Sales on the Indian River Consulting Group's Pandemic Revenue Index of 10 distributors fell by 11.4% from May 18 to 22, compared with the same week last year. The drop is the ninth double-digit one in a row, but the smallest since the middle of March.

Drones are being used during the coronavirus pandemic to deliver medications to customers' homes, along with products such as toilet paper and canned cold-brew coffee. The technology is likely to expand in multiple areas as people, companies and governments ask, "What can we automate and by how much?" says futurist Richard Yonck.

About 44% of business-to-business technology buyers say the most important thing providers can do is help them maximize their current solutions, and one-quarter most want to know how their providers can support them during the pandemic, per LeadMD. In addition, 31% of respondents say they've begun researching new solutions during the pandemic and 55% say they believe it's appropriate for providers to keep marketing.

Customer-specific pricing, also known as contract pricing, will create difficulty for distributors as the coronavirus pandemic puts pressure on prices, writes John Gunderson. He recommends tracking CSP agreements "to understand the impacts and start to be proactive rather than reactive with your sales team."

Customers tend to share more personal information when using their phone than on a computer because "our phone tends to act like an adult pacifier for us" says Wharton School professor Shiri Melumad. "Our findings suggest that smartphone-generated content may be more diagnostic of how consumers actually think and feel," Melumad adds.

Employers and employees alike know skills development is vital, but they differ on how to accomplish these new skills, according to a Pluralsight report. Employees said they would prefer to have more upskilling opportunities but would choose self-paced courses over one-size-fits-all conferences or boot camps.

Distributors that take an honest look at their client list will likely find "fully 50%-80% of their customers are consuming over half of their resources while producing no profits at all," write Jonathan Byrnes and John Wass. The same mindset of "profit peak" and "profit drain" applies to suppliers, too, they write.

What will the economy look like when it opens up? Will there be a "second wave" that will shut it down again? Are we at or near the general economic bottom? What is happening in various wholesale distribution market segments? What are the stock market and interest rates doing now and in the near term? Get answers to these questions and more when you join us for today's webinar from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EDT. Seats are limited, so purchase yours here.

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