Hy-Vee has recalibrated its focus to smaller-format stores, starting with its Lakeville Fast and Fresh location in Minnesota, while also cutting its proposed expansion in the Twin Cities from three new stores to two. The smaller-store trend in food retail may be attributed to an increase in square footage price of commercial real estate, according to JLL Commercial Real Estate Services.

Disruption is coming to the plumbing-heating-cooling-piping and industrial pipe-valve-fitting industries through factors such as digitization and labor shortages, says MORSCO CEO Chip Hornsby. "We have to not only look at our customer's customer, but we have to look at that customer's customer," he says.

Roughly 640 truck carriers have closed up shop during the first half of the year, more than triple the number in the same period in 2018, including HVH Transportation, which recently left about 150 drivers stranded with their loads. Industry execs say trucking companies that increased pay and spent profits on new equipment were caught short as trucking demand and spot prices diminished.

Business-to-business marketers must nurture leads to improve conversion rates and should base campaigns on a clear key performance indicator to drive specific actions, such as scheduling sales calls or signing up for trials, Andrew Yedlin writes. Actions that demand more from prospects will require more nurturing, he writes, before outlining case studies to demonstrate effective sequential messaging.

Gregg Schwartz offers business-to-business sales advice inspired by NFL training camps, including the need to balance championing the best performers with creating a supportive team culture. Identify and nurture "the rookies" and ensure your team pulls together to focus on the outside competition, he writes.

The golden rule is insufficient for good communication because you're not thinking enough about how the other person wants to receive information, writes Diana Peterson-More. "If we practice the 'platinum rule' of communication -- communicating with others the way they want to be communicated with -- our chances of success increase exponentially," she writes.

Team members will trust you when you are "radically honest" and seek out their ideas and input, writes Lolly Daskal. "When people trust you, their confidence in your leadership will come naturally and genuinely," Daskal writes.

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