City Electric Supply CEO Thomas Hartland-Mackie was able to learn the business alongside his grandfather, Thomas Mackie, who founded the company in 1951. Hartland-Mackie discusses the challenges of building on his grandfather's legacy and offers advice for young people entering the industry.
Fastenal increased sales in January by 3.6% from a year earlier, which was a better showing than December's sales growth, but the second-lowest in more than three years. Organic sales were also up over a year ago.
State of the Wholesale Supply Chain Industry in 2020 The wholesale supply chain industry continues to look for ways to solve challenges around predicting shifting consumer preferences, volatility with suppliers and long lead times, and e-commerce growth that's increasing price transparency. Despite these obstacles, the industry collectively posted year-over-year sales growth of 8% in 2019, similar to the prior year. Get the key findings for Blue Ridge's wholesale supply chain industry 2020 survey.
From using data to break down silos to the importance of "neutral data," FourKites founder and CEO Matt Elenjickal looks at how data is reshaping the supply chain. He discusses five areas where using real-time data effectively can streamline operations.
Research conducted by 5W Public Relations reveals that Facebook is the most popular social platform among millennials followed, respectively, by Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest and TikTok. Some 52% of millennials have clicked on an Instagram ad and 35% have purchased a product via the platform.
Great sales managers tend to trust their sales teams while focusing on setting clear expectations, helping employees develop their skills and providing useful tools and training, writes David Brock. Less successful managers often devote less time to these and other key tasks, as they don't trust their salespeople enough and spend much of their time micromanaging them, instead.
Counter negative thoughts by focusing on good moments in life, practicing gratitude and talking positively to yourself, writes training specialist Rich Brandt. "Of course, changes in your outlook won't happen over night, but in a matter of weeks you will find yourself less stressed, and feel less negative and more optimistic," he writes.
Watch Barry Lawrence. This first-of-its-kind "Sales and Marketing Optimization" research study, with an accompanying Sales and Marketing Framework wall map, provides 30 best practices for improving these critical business processes: market segmentation, value proposition, business development, sales process and sales force stratification. Every distributor should adopt and execute these best practices successfully if the business is to adapt to the new realities in today's economy and still achieve competitive advantage.
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Benj Cohen noted at a recent conference that many distributors viewed artificial intelligence as a purely digital phenomenon and were split on how the technology affected salespeople: Either AI did not apply to sales teams, or it was going to replace them entirely. AI does have a big impact on inside sales, but not in either of those ways. It does not replace sales reps, but instead supercharges them. Read his post.
