Master B2B Friday 15

This week - Andy and Brian debate whether someone looking to implement a new eCommerce platform should choose their system integrator first, or whether they should select their technology first. And whether that's the right question to be asking at all... Visit us at masterb2b.com to see all our upcoming events and to join our Forum.

Andy & Brian talk through their key takeaways from the dozen executive roundtables they held with B2B eCommerce practitioners across the country.

Andy and Brian recap the key themes from B2B Online in Chicago, including what it means when younger executives take over senior roles in a company, and how practitioners are talking about tariffs. Learn more about Master B2B, the online forum and NEXUS at MasterB2B.com.

Andy and Brian recap their on-stage debate from B2B Online where they wrestled with whether private equity is ultimate good or bad for B2B companies. Is it true that PE firms never invest for the long-term? Is it true that your career is at risk if your company is bought by a PE firm? Are there benefits to having a PE owner? Visit our website to learn more about Master B2B.

Andy & Brian talk about whether B2B companies are correct when they say that they view Amazon as a foe. Brian makes the case that Amazon will only continue to steal market share in B2B, and the best way to understand what they're doing is to be on the site selling yourself. See all the Master B2B events and see how to join the online Forum at MasterB2B.com.

This week - Andy and Brian walk through the results of a survey they conducted at the Master B2B Summit where they asked B2B eCommerce executives where they'll be investing next...they're surprised at what answers were missing.

A special for Friday 15 subscribers: Master B2B's Andy Hoar speaks with VTEX founder and co-CEO Mariano Gomide about the company's decision to leave the MACH Alliance, and how he sees the eCommerce software industry changing in the coming years. This is a really interesting conversation about the future of the eCommerce platform ecosystem, how systems integrators fit into it, and whether the forces that control the industry can ever change.

This week on the Friday 15, Andy and Brian speak with Trent Guyer, the VP of Marketing and Digital at Grasshopper Mowers, a family-owned manufacturer of mowers, about how to build a successful career at a family-owned business. Learn more about Master B2B at masterb2b.com.

This week on the podcast - Andy and Brian look at how B2B eCommerce companies are thinking about investing in new hires in the coming year, and the challenges they may face when looking to bring on new talent.

This week - Andy and Brian dig into a thought-provoking article (link below) asking whether organizations should even have an AI strategy and the reasons why it may be better if they don't. Mentioned in the podcast: Rushing into an AI Strategy? The Master B2B Nexus Program

Master B2B held its 3rd annual Mindshare Summit in Chicago recently, and Andy & Brian went over some of the key takeaways from the event including these 4 focus areas: Building a digital organization Successful digital business models Data, analytics & data cleanliness (Of course) AI Stay up to date on all Master B2B events at http://www.masterb2b.com

We're all recovering from the Master B2B Mindshare Summit this week, so in lieu of a new Friday 15 episode we're bringing you a recent Fireside Chat that Brian Beck conducted with Jeff Reichert, Kimball Midwest's Director of eCommerce & Digital Marketing, and Eli Cooley, President of Industrial Data Associates, about how manufacturers and distributors can approach fixing their dirty product data.

This week on the podcast, Andy & Brian look at site search, and how today's site search solutions meet the needs of B2B eCommerce practitioners. Plus, Andy shares some takeaways from the Site Search Combine he conducted, where he looked at the strengths and weaknesses of site search vendors. For more info on the Combine (and to get a copy of the report), visit ParadigmB2B.com.

When you measure the cost to acquire a customer, should you use narrow measures that only include the direct costs associated with getting a new customer, or should you go broad and include every cost used in your sales and marketing? In B2B, the customer journey is extremely complex so we'd expect that measuring the cost to acquire a customer to be equally complex. This week, Andy & Brian talk about the challenges of getting CAC measured correctly in B2B. Be sure to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. For upcoming events and to sign up for the Master B2B Forum, visit us at MasterB2B.com.

This week on the podcast, Andy & Brian talk about whether companies should think about their digital transformation as a project (that has a beginning or an end) or a program (which is an ongoing strategy for running the business). They talk through the main reasons for failure, and how companies can change how they approach digital transformation (hint: for every operational person, you'll need 1 HR person...), plus more ideas for creating successful digital transformation strategies. For upcoming Master B2B events, visit us at MasterB2B.com.

This week on the podcast, Andy & Brian talk through who should sit on the buying committee when the eCommerce team is considering making a new technology purchase. When we asked our community what they thought, we heard many people say that "everyone" should be on it (which feels like a cop-out) or that the most important member was the operations team. But Andy & Brian share why they think finance and sales are underrepresented, and what problems are caused when they're not invited to the table. Check out the upcoming Master B2B events on our website.

Andy and Brian wrap up Metrics Month with a look at Customer Lifetime Value, and whether it's the best measure of eCommerce success. Spoiler alert: there is no one best measure of eCommerce success. But there are several best measures, and in this episode they share which ones.

This week on the Friday 15... Andy and Brian speak with Deidre Peters, Head of Digital eCommerce at Boston Scientific about how they measure the impact of eCommerce on their entire business. She shares insights in the metrics they look at, and how they were able to tell the full eCommerce story to senior leadership.

This week on the Friday 15, Andy & Brian dig into why so many companies rely on digital penetration to measure whether their online initiatives are successful. Plus, they share ideas from practitioners about why digital penetration doesn't reflect the value of the online business, and other ways they measure whether their digital business is carrying its weight. Learn more about Master B2B at masterb2b.com.

In our first Friday 15 of the new year, we talk about everyone's favorite beginning-of-the-year topic: budgeting! Specifically, how do you work with your CFO to get the budget you need. The CFO's job isn't to tell you "no" - their job is (in part) to manage how cash is spent. As a digital executive, your job starts with understanding how your CFO thinks about the world. Andy & Brian share ideas about how to build better rapport with your CFO so you can grow your side of the business.

We're sharing the recent Webcast we hosted offering our B2B eCommerce predictions for the coming year. Plus, we brought some special guests along to help us predict the future of hiring, analytics, CS, and much more! Download a copy of the 2025 B2B eCommerce Predictions Report here.

We've surveyed B2B practitioners about their priorities for next year, and we wanted to share the results with you... It's our last Friday 15 podcast of the year, and we can't wait to share more episodes with you in January. Check out our upcoming events: http://www.masterb2b.com

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 questions: If Generative AI is just a new technology, why wouldn’t ownership of it live with all other technologies? If Gen AI is just an enabler, why wouldn’t it live with other tools like CRM, which typically are managed by business units? Is Gen AI still too risky to live anywhere other than the IT group, which is tasked with being up-to-date on technology risks? Does it really depend on how Gen AI is being used within the organization? Aren’t there some use cases where IT would be the best steward and others where the business would be the best place for ownership?

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 a predictable business with the need to continue to invest in innovation?

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 of who is selling - Taking control in marketplace channels - Provide digital assets and analytics to channel partners - Channel monitoring and enforcement.

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 promotions to no avail.

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 have tried advertising with NASCAR, building relationships with local colleges, winning "best place to work" awards and more...

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 mandates also cause higher turnover while also disproportionately negatively affecting women in the workplace. Does the perceived improved productivity outweigh the negatives?

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 monitor. 6) Use testing to impact specific KPIs (bounce rate, conversion rate, AOV, etc).

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 B2B catalogs are orders of magnitude larger than the catalogs of B2C, which makes it much more difficult to build a great user experience.

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 for a living, and whether the growth of eCommerce will impact the success of that role.

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’ll hear more about: How a manufacturer can take advantage of their dealer network to grow their online sales. The opportunities – and pitfalls to avoid – of growing your digital business internationally. How to use your customers and distribution partners to help create your product roadmap. Why “share of wallet” may be the most useful metric to take the temperature of your digital business.

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 buying journey. 3) The “price available upon request” notice carries an aura of exclusivity and status. 4) Withholding prices selectively pushed the customer to certain items and away from others.

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-file staff?

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 purist

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 they overcame obstacles to speed up digital transformation in their organizations. Master B2B has just released a research report titled Accelerating Your Digital Vision to offer companies a roadmap for how to accelerate their digital maturity. This webcast will bring the findings from that report to life, as we hear stories from the eCommerce trenches.

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.

This week Andy & Brian share some of what they learned while hosting the Master B2B Summit in Chicago, including: - Who owns the customer experience at different companies? - Where should your next budget dollar be spent? - Who should be the next hire on your team? Plus answers to those questions and more...

In this week's episode, Andy & Brian give a preview of Master B2B's State of eCommerce Report, which will be released in July. But we didn't want to wait to share some of the key findings about how both B2B buyers and sellers have changed their behaviors over the past year.

This week on the Master B2B Friday 15 podcast, Andy & Brian talk about how to accelerate your digital maturity in 2024. The discussion centers around a new report Master B2B published in association with commercetools called, "Accelerating Your Digital Vision" that's digs into how organizations can quickly speed up their digital maturity. You can download the free report here.