The Indian River Consulting Group's Pandemic Revenue Index increased by 18.2% year over year for the week of Dec. 21-25, helped by Christmas 2020 being on a Friday compared with a Wednesday the previous year. Only two of the 12 companies reported sales declines.

Hy-Vee subsidiary Vivid Clear Rx was created to provide a pharmacy benefits manager for other companies as well as Hy-Vee's 80,000-plus employees, says Vivid Clear RX head Mike Agostino. The PBM is designed to be transparent, creating "relationships with clients that proactively show the cost associated with managing one's benefit," he says.

Imperial Dade has announced acquisitions of Paper Chemical Supply, based in New Jersey, and Industrial Soap, based in St. Louis. The deals mark 32 acquisitions for Imperial Dade under its current leadership.

Cybersecurity fatigue might be hurting organizations, write cybersecurity bloggers Troy La Huis and Michael Salihoglu, who offer suggestions to address it. "Because our internet- and computer-based lives are so private, it's harder for us to know which practices are common and what the secure and accepted norms are," they write.

Role specialization in sales can often lead buyers to feel like a baton being passed during a race, writes Bob Apollo. To avoid this problem, make sure customers aren't asked the same questions multiple times by different salespeople and that key information is shared freely between sales and customer support personnel, Apollo writes.

Great salespeople need to ensure they are in a growth situation, and the company that's right for them at one time might not be the best fit years later, writes Darrell Sterling, who describes what led him to leave one distributor for another. "You have to break down the numbers and analyze your situation so that you can make an informed decision about your future in sales with your current company," he writes.

Make New Year's resolutions that focus on the outcome you want, not the obstacles to achieving them, while making sure they align with your values, writes Susan Fowler. "The success of your resolution requires adapting your action plan as life unfolds differently than you originally planned!" she writes.

In this capstone webinar for the NAW Series: How Technology Will Transform Wholesale Distribution, Author Ian Heller of Distribution Strategy Group will integrate the thinking of distributors, customers, suppliers and experts. He'll offer suggestions not only for specific actions distributors should take, but also for how distributors should adapt their businesses to ensure that they can successfully navigate the change. Register for this free Jan. 21 webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern. Sponsored by Unilog and PROS.

NAW's first Digital Summit, Jan. 27-28, will be an event like none other hosted in the history of NAW. As we turn the page on 2020 and enter 2021, our event will focus on "Leading in a Time of Transition." This highly interactive virtual event will capture your attention from start to finish. We're including some surprise content and speakers you'll only experience if you attend our event. New this year are 5- and 10-pack registrations, so bring more team members with you to this event. Register today!

NAW Institute Fellow Mark Dancer says, "Many distributors report a dramatic shift toward customer orders placed on e-commerce platforms. This trend has confirmed what many have said for several years: distributors must invest in modern e-commerce platforms to remain a viable source for meeting customer expectations. But is doing so enough? Is there a more vital lesson that many distributors are missing? Will distribution miss a critical opportunity for locking in unbreakable customer loyalty if they remain blind to the bigger picture?" Read more.