In a recent Gartner survey, 75% of B2B buyers said they’d prefer a rep-free buying experience. That’s a wake-up call for sales and marketing leaders everywhere.
So, is this the end of sales as we know it… or the start of something better?
On this episode of the B2B Roundtable Podcast, I sit down with my friend Brent Adamson, co-author of The Challenger Sale and author of the new book The Framemaking Sale. Brent explains why buyer confidence—not more information—is the real barrier to closing big deals today, and how leaders can help their teams become the sellers customers actually want to talk to.
Brent Adamson on Framemaking and the Future of Sales
Key Takeaways

* Buyers want confidence, not more information. The real risk isn’t being ignored—it’s being irrelevant.
* Framemaking is the answer. Instead of persuading, sellers must help buyers frame decisions and build confidence in themselves.
* Four forces undermine confidence today: decision complexity, information overload, objective misalignment, and outcome uncertainty.
* Sales and marketing must unite. The mission is to build buyer confidence in themselves—not just in the supplier.
* AI won’t replace sellers, but it raises the bar. The sellers who thrive will show up as trusted guides and sense-makers.

💬 Pull Quotes
“It’s not your customer’s confidence in you that matters. It’s their confidence in themselves.” — Brent Adamson
“If you could be the one seller your customer actually wants to talk to, that’s an incredible place to be.” — Brent Adamson
Guest Bio

Brent Adamson is a researcher, speaker, and author best known for co-authoring The Challenger Sale. His new book, The Framemaking Sale, explores how sales professionals can rebuild buyer confidence and create customer interactions that truly add value.
👉 Connect with Brent on LinkedIn

👉 Get the Book: The Framemaking Sale
Full Transcript
Brian Carroll:
Welcome to the B2B Roundtable Podcast, where we bring together ideas, people, and strategies shaping the future of sales and marketing.
Today, I’m joined by my friend Brent Adamson, one of the most influential voices in sales. You may know Brent from his groundbreaking book The Challenger Sale, which reshaped how we think about commercial conversations.
I’m excited because we’re talking about his new book, The Framemaking Sale. And it couldn’t come at a more urgent time. In a recent survey, 75% of B2B buyers said they’d prefer to purchase without ever talking to a sales rep. Is this the end of sales as we know it—or could it be the start of something better?
Brian Carroll:
We’re going to talk about why buyers have lost confidence in sales, what’s driving this shift, what it really means to be a framemaker, how leaders like CMOs and VPs of Sales can build teams customers actually want to talk to, and what the future of selling looks like in an AI-driven world. Brent, you open your book with that stat—75% of B2B buyers would prefer a rep-free buying experience. That’s wild.
Brent Adamson:
First of all, it’s great to see you, Brian. Thanks for the invite. That statistic comes from Gartner research, one of the last pieces I worked on before leaving in 2022. We asked thousands of B2B buyers: “If you could buy a large complex solution without ever talking to a sales rep, would you prefer that?” Seventy-five percent said yes.
Now, that doesn’t mean they actually buy without sellers—it means they’d prefer not to. The data shows a big and growing gap between customer preference and customer reality. That gap represents risk for sellers.
Brian Carroll:
So it’s not the end of sales—it’s the end of salespeople not adding value.