Brent Adamson is a world-renowned researcher, author, presenter, trainer, and advisor to B2B commercial executives around the world. 

He is the Co-Founder of both A to B Insight, a B2B sales and marketing research, advisory, and training company, as well as Co-Founder of Qoos, providing B2B sellers micro-guidance and AI-guided coaching, seamlessly embedded within HubSpot CRM.

Brent's next book, The Framemaking Sale, is available Sept. 9, 2025.

Known as having the “biggest crystal ball in B2B sales,” Brent is the co-author of the best-selling, industry changing The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer.  He is also a frequent contributor to well-known business publications, including the Harvard Business Review, featuring his recent articles, “Sensemaking for Sales” and “Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete.” 

Across the last 19 years, Brent has been privileged to work with some of the greatest thought leaders in B2B and B2C sales and marketing, building and leading exclusive communities of highly progressive commercial executives.  Known as a world-class facilitator and speaker, Brent has presented to tens of thousands of commercial leaders both in-person and virtually all over the world, ranging from executive leadership teams to large keynote audiences.  

Especially well known for his passion for “productive disruption,” Brent served as the “chief story teller” for CEB, now Gartner’s, sales, marketing, and customer service practices from 2003 to 2022.  Across that time, Brent’s research has focused most closely on the critical, boundary-spanning intersection of selling and buying, seeking to understand the rapidly changing nature of effective commercial collaboration.  Most recently, Brent and his colleagues at CEB, now Gartner, have introduced industry-leading concepts such as Buyer Enablement, Sense Making, and Customer Decision Confidence. 

A native of Omaha, Neb., Brent joined CEB, now Gartner, from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business where he received his MBA with distinction. Prior to that, he served on the faculty of Michigan State University as a Professor of German and Applied Linguistics. In addition to his MBA, Brent holds a B.A. with distinction in political science from the University of Michigan along with M.A.s in political science and German, and a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Texas. Brent resides in Leesburg, VA with his wife, two daughters, and rescue dog.

Brent Adamson

An industry-recognized leader in digital transformation and digital engineering, I help enterprises generate double-digit growth and achieve a competitive edge through Strategically Influencing Customer Decision Journeys and Improving Sales Effectiveness.

►DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS OUTCOMES: Building 360 Organizational Alignment across multiple Stakeholders/Functions/Silos in F500 Companies; Baseline Analysis to Identify Highest Business Impact Areas to Improve Cost/Revenue, Time to Market, Quality; Data and Evidence-Based Diagnosis of Root Cause and Solution Approach; B2B diverse industry focus from F500 to smaller companies.

►BUSINESS VALUE CONSULTING: Built Business Value Consulting Organization and Customer Engagement Framework; Customer’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and ROI Business Case Creation; Business and Technology Assessment Workshops; Cross-industry Best-In-Class Benchmarking; Design Thinking Approach Influencing Customer’s Decision Journey; Value Creation and Realization.

►SALES ENABLEMENT & GO-TO-MARKET (GTM): Business Insight “Challenger” Playbooks for Sales and Partners; Industry Business Value Flow Maps; TCO Analysis Models for Common Scenarios; Customer Success ROI Case Studies; Launched SAM and ABM Customer Engagement Programs using Value Selling; GTM Value Offerings using Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) approach.

I have extensive leadership experience at Ansys, Microsoft, National Instruments, Trilogy, and Deloitte Consulting. 
 
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: 

► FEATURED as Best-in-Class in Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, “The New Sales Imperative,” (March-April 2017) and HBP publication, "How National Instruments Gets Access to the C-Suite“

► SHOWCASED as best-in-class by Gartner/Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and Strategic Accounts Management Association (SAMA) for impact on strategic account growth.

► KEYNOTES AND WEBCASTS include SAMA: Business Value Assessments to become Trusted Advisors to Strategic Accounts; Gartner: Building Sales Playbooks for Growth; Gartner: A Discussion of NI’s Growth Simplification Toolkit; National Instruments' Test Leadership Forum, CXX Executive Forum.  

KEY SKILLS: Business Outcomes / Value Consulting; C-Suite Selling; Challenger Selling; Insight Selling; Sales  / Buyer / Customer Enablement; Sales Playbooks; TCO/ROI/Payback; Total Cost of Ownership; GTM; Digital/Business Transformations; Customer Buying Journey; Customer Decision Journey; Sales Process; Strategic/Key Account Program; SAM/KAM/GAM; Revenue Growth; Management Consulting; Benchmarking Assessments; Win/Loss Analysis; Thought Leadership

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Brent Adamson

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