For decades, distributors have heard the cry of "digital transformation." Yet, many projects fizzle out, failing to bridge the gap between a high-level vision and the realities of the warehouse floor. So, how do you build a strategy that actually works?

According to our guest, Adriana McLane, founder of Fulfilling Strategy, this time is different. The convergence of accessible AI, "Amazon-like" buyer expectations, and the looming threat of tech-savvy private equity firms has created a true digital tipping point. The "wait and see" mentality is no longer an option.

In this conversation, Adriana and Matt break down the playbook for designing and—most importantly—executing a business strategy that delivers real-world results. You'll learn why you must stop "death by a thousand pilots" and instead start by educating your leadership team on "what is possible."

This episode is a masterclass in change management and a guide to using technology to automate friction, freeing up your team to be more human and relationship-focused than ever before.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• The 3 major forces that make this time a true "tipping point" for distributors.
• Why most digital transformation projects fail (and how to avoid it).
• The flaw in relying on the "relationship business" excuse.
• How to use AI to enhance your team's human touch, not replace it.
• A practical framework for change management that gets buy-in from the top floor to the warehouse floor.
  

Resources:

• Adriana McLean: Find her at fulfillingstrategy.com
• Free Download: Get Adriana's Strategic AI Risk and Opportunity Assessment for your leadership team
• Host: Matt Johnson, Pivotree

Are your sales and marketing teams speaking different languages? Tired of marketing being seen as just the "make it pretty" department while the sales team complains about lead quality? If you're a leader in wholesale distribution, this episode is for you. In this episode of Frictionless Commerce, Matt Johnson sits down with Susan Merlo, a digital marketing consultant who works exclusively with wholesale distributors. They dive deep into the unique challenges distributors face, from long sales cycles to fierce competition, and reveal why there's often a disconnect between sales and marketing. Susan shares expert strategies on leveraging content, technology, and AI to create a marketing engine that truly supports sales. She also introduces her 90-day Digital Distributor Essentials Program, a streamlined process to build a powerful digital foundation.

Are you tired of your brand message getting lost? Are your teams drowning in spreadsheets and manual data cleansing? In this video, Matt Johnson, gives a direct diagnosis of the broken product data supply chain that plagues manufacturers and wholesale distributors. If you're struggling with data quality issues, slow SKU onboarding, or the high cost of data syndication, this is for you. We break down exactly how the current system hurts both manufacturers (brand dilution, operational costs) and distributors (the "data janitor" problem, poor customer experience) and why traditional data pools and syndicators are no longer the answer. The solution? It's time to stop renting your data and start owning it. Learn the first steps toward implementing a modern Product Information Management (PIM) and Master Data Management (MDM) strategy to clean, enrich, and activate your data for profitable growth.

Why do most B2B digital transformations fail? It's not the technology. It's the people. You can have the perfect plan to build an agentic, frictionless future, but it's useless if you can't get it funded by your leadership or adopted by your team. This is the 80% you can't afford to get wrong. In this final part of our B2B Agentic Roadmap series, we give you the complete playbook for the human side of change. We cover the three essential pillars for getting your vision off the whiteboard and into the real world.

🔥 IN THIS VIDEO, YOU WILL LEARN:

• Pillar 1 (The Business Case): How to stop selling "digital transformation" and start selling "profit," "efficiency," and "growth" in the exact language of your CFO, CEO, and Sales VP.
• Pillar 2 (The Mindset): How to navigate the human fear of automation, reframe the narrative from "replacement" to "augmentation," and turn your biggest blockers into champions.
• Pillar 3 (The Culture): How to move from a single, top-down "project" to a bottom-up, company-wide "movement" that empowers everyone to find and fix friction.

This journey is complex, but you don't have to do it alone. My team at Pivotree are industry leaders in designing and implementing the frictionless, agentic-ready systems we've discussed.

Is your sales team buried in administrative work instead of selling? Are you losing customers to competitors with a smoother, faster online buying experience? It's time to stop the profit leaks and build a truly frictionless commerce engine for 2026 and beyond. In Part 2 of our Frictionless B2B Blueprint, we move from foundation to action. We lay out three transformative but practical steps to overhaul your operations, delight your customers, and free up your team for strategic growth. This isn't just theory—we provide scannable "baby steps" for each stage so you can start implementing these changes immediately. 🔥

IN THIS VIDEO, YOU WILL LEARN:

• STEP 3: Digitize the Commercial Engine: Move away from high-touch, manual sales processes. We'll show you how to empower customer self-service and turn your sales reps from order-takers into super-powered consultants.
• STEP 4: Connect the Front-End Promise to Back-End Reality: A great website is useless if you can't deliver. Learn how a modern Order Management System (OMS) bridges the gap between customer experience and your ERP/warehouse, creating trust through transparency and reliability.
• STEP 5: Activate Your Digital Shelf: Transform your static online catalog into an intelligent, dynamic merchandising engine that guides customers, increases average order value (AOV), and becomes your most effective salesperson.

Imagine AI agents autonomously negotiating deals, managing inventory, and placing orders for your business. This is the promise of B2B Agentic Commerce, but it doesn't happen overnight. Before any AI can act, it needs a solid foundation to stand on. So, where do you start? In this foundational episode, we break down the critical first steps every B2B organization must take to prepare for the future of commerce. We're not talking about complex AI models yet. Instead, we're focusing on the bedrock: your data. Join us as we explore the essential pillars for building an agent-ready business, including: Why moving from unstructured PDFs and emails to clean, structured data is non-negotiable. How API-driven systems act as the doorways for AI agents to interact with your business. The crucial role of data governance, taxonomy, and quality in preventing costly errors and building a trustworthy system. This episode is your roadmap to building a robust data foundation, making your business not just more efficient today, but ready for the agentic future.