B2B Commerce UnCut Podcast: The Unvarnished Truth About B2B eCommerce

Sam Russo, Director of Demand Gen & Strategic Alliances at Pivotree, joins Aaron Sheehan to talk about the messy, human side of automotive data. Sam shares her unconventional path into data, explains why ACES and PIES aren't magic bullets, and breaks down what happens when companies throw expensive tech at dirty data. She also reflects on the Rebelle Rally and what navigating the desert taught her about data dependency.

Episode Highlights:
01:08 – Introduction: Meet Sam Russo & Her Automotive Origin Story
07:44 – What ACES and PIES Actually Are (And What They're Not)
11:35 – The #1 Data Problem That Looks Like Tech But Is Actually Humans
13:48 – How Well Are Manufacturers Living Up to ACES & PIES Standards?
15:50 – Why Missing Data Makes You Invisible (Especially to AI)
18:13 – Pivotree as Pit Crew: F1, Foundations, and Why Data Isn't "Fixed" in 12 Months
23:29 – The Rebelle Rally: 2,500km, No GPS, Never Camped Before
29:57 – Finding Your Limits (Or Not Finding Them)
30:58 – Data Dependency vs. Human Instinct
33:45 – AI in Automotive: Data Normalization, Agentic Shopping & Fleet Management
42:33 – What the Aftermarket Needs to Attract the Next Generation
47:31 – Sam's media recommendation

Resources Mentioned:
SEMA Data Co-op — Industry data standards organization
The Diary of a CEO — Podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett
Rebelle Rally — The longest off-road navigation rally in the United States
Podcast with Chantal Schweizer from Pivotree https://youtu.be/btq8K279e_k

Ryan Cosby, FP&A Manager at Salon Service Group, joins Aaron Sheehan for a ground-level look at B2B beauty distribution. Ryan shares how SSG manages cost-to-serve across multiple channels, wrestles with pricing complexity and margin leakage, and navigates the messy realities of month-end close. He also breaks down what vendors need to bring to the table to earn a yes from finance.

Episode Highlights:
00:35 – Introduction: Meet Ryan Cosby & Salon Service Group
01:50 – How SSG's Distribution Model Works: Salons, Licenses & the Back Bar
03:25 – Cost-to-Serve: Is the Digital Channel Cheaper?
06:00 – Giving Reps Visibility Into eCommerce Behavior
07:34 – Commissioning Reps on eComm Sales and Why It Matters
08:50 – Pricing Complexity: Custom Agreements and Margin Leakage
12:40 – Sales Tax Complexity and Why SSG Uses Vertex
15:00 – The Tech Stack: System 2000, Qlik, and Excel
18:58 – Month-End Close: Reconciling Two Different Data Structures
22:07 – AI in FP&A: What SSG Is Piloting With Qlik
26:00 – What a Vendor Business Case Needs to Survive an FP&A Review
30:35 – Advice for Digital Champions Making the Case Up the Chain
34:45 – Payments Across Channels: Cards on File, Chargebacks & Debit Card Risk
39:16 – Ryan’s media recommendations

Resources Mentioned:
Qlik — BI and analytics tool used by SSG
Vertex — Sales tax automation platform
Imbibe Magazine — Ryan's go-to for drinks culture, recommending it as a great example of a media brand quietly and successfully reinventing itself.

What happens when you drop an LLM on top of five ERPs and a decade of M&A? Aaron Sheehan and analyst Heather Hershey map the practical path: B2B use cases that work, risks that don’t, and why chunk-by-chunk modernization beats “robot, take the wheel.”

Highlights

01:06 – Welcome back and introducing Heather Hershey
03:35 – Defining AI, LLMs, and RAG
09:30 – Why probabilistic AI makes ops teams nervous
11:58 – Is LLM an overkill compared to ‘boring’ machine learning and rule-based systems?
15:19 – The real blocker: fragmented data across ERPs and other systems
19:40 – The strangler pattern: modernize in chunks instead of ripping everything out
21:13 – Why commerce platforms become the orchestration layer for AI/NLP
24:37 – If you had $100K for AI: where to spend it
27:27 – Prisoner’s dilemma: agentic shopping and the disintermediation trap
34:53 – Agentic commerce predictions for B2B
40:30 – Are people replacing Google with LLMs?

This week, we met Kyle Gustafson, civil engineer by training, digital commerce expert by career. From scaling office supply giants to building businesses at Amazon, Kyle reflects on what digital transformation really takes and why WIFM – “What’s in it for me?” – is the key to adoption and growth.

Highlights
00:00 – Introduction: Meet Kyle Gustafson & His Career Path
02:00 – Lessons from Office Depot, Staples, and OfficeMax
04:00 – Building Private Brands and Supply Chains at Amazon
06:35 – Transformation Mindset: Thinking 20 Years Ahead
11:35 – Why Companies Call for Help: Common Consulting Triggers
17:40 – Defining eCommerce: Where’s the line?
21:33 – Why Digital Transformation Never Really Ends
28:40 – Tech Adoption and the Power of WIFM
34:10 – The Alexa Microwave Story: When Customer Value Isn’t There
39:23 – Leadership Lessons from Mentor Ron Lala
45:10 – Book Recommendations & Closing Thoughts

Resources Mentioned

Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
Malcolm Gladwell – The Revenge of the Tipping Point
Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley – The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI

Allie Copeland, Chief Transformation Officer at ADI Global, joins Aaron Sheehan to break down what transformation looks like in wholesale distribution. From merging companies and overhauling tech to building a customer-first culture, Allie shares how ADI keeps progress moving, even when change never ends.

Episode highlights:
00:00 – Introduction: Meet Allie Copeland & ADI
02:15 – What Does a Chief Transformation Officer Do?
04:50 – Why Transformation Never Really Ends
09:15 – Turning Strategy into Action
12:54 – Upgrading Tech: From Mainframe to Microservices
18:25 – Planning for Agility, Not Just Stability
21:45 – “Even Better Together”: Customer-First M&A
25:15 – Decision-Making: When Changes Help (or Hurt) Customers
27:24 – Real Feedback: NPS, Surveys, and Store Pilots
29:30 – How Distribution is Evolving Beyond Inventory
34:32 – Culture Change: Project Avengers & Rebel Alliance
40:13 – Radical Transparency & Leading Through Uncertainty
42:35 – Leadership Lessons & Advice for Transformation
46:25 – Book Recs & Closing Thoughts

Resources mentioned:

• The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil
• Apple in China by Patrick McGee