Buyers today are exhausted. They face massive information overload, tangled internal processes, conflicting objectives across stakeholders, and creeping uncertainty about whether a purchased solution will actually deliver results.

In practice, that means buyers who can plainly name the value of a vendor still bail at the finish line - “no decision” is the silent deal-killer.

Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt call that failure of buyer self-confidence the single biggest drag on growth, and their new book, The Framemaking Sale, is a practical prescription for fixing it.

Brent and Karl both cut their teeth at CEB - the research organization whose work later folded into Gartner - where they led large, evidence-driven programs on sales and buyer behavior. Brent co-authored The Challenger Sale (2011), a landmark study that upended conventional wisdom by showing top reps win by teaching, tailoring, and taking control rather than by simply building relationships.

Karl’s research leadership at CEB and later work alongside Brent has helped translate that research into practical playbooks for complex B2B GTM motions - a heritage you can hear clearly in their new work on frame-making.

Two headline data points kicked off their thinking:

* First, a disturbingly high share of even convinced buyers (roughly 40–60%) see deals die to no decision, not vendor preference

* Second, about three quarters of B2B buyers would prefer a rep-free experience if they could, reflecting historic sales scar tissue and frustration with poorly designed buying journeys.

Those patterns forced Brent and Karl to ask a simple question: what would it take for buyers to feel confident enough in their own decision to act - not just to believe in the vendor?

Because we are all partner leaders, I pushed Brent and Karl to translate Framemaking into partner co-sell reality - how two or more sellers align on a single decision frame, share the buyer coaching load, and present a clear, bounded path that reduces buyer anxiety.

The conversation landed on practical steps partners can take to coordinate playbooks, capture and share customer intelligence, and jointly guide buying groups so multi-partner deals close with less friction and more confidence.

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What is frame-making?

Frame-making is a mindset and set of practices that sellers - and partner teams - use to make complex decisions feel makeable. Instead of only persuading a buyer that “we’re the best,” frame-making helps buyers:

* Identify the right question to ask

* Narrow the noise to the few things that actually matter

* Align internal stakeholders

* Reduce uncertainty about outcomes so the buying group can act with low regret.

In short: help the customer be confident in themselves, not just in you.

Four buyer confidence failure modes

Brent and Karl break decision pain into four patterns sellers should diagnose and address: decision complexity, information overload, objective misalignment, and outcome uncertainty.

Each of these is a lever you can pull to reduce buyer anxiety - and each is supplier-agnostic, meaning the buyer’s problem isn’t “you” but the buying process itself.

That’s why frame-making is as much a coaching practice as a sales technique.

What this looks like in practice

Practical frame-making starts with curiosity: ask buyers not about features, but about the internal questions that trip them up - procurement quirks, legal concerns, integration unknowns - then build a bounded, repeatable frame that narrows the conversation to the few things that matter.

Brent gives a vivid example: instead of drowning buyers in 50 concerns, boil it down to “the three things we’ve seen that actually decide this purchase” and walk them through those checkpoints.

That bounded framing prompts action while preserving the buyer’s agency.

Why partners should care

Partnerships increase solution power - but also decision complexity. Two vendors selling together can double a buyer’s anxiety unless the partnership is deliberate about coaching the buyer through joint decision steps.

Brent recommends partner teams literally ask customers: “If you had to do this again, what would make it easier?” Those answers become the playbook for future joint go-to-market motions.

Sharing intel across partners is a multiplier - it lets you predict and guide customers around known potholes.

How to measure success

Frame-making isn’t just soft-feelings. Target metrics include deal velocity, the ratio of definitive outcomes vs stalled deals, deal quality (size, scope, margin), and post-close sentiment (low regret, enthusiasm to work together).

Look for faster “lose-fast” behavior too - if a deal isn’t winnable, surface that quickly so teams can reallocate effort.

Those signals are leading indicators that the buyer has more confidence in their path forward.

A humane spin on hard growth

Perhaps the most powerful takeaway from Brent and Karl’s conversation is that doing right by buyers - leaving them feeling more confident about their decisions - is not just the ethical play, it’s the growth play.

Show up as a decision coach, not a salesperson who simply pushes features; help buyers act sooner, decide better, and buy with less regret.

The result is predictable: higher-quality wins, shorter cycles, and customers who call you first the next time something breaks.

Try this this week

* Pick one stalled deal and map which of the four confidence failure modes applies.

* Ask the buying group one simple question: “What’s the one thing that would make this decision feel doable?” Then build a two-step frame to address it.

* If you work with partners, run a 30-minute “post-win replay” and capture recommendations you can hand to new customers as a buyer-playbook.

* Go to Amazon and buy the Framemaking Sale 😀

Brent and Karl are on a simple but powerful mission: to make sales more human and decisions makeable - turning frantic procurement marathons into guided, confidence-building journeys.

Their work isn’t about shortcutting rigor; it’s about helping buyers and sellers leave the table confident, satisfied, and regret free.

When that happens, deals close faster and relationships last longer.

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