Jobs to Be Done:
B2B buyers are motivated by completing a specific job, not fulfilling a want—this creates different complexity in the buying journey.
Podcast with Liz Saxen-Duggan
Why Digital Fails Without Executive Buy-In with Liz Saxen-Duggan
July 3, 2025 · 49:00
Watch on YouTube
About This Episode
Liz Saxen-Duggan brings over a decade of relationship with Justin King, having met as "virtual friends" in the early days of discussing product content and B2B strategy online. Now a consultant focused on digital transformation and e-commerce adoption, Liz explores two critical and often overlooked dimensions of B2B e-commerce success: attribution and customer adoption. The episode challenges companies to think deeply about what it really means to justify e-commerce investments and how to think about it beyond simple percentage-of-revenue metrics.
The conversation defines B2B motivation differently from B2C: in B2B, buyers are trying to complete a job, not satisfy a want or need, which creates fundamentally different complexity in the buying journey. Liz explores how organizations are typically structured to lead e-commerce initiatives (traditionally IT and technology) and where leadership is shifting (toward commercial and sales teams) to create better outcomes. She emphasizes that digital transformation success depends on getting executive alignment early, designing change management from the beginning, and recognizing that the human side of transformation is often the hardest and most critical component.
The episode also delves into attribution challenges specific to B2B, where multiple buyers, stakeholders, and touchpoints make traditional conversion-based attribution metrics inadequate. Liz provides practical frameworks for thinking through these challenges and starting with foundational analytics even if you don't have all the answers.
Key Themes
Attribution Challenge:
B2B attribution is fundamentally complex due to multiple buyers, stakeholders, and touchpoints—simple metrics are inadequate.
Organization Structure:
Where e-commerce leadership sits in an organization (IT vs. commercial/sales vs. customer success) has huge impact on outcomes.
Executive Alignment:
Getting executive sponsorship and alignment early drives 7x better outcomes on digital transformation initiatives.
Change Management:
The human side of digital transformation is often overlooked but is critical to success and adoption.
Notable Quotes
“My motivation factor throughout that entire journey is different. And then when you layer on the complexities of the multiple approvers and users that are involved in that entire purchase, layered on with organizational hierarchy and pricing and unique contracts and all the things that make B2B complex, it's... my motivation is what matters throughout that entire process." — [[Liz Saxen-Duggan]]”
“When you get that executive alignment, we actually get to deal with the human side of the digital transformation. So despite all the technology and AI, there's still the human, it's where the resistance comes from the adoption and everything else." — [[Liz Saxen-Duggan]]”
“I would say that overall, when you get that executive sponsor and driving those changes earlier. When we don't wait till the end, we actually see better success in achieving the outcomes that you actually built your business case around." — [[Liz Saxen-Duggan]]”
Guest
Liz Saxen-Duggan — Merkle/Shift7 Digital
Topics
Customer Adoption Attribution Digital Transformation Change Management B2b Strategy
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