Digital transformation remains an opportunity for small- and mid-sized partners, says Michael Urban, president of worldwide technology solutions distribution at Synnex. "End customers are looking for digital transformation, they're asking for it, and we are helping them," Urban says.

Grainger's "endless assortment" products business, including its Zoro and MonotaRO online businesses, totaled sales of $1.9 billion in 2019, or nearly 20% growth from 2018. Grainger plans to grow Zoro's inventory to about 10 million SKUs, said CEO D.G. Macpherson.

The effective use of data can help distributors develop better customer relationships and learn how to serve their buyers' needs, says DATAgility CEO Denise Keating. Companies must carefully determine what type of data is relevant to their needs and develop "actionable insights" aimed at helping customers, Keating says.

Business-to-business marketers face unique barriers when it comes to gathering insights about customers, such as having multiple decision-makers for one account, Colleen Langevin writes. She offers customer insights tips, including being proactive with buying committees, creating events to gather feedback from prospects and looking forensically at customer wins and losses to identify what happened.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or 4IR, is poised to change the future of work and will require more collaboration, "radical inclusion" and a commitment to lifelong learning, writes Henna Inam. "It will require leaders, particularly in key decision-making roles, to evolve our mindsets, skill sets, values and behaviors if we are to all thrive in this disruption, rather than just a few," Inam writes.

Avoid being defensive, critical or expressing contempt during difficult conversations, writes Lisa Kohn. Even with those precautions, some exchanges may be impossible to resolve without a mediator, she writes.

This study brings together best practices from leading distributors and their suppliers that were developed through a consortium on Optimizing Channel Compensation. The resulting Channel Alignment Framework is the first-of-its-kind map that seeks to build optimal manufacturer-distributor channels. Distributors need to read this book and buy it for their manufacturer partners. Then they need to sit down with those suppliers and properly plan effective processes to get the supplier market access while meeting distributor investment needs.

Called the "Master class in innovation for distributors," "Innovate to Dominate: The 12th Edition in the Facing the Forces of Change Series" has arrived. A roadmap for innovation, it helps distributors connect the dots between the forces of change and how distributors can change their business to capture opportunities -- and defend their business when necessary. The best innovations are about getting ahead instead of catching up.

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