Master B2B Friday 15

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian discuss whether workers are afraid to be honest about their AI usage at work.  We've heard senior team members talk openly about how they're using AI to be more efficient, but are junior employees perceived as lazy if they use these new tools?

The Friday 15 crew is off for Thanksgiving, but we wanted to share our recent Un-Webinar where we discussed who should own Gen AI in the business? In this Un-Webinar, Master B2B’s Andy Hoar & Brian Beck will debate whether ownership of this new technology belongs with the IT and Tech group or whether it should reside inside the business units. We’ll hear hard-hitting debates about these questi...

Andy and Brian attended the B2B Online event in Orlando, and they'll catch you up on all the key themes they heard during the event. They'll touch on AI, also on AI, and maybe even AI. But also tips on how to convince the CFO to invest in digital.

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian talk about the advantages and disadvantages of B2B organizations taking a cost-centered approach to investment.   While there are certainly benefits of focusing on cost (risk reduction, for example), when we polled our community 83% said that a cost-focused approach negatively impacted competitiveness.  How should companies balance the need for running...

With all the changes in how marketers track their digital marketing spend, we wanted to know how B2B marketers are dealing with this issue. In this episode, we speak with Dan Stepchew, the Digital Marketing Director at Zest Dental Solutions, about how he's shifting his digital spend and how he's changed how he tracks the efficacy of his campaigns.

This week on the Friday 15 podcast, Andy & Brian talk about how much channel conflict fears should impact your distribution strategy (in short, it shouldn't.) They dig into 7 ways to sell direct while managing the conflicts: - MAP and sales channel agreements - Public vs private pricing (pricing exposed behind logins or inside custom catalogs) - Assortment variations by channel - Being mindful...

This week on the Friday 15 podcast... Andy & Brian discuss whether Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday season more broadly drive sales in B2B.  Andy shares how the season is like the Super Bowl where even if your television network isn't showing the Super Bowl, it's going to impact you in one way or another. That said, we hear from one practitioner who says that they've tried holiday p...

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian talk about the marketing challenge B2B companies have with attracting younger workers, and some of the strategies that have worked. “The issue is a messaging problem, it’s not a reality problem.  B2B offers many of the things that Gen Z is looking for - B2C talks about it, but B2B actually offers what this generation wants.” They discuss how companies h...

On the Friday 15 Podcast, Andy & Brian talk about the challenges B2B companies have hiring junior staff out of college.   Are B2B companies able to offer the opportunities that Gen Z'ers want?  And if so, why don't members of Gen Z know that?  

This week on the Friday 15... Andy & Brian talk about the skills necessary for new hires in B2B eCommerce and whether people just coming out of college possess those skills. Plus, does a software company offer an answer to how you find recent grads who have the skills you need?

This week on the Friday 15 - an All-Breaking-News edition.  Andy & Brian take a look at Amazon's decision to have everyone return to the office 5 days a week and what impact this has on employees and on the business more broadly.   While executives report improved productivity when they've had employees return full-time to the office, Andy & Brian share some statistics showing that these m...

Andy & Brian discuss the challenges of deciding which data to track, and how to use it to make better business decisions. They offer 6 ways to make analytics more actionable: 1) Collect data in one place and with a holistic view 2) Compare data over time. 3) Know your KPIs - look across channels, not just eCommerce. 4) Set and measure against benchmarks 5) Set and measure against goals, then m...

This week on the Friday 15 podcast, Andy & Brian discuss the reasons why it's challenging for B2B eCommerce businesses to build a great user experience.  A few reasons they dig into: - Because buyers need to make these purchases for work, the interface may matter less than in B2C. - B2B businesses aren't willing to make the investments necessary to create a great experience. - The size of many...

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian discuss whether your eCommerce site can replace some of the work being done by the inside sales team... The biggest takeaway this week is that the inside sales team brings an enormous amount of efficiency and revenue opportunity when paired with outside sales and when paired well with eCommerce.  In this episode they'll break down what inside sales does...

The Friday 15 crew is off this week for the long holiday weekend, but we wanted to share a recent Fireside Chat we held with Shannon Zonca, the Senior Director – Contract eCommerce at MillerKnoll, and Rob Richardson, the Senior Digital Product Manager at MillerKnoll, about how a manufacturer can grow its digital business without creating issues around channel conflict. In this new interview, you’l...

This week on the podcast, Andy & Brian talk through the pitfalls and best practices when hiring a system integrator.   They share some of the red flags that SIs say they look out for when working with a client (Biggest?  Inadequate buy-in from senior management). As well as red flags from practitioners (Biggest? Inadequate experience working with B2B companies.

This week, Andy & Brian talk about whether large, complex, global enterprises should centralize their digital operations, and how to think about that decision. They dig into 4 areas: 1) To what extent the market is dominated by local preferences and behaviors 2) What are the service components of the business? 3) What are the fulfillment requirements? 4) Where is talent located?  

Andy & Brian discuss the pros and cons of B2B companies making their pricing available in online channels.   They're mostly aligned with the common wisdom that pricing should be transparent, but they offer 4 reasons why it may make sense to hide some prices: 1) Withholding prices gives the seller pricing power. 2) Making the customer call for price raises their commitment to complete the buyin...

This week on the podcast, Andy & Brian discuss: - How will Amazon react to being deemed a "distributor" by the US government, and will that make them liable for the products third-party sellers put on the platform? - Does digital investment necessarily lead to improved profitability? - 3 steps to improving your digital profitability.

This week, Andy & Brian talk about why frontline employees and executives have such different views on the state of their businesses: - What's the "purpose gap" and is there a way to reduce it? - How can companies ensure they're allowing their staff to make forward progress on their projects? - Is having differing views on the customer the biggest disconnect between executives and rank-and-fil...

This week on the podcast Andy & Brian discuss: - How B2C promotions (like Prime Day) impact B2B sales - Why internal challenges are the reason why digital strategies fail - 5 strategies for fixing internal challenges

This week on the podcast, Andy and Brian talk through the 6 characteristics of a great culture and how to implement them in your company... 1) Build your culture based on real-world dilemmas 2) Move your culture from abstraction to action 3) Pain your culture in full color 4) Hire the right people, and they will build the right culture 5) Make sure the culture drives the strategy 6) Don't be a pur...

The Friday 15 podcast is off this week for the July 4th holiday, but we wanted to share a recent webcast we hosted about how companies have accelerated their digital maturity. Join Andy, Brian and expert practitioners including Zoro.com’s CTO Andy Goodfellow, Theresa Kuske from medical device marketplace Chamfr, and Steve Baruch, formerly of MSC, on this special Webcast as they walk through how th...

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian provide a template for getting and sustaining buy-in for digital initiatives, including: 1) How you build the business case. 2) How you measure value. 3) How you sustain alignment.

This week Andy & Brian take a look at why the hype behind first-party marketplaces has cooled, and whether we'll ever see the promise of the model fulfilled.