Welcome to The Adapter’s Advantage: Breakthrough Moments that Lead to Success.

In episode 35, global innovation evangelist Mary Shea dives into the future of B2B sales, how new technologies will deliver hyper-personalized buying experiences, and why it’s important to prioritize data over intuition.

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”If you’re not leveraging data, you’re going to put your whole organization at a competitive disadvantage.” — Mary Shea

As Outreach’s first-ever Global Innovation Evangelist, Mary Shea is responsible for conducting thought-provoking research on the future of B2B buying and selling and for helping the market understand the increasingly important role new technologies play in enabling better experiences for both buyers and sellers.

Prior to joining Outreach, Mary was a principal analyst at Forrester, an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and chief revenue officer at various global technology companies.

A renowned keynote speaker, author, and thought leader, Mary is regularly featured in various academic and commercial publications including The Journal of Selling, Forbes, Business Insider, The Telegraph, and more.

A champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion Mary was a Charter Member of Forrester’s Diversity and Inclusion Council and currently serves as the executive sponsor for Outreach’s Rainbow Employee Resource Group.

Listen as Mary shares a glimpse into the future of B2B sales.

Episode 35: Facing the Future of B2B Sales | Mary Shea

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From This Episode

Host Mark Magnacca: “Why is it important that revenue leaders over index on data versus just intuition?”

Mary Shea: “First of all, because they can. Back when I was a revenue leader, we couldn’t. We had to use the art of it because we didn’t have access to the data. There was a lack of visibility. Now we have so many different systems and tools that provide organizations with rich data.

“The challenge is bringing that data set into a single view of the customer, which is why you’re starting to see CDP (Customer Data Platforms) and data lakes and all kinds of different types of platforms that are taking the data to the next level.

“But the bottom line is, today’s buyer is so sophisticated and so self sufficient. This market has been trained by their interactions on all of these consumer-facing marketplaces. Now the millennials are not just surfacing the lists and making initial recommendations, but they are C-suite execs who are signing contracts.

“The reality is that if you’re not delivering hyper-personalized experience to these buyers, they will drop you like nobody’s business and go on to the next pipe. They now have the ability to do a lot of the discovery on their own. What I find is that in an enterprise business purchase, they very much value that rep, but they’re not going to put up with it if they’re not having personalized interactions, if they’re not deriving value from that experience.”

About The Adapter’s Advantage

Our podcast features leaders from sales, training, and industry who share their personal journeys of transformation and how they are adapting to an ever-changing environment. As your host, I’ll introduce you to some of the most interesting and inspiring people I’ve met over the last twenty years.

The conversations dive into the ups and downs of their journey. Our guests focus on inflection points—the aha moments that, in retrospect, had a critical impact on their success. These interviews will leave you with practical, real-world advice that you can apply to your life.

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