{"id":3662902,"date":"2026-04-17T16:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/?p=3662902"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:19:20","slug":"the-riskiest-words-in-b2b-this-is-how-weve-always-done-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/the-riskiest-words-in-b2b-this-is-how-weve-always-done-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Riskiest Words in B2B: This Is How We\u2019ve Always Done It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Few phrases in corporate history have proven as durable as \u201cno one ever got fired for buying IBM.\u201d It is shorthand for something deeper: when stakes are high decision-makers often choose what protects their own position over what maximizes institutional value.<\/p><div\r\n\tid=\"article-paywall-overlay\"\r\n\tclass=\"d-none\"\r\n>\r\n\t<div id=\"article-paywall-content\" class=\"my-4\">\r\n\t\t\n<div class=\"wpcf7 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name=\"YourCompany\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"YourEmail\"><input size=\"40\" maxlength=\"400\" class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-email wpcf7-validates-as-required wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-email form-control border-secondary\" id=\"inputEmail\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" placeholder=\"Email*\" value=\"\" type=\"email\" name=\"YourEmail\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"YourCountry\"><input size=\"40\" maxlength=\"400\" class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-required form-control border-secondary\" id=\"inputCountry\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" placeholder=\"Country*\" value=\"\" type=\"text\" name=\"YourCountry\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12 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class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net\/terms-conditions\/\">Terms and Conditions<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><input id='hiddenPath' type='hidden' name='path' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='userDeviceId' id='userDeviceId' \/><input type='hidden' name='pageTitle' id='pageTitle' \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id='formButtonRow' class='container mt-1 px-0'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><input class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-submit has-spinner btn btn-dark text-uppercase py-2 px-5 small\" id=\"theSubmitButton\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"post_id\" value=\"3662902\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"source\" value=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/the-riskiest-words-in-b2b-this-is-how-weve-always-done-it\/\" \/><p style=\"display: none !important;\" class=\"akismet-fields-container\" data-prefix=\"_wpcf7_ak_\"><label>&#916;<textarea name=\"_wpcf7_ak_hp_textarea\" cols=\"45\" rows=\"8\" maxlength=\"100\"><\/textarea><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"ak_js_1\" name=\"_wpcf7_ak_js\" value=\"102\"\/><script>document.getElementById( \"ak_js_1\" ).setAttribute( \"value\", ( new Date() ).getTime() );<\/script><\/p><div class=\"wpcf7-response-output\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"article-paywall-hidden-content\">\r\n\t\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That calculus has not disappeared. It has migrated. Today\u2019s buyers may not be defaulting to a single blue-chip vendor, but they still gravitate toward incumbents, familiar workflows and systems already embedded in organizational muscle memory.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nowhere is that instinct more visible than in B2B payments. Physical checks remain stubbornly present \u2014 and for understandable reasons. They offer visibility, control and auditability. They map to established approval hierarchies, satisfy compliance workflows and distribute accountability across accounts payable, finance and management, diffusing the risk any single decision-maker must absorb.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital B2B payment alternatives, by contrast, can require organizations to trust new mechanisms and, in some cases, relinquish familiar safeguards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Change is scary. But the \u201csafe\u201d dynamics of traditional payment methods are increasingly being tested by a new operational reality in which financial experiences are central to growth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As automated payments, embedded finance solutions and dynamic credit systems <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/why-businesses-are-replacing-checks-with-virtual-cards-and-ach\/\">scale across<\/a> the marketplace, the old maxim may be due for a replacement: No one ever lost business by making it easier for their customers to pay.<\/p><div id=\"pymnt-2290151425\" class=\"pymnt-content pymnt-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 50px;\"><p style=\"text-align:center\">Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p><script async type=\"text\/javascript\" id=\"dianomi_context_script\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dianomi.com\/js\/contextfeed.js\"><\/script> \r\n<div class=\"dianomi_context\" data-dianomi-context-id=\"4329\"><\/div><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>See also:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/how-cfos-are-turning-b2b-payments-into-a-strategic-weapon\/\">How CFOs Are Turning B2B Payments\u00a0Into\u00a0a Strategic Weapon<\/a><strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Why Business Growth Begins Where Money Moves<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, payments in B2B were treated as an operational afterthought. Invoicing, net terms and reconciliation processes were viewed as back-office concerns, largely disconnected from customer acquisition or retention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The result was a paradox, where companies invested heavily in modernizing customer-facing experiences while maintaining antiquated payment infrastructures that introduced friction for both customers and internal teams alike.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/pymnts-intelligence\/\">PYMNTS Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0found in December, for example, that 66% of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/tracker_posts\/smarter-spend-ai-powered-ap-for-data-based-decision-making\/\">accounts payable<\/a>\u00a0teams saw an increase in manual workload over the prior year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But in today\u2019s environment, the payment layer is often the first meaningful interaction a customer has with a vendor\u2019s system of trust. Before a product is fully adopted, before integration is complete, customers must evaluate how they will pay, when they will pay and what risks they assume in doing so. These considerations are no longer trivial, they are becoming gating functions for growth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe office of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/for-b2b-payments-speed-is-the-new-strategy?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=02272026%20B2B%20NL&amp;utm_term=B2B%20Newsletter\">CFO<\/a>\u00a0is broadening its mandate,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.boostb2b.com\/\">Boost Payment Solutions<\/a>\u00a0founder\u00a0and CEO\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dean-m-leavitt-5625796\/\">Dean M. Leavitt<\/a>\u00a0told PYMNTS earlier this year, adding that while decisions about how companies pay and\u00a0are paid\u00a0\u201cwere traditionally a secondary issue for most CFOs,\u201d that legacy hierarchy is now changing as finance leaders come to recognize the working capital implications of strategic B2B payment design.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A company offering frictionless onboarding but rigid payment terms may struggle to convert, while a platform with superior capabilities but opaque billing structures could lose to a competitor with clearer financial workflows. Even subtle factors such as whether credit limits can scale dynamically or whether fraud controls create false positives can now determine whether a deal progresses or stalls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Read also:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/artificial-intelligence-2\/2026\/cfos-ditch-ai-features-to-fix-broken-payment-flows\/\">CFOs Ditch AI Features to Fix Broken Payment Flows<\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Switching Costs and the Psychology of Change<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the old IBM adage was about avoiding blame, the emerging paradigm may be about redefining what constitutes a defensible decision. In a world where growth increasingly starts at the payment layer, clinging to outdated systems can be as risky as adopting unproven ones.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New data in the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study\/2025-2026-growth-corporates-working-capital-index-north-america-edition\/\">2025\u20132026 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index:\u00a0North America Edition<\/a>,\u201d a collaboration between\u00a0PYMNTS Intelligence\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/usa.visa.com\/\">Visa<\/a>, reveals a widening performance gap between firms that have modernized their receivables and working capital infrastructure and those that continue to rely on manual, legacy processes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shift does not happen overnight. It requires a recalibration of incentives, a willingness to challenge assumptions and a commitment to continuous learning. But as the competitive landscape evolves, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/b2b-payments\/2026\/how-chief-financial-officers-can-put-some-numbers-against-payments-modernization\/\">cost of inaction<\/a> becomes increasingly difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>\r\n\twindow.pymntsAllowedArticleCount = 2;\r\n\twindow.pymntsPostID = 3662902;\r\n<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few phrases in corporate history have proven as durable as \u201cno one ever got fired for buying IBM.\u201d It is shorthand for something deeper: when stakes are high decision-makers often choose what protects their own position over what maximizes institutional value. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3663136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4038],"tags":[4055,9617,19817,9206,133069,10523],"class_list":["post-3662902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b2b-payments","tag-b2b","tag-b2b-payments","tag-digital-transformation","tag-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-risk-management"],"acf":{"suggested_titles":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Riskiest Words in B2B: This Is How We\u2019ve Always Done It<\/title>\n<meta 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