Qoos

Co-Founder

A to B Insight

Skinny Rhino Productions

Founder, Speaker, Advisor, & Researcher

Ecosystems

Global Head of Research, Advisory, and Communities

Gartner

Distinguished Vice President

Principal Executive Advisor

Managing Director, Advisory Services

Senior Director, Advisory Services

Associate Director, Research

Michigan State University

Assistant Professor of German and Applied Linguistics

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.

If we think back across the arc of B2B sales spanning the last 30 years (OK, if you're Todd Caponi, that's a short arc), we can trace four critical phases where we've sought to differentiate ourselves in dramatically different ways.

More than anything else, each phase was driven by a need to stand out and drive higher-margin returns.

~1999-2008:

Our products were getting commoditized and we're competing on price, so let's bundle those products into unique "solutions," specifically designed to address a broader set of customer needs. 

How do we stand out? By telling our customers that our 1+1+1 solution equals 4 in a unique and sufficiently differentiated way that we can demand outsized premiums and win bigger deals.

Wait.

~2005-20012:

Now our "solutions" are getting commoditized too, as we all pursue the exact same strategy to drive differentiation. 

How do we stand out now?

Wait.

~2009-2018
Here's a book that tells us, the best possible way to differentiate in this world (circa 2009) isn't what we sell, but how we sell.  We'll differentiate based on the actual insight we deliver as part of the sale itself. More broadly, let's be "thought leaders!" 

And Smartness Arms Race was on!

Wait.

~2020 - today
Now we're all saying really smart things, so "being smart" is commoditized as well.  And worse still, our customers are really overwhelmed and confused by all this information.

How do we stand out now?

Maybe by going back to the North Star that's been there all along. By being helpful. 

But what exactly does that mean?? It sounds good, to be sure, but "helpful" how, exactly??

In world where customers are overwhelmed, the best way to help isn't so much getting them thinking, but *organizing* their thinking.

That's Framemaking.

For a step-by-step walkthrough (and a cool graphic!) of the last 30 years of selling, marketing and differentiation, see Chapter 10.  

Looking for a Framemaking workshop? Let's help your team stand out rather than blend in, by helping customers through Framemaking.  

#framemakingsale #B2BSales #B2BMarketing

Brent Adamson

Researcher, author, presenter, and thinker with a passion for “productive disruption.”

One of the biggest challenges of conducting high-end research for a broad audience is that the language can get a bit too wonky for popular taste at times.

I can't tell you how many times colleagues have had to talk me out of long riffs on "schema theory" over the years for fears that everyone's eyes would simply glaze over.

But sometimes you have to run right at the problem, rather than run away.

And in The Framemaking Sale, Karl Schmidt and I run right at a similar sort of wonky term. A term few if any typically associate with B2B sales and marketing. And that term is "agency." 

Even more precisely, "customer agency." 

Does it sound a bit wonky at first?  Probably. 

Is it also critically important for maximizing the likelihood of a high-quality, low-regret deal? Undoubtedly.

So let's talk about it.  

#framemakingsale #B2Bselling #b2bmarketing

As Karl Schmidt and I travel through London this week meeting with sales leaders, trainers, agencies, and thought leaders, I'm struck by the intense focus on seller skills--or, more accurately, skill gaps.

Everyone, it seems, has a wish list of skills they wish their sellers were better at:

"I just need my sellers to be better at discovery."

"I just need my sellers to be better at qualification."

"I just need my sellers to be better at negotiation."

Cold emails, prospecting, listening... you name it.  

But what if we asked customers?  

What do *customers* think your sellers need?  According to Gartner, 75% of B2B buyers would likely respond, "I just need your sellers to go away and leave me alone, as I'm already overwhelmed navigating this decision as it is."

And that reality lands us in a really interesting place--and, frankly, on a far more interesting and valuable question.  What if your sellers' biggest challenge today isn't so much their skill, but their *relevance.*

Skills matter, no question.  But only in the service of relevance first.

That's how we think about Framemaking and our Framemaking Sale seller workshops.

Let's make sure we're building the seller skills that ensure your sellers are actually relevant in the eyes of your customer.

#FramemakingSale #B2Bselling #B2Bmarketing

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

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.

April Dunford. Arguably the world's leading expert on B2B positioning.

Writer, thinker, advisor, speaker, and change agent, April's two books, Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch, belong on every B2B leader's bookshelf.

Her work is widely known and even more deeply valued.

So what do you do when April is a guest on your brand new podcast? 

Well, for Shari and me, the objective with Selling Isn't Everything is to find the world's leading experts in building human connection and then explore what they've learned through all their work as a means for making all of us better sellers and better people at the same time. We're looking to apply a completely new lens to the world of B2B sales--a lens tinted with our collective everyday humanity. 

To get there, you have to ask questions few others are likely to ask.

Because the answers are often incredibly illuminating and inevitably take the conversation down a path far less traveled.  

In this week's episode of Selling Isn't Everything, hear April travel this path and explore the boundaries of her own obviously awesome work. 

#SellingIsntEverything #Podcast #AprilDunford

The best part of working in sales? The stories.

Few corners of the B2B world generate as many incredible stories as the crucible of B2B selling.  High stakes customer interactions simply lead to more incredible, memorable moments than just about any other B2B profession.  

It's in those moments where heroes are made and impossible challenges overcome. 

And when sales teams get together, it's the stories they share first.

But the best part of all those the stories?  It's the ah-ha moments.  The lessons learned. The "I'll never do *that* again" moments that leave us just a little bit better prepared to re-enter that crucible the next time and the time after that.

The Framemaking Sale is full of those stories.  Every one of them bearing a familiar feel and a powerful lesson learned.

And one of Karl and my favorites is the "capital review board story." For in it, we find the core of Framemaking:  How do we help customers feel more confident in themselves and their ability to make large, complex decisions on behalf of their company?

What's your favorite sales story?  There are so many....

#TheFramemakingSale #Framemaking #B2Bsales #B2Bmarketing

Aaron E. is one of the very best in the business, and I feel lucky to call him a friend.

Voted Top 20 Global Sales Enablement Influencer | Lover of all things sales | Marathon Runner

Always a pleasure to spend time with the brilliant Brent Adamson!

Last night Raffael Fernandes and I spent the evening learning about the research for Brent and Karl Schmidt's fantastic new book The Framemaking Sale

In my opinion, Brent has been responsible for some of the best research to come out about modern selling. 

Brent has already given us The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer...

However, I think The Framemaking Sale is even more significant..

We do not talk about customer confidence enough and it is one of the biggest predictors for winning an opportunity, and more crucially the customer being happy with their decision

The single biggest win any sales org can have moving into 2026 is optimising for customer confidence, and Brent & Karl give the blueprint not just in the book but in the fantastic workshops and Keynotes they deliver too

I spoke to Brent and Karl about it in really fun interview:

https://lnkd.in/e5BVTcaA

Everyone has a podcast these days, it seems. Especially in B2B sales. 

And while they're all pretty good, they're all pretty similar.

So when Shari (AKA SaaSi Shari) Levitin approached me about starting a sales podcast a couple of years ago, I honestly wasn't very interested.  

"I just don't think we need another podcast on cold outreach, opportunity management, and sales tactics."

But Shari persisted, and we agreed, we'd only make a podcast if we could make it different.  Different angle, different guests, different focus, different vibe.

After two years of experimenting, what we came up with is "Selling Isn't Everything," a sales podcast not about selling.  A podcast designed to refocus the sales conversation on what matters most, the fact that--for now at least--the heart and soul of successful sales is human connection.

At the end of the day, Selling Isn't Everything is a podcast about human connection coated with a thin veneer of sales and selling--kind of like the candy shell of an M&M.

And it launches today with three really spectacular episodes, including the absolutely incredible Don Yaeger and Maria Boulden. We hope you enjoy their stories as much as we did.

Check it out, and let us know your thoughts!

LinkedIn Top Voice | Top 50 Sales Keynote Speaker | Reps Getting Ghosted After the Demo/Presentation? | We Train Sales Orgs to Build Urgency, Consensus & Trust to Close Faster — with AI + Heart | #BeMoreSellMore

View Shari (AKA SaaSi Shari) Levitin’s profile

T’S LAUNCH DAY! 🎉
 After two years of starting, stopping, refining, and building a true friendship, Brent Adamson  and I are officially dropping Episode One of our new podcast, #SellingIsn’tEverything.

And I can’t think of a better guest to kick us off than the formidable  Don Yaeger storyteller to the greats, culture whisperer, and author of 35 bestselling books.

In this clip, he shares a moment I cannot stop thinking about.

A very visible person sat down with him and told the truth about what their success really feels like. Not the magazine cover version. The lonely, heavy, complicated parts that never make it into the story.

❤️ That is the heart of Selling Isn’t Everything.

The first three episodes of Selling Isn’t Everything are live:
 • The Art of the Ask - Don Yaeger on Why Curiosity Beats Tactics
 • Better Humans Make Better Salespeople - Here's How
 • Think in Spreadsheets, Lead with Humanity: Maria Boulden on 40 Years of Sales Leadership

I hope these conversations help you feel seen in ways our industry does not always allow.

🎧 All three episodes are available now.
👇 Here is Don, in his own words, on what it means to be trusted with someone’s real story.


#sellingisnteverything #newpodcast #sales

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