales world: The human touch,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018

To improve B2B customer experience, get the digital-analog balance right,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, February 2018

When B2B buyers want to go digital—and when they don’t,” McKinsey Quarterly, August 2017

Six things B2B leaders do to become more agile and drive growth,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, April 2017

Leading B2B companies are using digital to power sales growth,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, April 2017

Good to great: What B2B companies do to raise their Digital Quotient,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, April 2017

Measuring B2B’s digital gap,” McKinsey Quarterly, January 2017

How B2B digital leaders drive five times more revenue growth than their peers,” McKinsey & Company, October 2016

Six steps to transform your marketing and sales capabilities,” McKinsey & Company, March 2015

Do you really understand how your business customers buy?,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2015

To Improve Sales, Pay More Attention to Presales,” Harvard Business Review, February 2015

The 90% success recipe: Commercial transformations that beat the odds and the market,” Forbes, September 2014

Past experience

Procter & Gamble
Brand management

Education

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
MA, international relations, conflict management

Harvard University
BA, experimental psychology and international relations