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.

Brent Adamson

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

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

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

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

Shari Levitin

It all started in a Colorado living room with a simple question: “If you won $35 million in the lottery, what would you do?”

One guy wanted to start an adventure company. Another? Buy a house in Paris.

Me?
“I’d build a company to help people transform—to sell with confidence, lead with clarity, and actually love their work.”

That’s when it hit me:
💡 I didn’t need to win the lottery to build a meaningful business—or to have massive sales success.
And neither do you.

Since then, the Shari Levitin Group has helped sales teams close faster, sell smarter, and scale revenue—in over 40 countries across 5 continents. We work with scrappy mid-size teams and Fortune 500 legends alike—from Salesforce and Hilton to Microsoft, the NBA, Comcast, and Humana—helping them turn training into action, and action into revenue.

Not just motivation.
Transformation—from the inside out.

Because most sales training:

🚨 Gets applause but never gets applied
💨 Fades faster than a pipeline post-quarter
🎯 Dishes out content but doesn’t build competence

I started my company in 1997 to fix that.

We build repeatable sales systems that stick—so you’re not crossing your fingers for one hero rep to carry the quarter, or pulling people out of the field for training they forget by Monday.

Because let’s be real:
Every hour spent training is an hour not selling.

So whether it’s a keynote, a hands-on workshop, or a session with my AI-powered twin (yes, she’s called SaaSi and yes, she’s a little sassy), it better drive real, measurable results.

That’s why we blend brain science, storytelling, and sales strategy to change behavior—and make it last.

My goal?
To make you so good, you don’t need us anymore. 💔
(We’ll miss you. But we’ll be thrilled.)

So if your reps are still pitching when they should be problem-solving...
If your coaching sounds like a forecast meeting...
If your training gets applause on Friday—but zero follow-through on Monday...

Let’s talk.

Especially if you want to meet my sassier, AI-powered twin, powered by our partners Grw AI. Just don’t blame me if she roasts your forecast.

Passionate Global Sales Leader| Empowering Businesses with the Tools to Increase Profit & Grow | CEO

My passion for helping others transform their business, their relationships, and their outlook on life has truly been the driving force of my career. At the Shari Levitin Group, we help sales leaders, CEOs, sales enablement teams and business leaders empower teams to deliver training programs that produce results, particularly in this new selling paradigm. 

Too many training programs focus on the training process rather than the learning process, and that’s what differentiates the Shari Levitin Group. People love, love, love our content because we deliver it in a funny and creative way that enables me to connect with people’s hearts.

Anyone can make a sale, but selling with heart not only increases job satisfaction, it allows your sales team to be more open, engaged and receptive, which in turn: increases profits, reduces turnover, enhances culture and heightens transparency and accountability. 

Shari Levitin Group offers interactive training workshops and train the trainer programs, along with online learning modules that are:

👉 Effective: Our content engages learners and is retained and built upon over time. 
👉 Scalable: Our delivery system ensures consistency of message, transfers the competency into the field, and can be repeated in diverse environments.
👉 Sustainable: Our information can be measured, monitored and adjusted. We help you track and identify KPIs. What is the goal? Typically, companies have one primary objective with one or two secondary goals.

Thousands of sales professionals worldwide have already attributed their success to our virtual sales tools, including Hilton, Adobe, Dell Technologies, Humana, Cox Communications, Salesforce, Jaguar, Nimble, Comcast, Nuance Communications, and Sprint Communications. Is your business next?

SPECIALTIES: Keynote Speaker | Virtual Selling Coach | Fortune 500 | Virtual Learning programs, consultant

Today, my heart is broken in two.
If you’ve been following me a while, you know how much my mother, Sonia Levitin, means to me. 

Holocaust survivor. Force of nature. Mentor. Best friend.    
                 
At 91, she is writing a new play, because slowing down isn't her thing. 
But, last week, she fell hard, and she’s been in the hospital ever since.   
           
She can’t walk, move, or use her hands. 

Watching someone who has spent a lifetime creating suddenly unable to lift a pen brings  heartbreak I didn’t know existed. 

In high school, I once asked her how we, as Jews could be right about our faith and beliefs, and my friends, one Mormon, one Christian, one Catholic, could be wrong. 

She said:

“God has many children. We’re more alike than different. We all want the same things, we just get there in different ways.”

That lesson feels especially important today: 

At your holiday tables,  amid the debates, celebrations, and noise, remember this:

We share more values than we think. We crave the same things, love, belonging, safety, meaning. We just arrive in different ways.

And in that spirit, regardless of your faith, and especially if it’s different from mine, I’m asking....Please pray for my mother, Sonia.
 
For strength. For healing. For many more scenes in the story she’s still writing.

   There’s no newsletter today. Just presence, laughter, and love at her bedside.
🙏🏻 Thank you for holding her, and us, in your thoughts.

Shari (AKA SaaSi Shari) Levitin

Ten years ago, I sat in an audience and cried.
How was it possible that after than two decades of leading a global training company, I had never even heard of the National Speakers Association?
I thought I was too late to get involved.
 
A few years later, I applied, ((a long shot) to serve on the National Board of Directors. I assumed I didn’t stand a chance. But NSA took a chance on me.

And what I thought would be a contribution turned into a MasterClass in leadership and resulted in lifelong friendships. 
 
After four years under the extraordinary leadership of Meridith Elliott Powell, CSP, CPAE, Mike Staver, CSP, CPAE, Jaime Nolan, CAE, William "T" Thompson, JD, and fellow board members, and #NSA Staff, I have to say 
I got much more than I gave- a front row seat to the most mission driven, value based organization I could imagine, who embrace the spirit Of Cavett, 
 🙏🏻 Giving without ego.  
🧠 Wisdom without presence
✊ Courage wrapped in kindness
 
Next time you think you're too late, take a leap of faith... You may be right on time!

I admit it. I have zero boundaries. Never have.
My employees become my friends. We drink together, ski together, and laugh so hard we fall down.

 My clients? They show up at our Thanksgiving table. They light candles with me during the holidays. 
And yes… yesterday one of my favorite clients negotiated next year’s contract with me while my head was in a shampoo bowl.

Why? Because that’s how I like it.

 Because I’m happiest when the people I work with are the people I actually enjoy.

For years I was told, “Shari, don’t get too close to your team. Don’t get too close to clients.”

I call B.S.

I don’t believe in work-life balance. I believe in life. Period.
 All mixed together. All integrated. All human.

Does it work for everyone? 
 No.
 Does it work for me? 
 Absolutely.
 And honestly? Business is a lot more fun when your hair’s full of conditioner.

Eight years ago, I thought LinkedIn was a stuffy Facebook.
Polished headshots. Perfect lighting. Zero personality.

So naturally, I resisted video like it was a bad timeshare pitch.
Then one day, hiking up a mountain, my much-younger employee calls me and says:

“Your newsletters are boring…”
"Excuse me?"
I had spent hours writing and polishing…
“Try video instead. Film one right now and post it!”
Then he dared me:
“Record. Right now. Post it.”

I panicked. No mascara. No hair. No dignity.
But I love a good dare… so I did it.
And WOW:

💥 100x more views than my newsletter
 💥 More engagement than all my staged videos combined
 💥 Inbound leads that turned into real revenue

That’s when it hit me:
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth?
 Turns out—a lot.

Fast-forward to today:
🔁 All our leads are inbound from referrals or social video
 🎓 We teach MasterClasses to companies worldwide to use video throughout the entire sales process
 🌎 We just hit 500 million views, leading to increased connections, new friends, and a thriving global business!

And tomorrow, at Selling Power's, Sales 3.0 Conference, I’m teaching video secrets, not just video for thought leadership, but video throughout the entire sales process, from the first touch to the close.

To everyone who’s watched, shared, commented, or dared me to hit record—thank you. 

Half a billion views later, I’m just getting started. 🎥❤️

Click below for your FREE registration!

My mom escaped Nazi Germany, taught herself English in a library, wrote 40 books, and in her 80's is still building her next chapter.

And with the recent headlines about nursing degrees no longer being labeled “professional,” I was reminded of something important:
A title doesn’t define the value of someone’s work.
A label doesn’t define someone’s impact.

My mom believed that education elevates all of us.

#SalesEnablement #ProfessionalGrowth #Nursing #EducationMatters

People love to say, “I’m not in sales.”

Really?

If you’ve ever tried to get a spouse to agree on a vacation… you’re in deeper than you think.

There are only two things that actually give you influence. Most people are missing one of them. Sharing both here.

#Leadership #Influence #CommunicationSkills #SalesMindset

You know what’s scarier than AI?
This monster right here.

It sneaks into every Zoom call…
derails deals…

and might even be shampooing its dog while pretending to listen to you.

I explain it (and how to beat it) in this clip.

#SalesStrategy #VirtualSelling #DistractionMonster #EngagementTips

I used to be that woman — the hard-driving, childless businesswoman who’d say, “What do you mean you need to go to your kid’s school play, don't they record them?"

Then I became a mom. Everything changed.

 I learned fast that you can’t “framework” your way into empathy. Kids call you out on that pretty quickly.

That’s when I realized something uncomfortable: I’d mastered performance… but not presence.

So I started doing the harder work, slowing down, listening, letting go of the outcome. And it changed how I lead and how I sell.

In our first 1:1 episode of Selling Isn’t Everything, Brent Adamson and I talk about this shift and why better people make better salespeople.

Everyone says money motivates people… until you look at the data.

There’s a reason money ranks 17th out of 21 on what actually drives performance and what does motivate people might surprise you.

#Leadership #Motivation #PeopleDevelopment

Real leadership is being able to hug someone and cut their target in the same meeting.

That is how I think about Maria Boulden.

In this clip, Maria describes a moment every revenue leader knows.

You walk into the room, you know you are not tracking with the number, and you have to say it out loud.

“Here is where we are. Here is what I am worried about. Full stop.”

What struck me is how much respect sits underneath that conversation.

Maria is not sugarcoating anything. She is also not attacking anyone.

She is saying, “I believe in you, I believe in where we are going, and I respect you enough to tell you the truth about what it will take.”

That is why people can hear it.

In Maria's episode of Selling Isn't Everything, Brent Adamson and I ask her how leaders hold that line between care and clarity, and what teams need when the pressure is real.

🎧 The full episode is available now.
👇 Here is Maria, in her own words, on leading with aspiration and honesty at the same time.

#sellingisnteverything #newpodcast #leadership #sales

Last month, I keynoted a conference with 300 sales leaders.Instead of sending a generic thank-you email or automated AI follow-up, I did something different.

I recorded one short video. One. Not Spielberg. Not scripted. Certainly not shot in a studio with my hair cooperating.

Then we used AI to personalize the message around it:  names, roles, and a line that made it personalized. I didn’t sit on a stool for three weeks filming 300 versions of my face. I pressed record once.

And the response?

Ten times more engagement than any email, nurture sequence, or “AI-crafted” masterpiece we’ve ever sent.

 Real replies.
 Real conversations.
 Real opportunities.

It reminded me of something we often forget in sales:

Buyers aren’t starving for information. They’re starving for connection.

My mantra, “If a picture is worth 1000 words, what’s a video worth?” according to research ALOT!”

Click below to read this week’s newsletter

Leveraging video in the sales process isn’t about becoming a TikTok star or lip-syncing your way through a quota. It’s about using video at key moment

Open article: Why Video Works (Even if You Hate Being on Camera) by Shari (AKA SaaSi Shari) Levitin • 3 min read

Why Video Works (Even if You Hate Being on Camera)

When I was six, I learned two things the hard way:

People don’t show up just because you want them to.
Popsicles have a profit margin.

If you’ve ever tried to turn your craft into a business, this clip will hit home.

#EntrepreneurLife #SalesMindset #BusinessLessons

AI can automate your follow-ups, rewrite your emails, and make your deck prettier… but it still can’t fix this:

If someone’s camera is off, there’s an 82% chance they’re not listening.

They’re shampooing the dog.
Doing their taxes.
Living their best multitasking life,  just not with you.

Technology can enhance a meeting. It can’t make people pay attention. That part? Still on us.

#AIandSales #VirtualSelling #HumanConnection #SalesLeadership #EngagementMatters

I took a chance and did something a little… crazy

I started a podcast that’s NOT about sales.
WHAT?!
“Off brand,” they said.
“No one will care,” they said.
“Stay in your lane,” they said.

Nah….

Last week, @Brent Adamson and I launched Selling Isn’t Everything,
and the response has been wild.
Sales leaders. Founders. Friends.
…and my mom.
Turns out people are craving something different.

“Finally a show that focuses on the human side of success.”
“Vulnerable. Raw.”

“Incredible interviewers, stunning chemistry and impeccably relevant.”

We’ve already interviewed:
 🧠 Neuroscientists
 🏅 Athletes
 🎩 Magicians
 🚀 Entrepreneurs

And the thread that ties them all together?
Human connection. The thing AI can’t automate.

If you’re tired of more content and hungry for more connection…
don’t miss my newsletter.
Check out the origin story here, and to become a VIP Insider, click below.

In 2022, I wrote down seven simple words in a notebook: “Conduct a workshop with @Brent Adamson.” No strategy. No timeline. Just a quiet intention tha

Open article: Selling Isn't Everything by Shari (AKA SaaSi Shari) Levitin • 2 min read

I admit it...guilty as charged.
When I first started my training company, I thought success meant selling anything to anyone who would buy it.
You want cat videos?
"Sure ...we can make cat videos!" 😂

The problem?

When you sell to everyone, no one knows what you actually do. Your message gets watered down, your team gets confused, and  deals crash.

I learned this the hard way.

Fast forward to last week, my team and I ran a positioning exercise at our company summit using a framework from today’s podcast guest, April Dunford.

What blew my mind was this:
It’s not enough to know the value you provide.
 You must know who cares deeply about that value, and say no to everyone else...especially the cat videos! 😿

That clarity changes everything... win rates, deal velocity, messaging, even your sanity.

🎧 In today’s episode, Brent Adamson and I talk with arguably the number one positioning expert author and speaker in B2B sales, April Dunford. (She's such a badass too...)

 Your best growth lever might be saying no more often.
👇 Watch this 60-second clip before you listen to the full episode.

You can lose the deal. Do not lose the lesson or the relationship.

Here is a lesson I still carry today.

Early in my career, I could replay a loss for days.
The call. The objection. The awkward moment at the end.

It felt productive, but it wasn’t.
It was self punishment.

In this moment from our first episode, I talk about something that changed the way I handle every setback.

When a deal is behind you, it’s behind you.
Mourn the loss.
Study it.
Let it inform your next conversation.

But do not let it take the relationship with it.

In an episode of Selling Isn't Everything, Brent Adamson and I talk about how to regroup after a loss so your next deal isn’t weighed down by the last one.

🎧 The full episode is live now.
👇 Here’s the moment we dig into what it really means to move forward without dragging the past with you.

#sellingisnteverything #newpodcast #sales

You ever have a moment where you’re just trying to get dinner… and suddenly you learn a life lesson about sales?

Yeah. That happened to me.

And it’s the same lesson people forget every time the AI conversation heats up:
Technology can speed things up. But it can’t replace genuine connection.

If you’re worried about AI taking your job, watch this clip.
There’s one thing AI still can’t do.

#SalesStrategy #HumanConnection #AIandSales #RelationshipSelling #TheHumanAdvantage

We love solving problems.

We’re terrible at letting them breathe.

If you jump to the solution before the buyer feels the pain… congratulations, you’ve just performed a premature demo.

#SalesLeadership #CustomerConnection #DiscoverySkills

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The Battle

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Shari Levitin

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The Battle

Brent Adamson

Shari Levitin

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Brent Adamson's LinkedIn Performance

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