Graybar has leveraged online interactions and digital technologies during the pandemic, including e-commerce and robotic process automation, says Chairman, President and CEO Kathleen Mazzarella. Customers "can buy online, but for us it's really more about the business process, making it easy for them ... to do business with us whenever they want to, how they want to," she says.

Crises such as the coronavirus pandemic may feel like a threat to the distribution sector, but they also provide the opportunity to innovate, writes Bill Wade of Wade&Partners. He lists several changes that distributors will have to deal with in the near future, including the importance of sustainability and artificial intelligence-based systems.

A study by Demand Gen Report reveals 68% of business-to-business buyers say their purchase cycle is longer now than it was this time last year. Some 47% have delayed purchases due to budget freezes during the pandemic, and the top changes to the buying process are, respectively, business needs or priorities, more time spent researching and an increased expectation for personalization.

Marketers spend an average of just 19% of their time on the highest value work and say the top three skills needed for their role are creative thinking, delivering quality on time and being able to respond nimbly to disruption, according to a Workfront study. Heidi Melin outlines five strategies top-performing marketers use to be able to focus on high value work, including automating mundane tasks and centralizing work processes.

The pandemic should prompt distributors to reexamine how they compensate sales teams in terms of pay differentiation by sales volume, assignment of individual sales targets and longer measurement timelines, writes Andrew Horvath of the Alexander Group.

Lukas Furtenbach, founder of Furtenbach Adventures, believes many lessons from his trips leading novices up Mount Everest apply to business transformation, including the need to plan carefully and be systematic. "Swift action instead of a hesitant reaction may well be the difference that keeps a transformation from getting knocked off course," he says.

What will be the impact of AI on distributor sales and operations? While AI hasn't transformed distribution yet, the change is coming soon. Integral to research being done by the NAW Institute is hearing directly from distributor executives. Will you please spare 5-10 minutes to help ensure that we get the most accurate data to inform this research? All individual answers will be kept confidential. In return for your time, we'll send you benchmark data on your AI readiness, and an AI opportunity analysis upon your request. Take the survey.

The pandemic is forcing many distributors to reevaluate their supply chains to create more resilient models. At the heart of "Optimizing Channel Profitability" is a common ground for distributors and manufacturers to focus on making a one-to-one connection among a supplier's channel compensation, a distributor's capabilities and customer value, all leading to a process where all three entities can have constructive, objective dialogue rather than subjective, selective fault-finding. If you're looking to strengthen your value proposition post COVID-19, this resource will help.

NAW Institute Fellow and Author Mark Dancer says, "Virtually every distributor I encounter understands that mastering data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) is essential if distributors are to survive and thrive in the digital age. However, very few leaders have a comprehensive game plan for turning their company into a data-driven business." Read his post, which is post #8 of 10 in his miniseries on B2B innovation.

In observance of Columbus Day in the US and in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, SmartBrief will not publish Monday. Publication will resume Tuesday.