Master B2B Friday 15

Andy and Brian share some of their insights from a Master B2B Summit roundtable, where practitioners shared where they will spend the next dollar of their budget.  Yes, execs talked about measuring the ROI of their investments and customer experience, but they also offered some surprising thoughts on where they plan to invest this year.

Andy and Brian spent the week with their B2C peers in Las Vegas at the Shoptalk event, and they came back with some fascinating insights into how B2B and B2C differ in their approach to eCommerce and 5 ways that they're actually more similar than they thought.

This week, Andy & Brian discuss whether all of the AI tools we're using at work are actually making us more productive or whether they're just increasing the output of maybe-just-slightly-better-than-average deliverables.  And how can we avoid getting into the AI rabbit hole where we go to start one quick task and end up in a 2-hour conversation with an LLM?

This week, Andy and Brian share their key learnings from the 2026 Master B2B Mindshare Summit held this week in Chicago.  Whether you were there - or just wish that you were - you'll get a taste of what participants learned at the event.

This week, Andy and Brian speak with Ntara's CEO, Andy Didyk about how organizations are working with their product data to ensure it's being discovered by LLMs.  As Andy Didyk says in the interview, companies are finding that they have hidden data troves that are powering their AEO/GEO efforts.
This episode is also a preview of a session that the three of them will lead at the Master B2B Mindshare Summit on the same topic.  More info is available on the event website.

On the Friday 15, Andy & Brian talk to Optimizely's Trevor Pope about whether practitioners should think about AI initiatives in terms of their impact on costs or their impact on revenue. (You might be surprised to hear that it can be both...)
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Andy and Brian are joined by eCommerce expert Howard Blumenthal to talk about how companies should think about the value of their AI initiatives.  Howard lays out a useful set of questions for preparing for new AI projects:
Are we looking at the right workflows for AI?
Are we measuring the right things?
Is our data ready?
Do we have a governance plan?
Plus, learn how B2B eCommerce leaders are approaching the 4 hottest AI categories.
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Andy and Brian are joined by Andy Goodfellow, SVP and Chief Technology Officer at Zoro, to discuss why there has historically been friction between the IT departments and eCommerce teams at so many companies.  Goodfellow shares how Zoro turned this dynamic on its head by aligning everyone on a singular goal - creating value for the end customer.  Plus, he gives some great advice about not confusing internal stakeholders with external customers.
 
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Andy and Brian talk with Rob Howl, the Vice President of Digital Products and Experience at HVAC parts distributor mSupply about how the company is approaching building out Answer Engine Optimization capabilities.
Rob discussed the framework called EAT - Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness - and using that to guide how the company thinks about changing its approach to product information and landing pages. 
As he told Andy & Brian - "Your AEO strategy is only as good as your product data."
We'll be discussing AEO strategies at the Master B2B Mindshare Summit on March 10 and 11 in Chicago.
 
 

Building trust with your customers was difficult before AI began hallucinating information about your products.  So how can companies overcome that challenge?  It comes down to transparency, consistency and honesty.  Andy and Brian discuss best practices for bringing those traits to your organization.