Ingram Micro Cloud will help Amazon Web Services extend its solutions to 12 additional countries. "This agreement gives a sense of the size and scale of the investment needed to win in the cloud," said Ingram Micro executive Tim FitzGerald.
DXP Enterprises reported a net loss and declining sales for the fourth quarter. The company made four acquisitions to close out 2020, which also saw a full-year loss.
Forty-five percent of women responding to a survey by Swedish autonomous transportation company Einride expressed interest in a career driving autonomous trucks. Emina Nilsson drives an electric truck for Einride and says it's "much less stressful than driving a diesel truck."
With software as a service e-commerce platforms, the distributor owns the relationship with third-party marketplace sellers, while with marketplace as a service, the MaaS provider does, write Alex Moazed and Nicholas Johnson of Applico. "In short, a MaaS provider is a long-term competitor to any distributor trying to build a dominant marketplace business," they write.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming business-to-business marketing by identifying sales-ready leads, powering hyper-personalized content at scale and helping marketers improve the pre- and post-sale customer relationship, writes Leadfeeder CEO Pekka Koskinen. B2B marketers should identify the biggest bottlenecks that AI could solve and seek AI solutions that deliver customer insights and sentiment-driven data, Koskinen advises.
Place an emphasis on educating potential buyers and using virtual meetings to keep prospects engaged to sell successfully, recommends Erica Schultz. Salespeople must be encouraged to minimize wasted time at work and focus their efforts on tasks that maximize sales returns, Schultz adds.
Reconnect with your friends, business partners and acquaintances by sending three texts every morning, says Ryan Estis. He and his business manager, Lynn Mandinec, reflect on the practice in this video, saying it has made them more intentional in sharing their feelings and renewing connections.
Memorable presentations often involve new ways of saying old things, writes Gary Genard. "[I]f you discover the associations of the word or phrase you're using and its emotional power to reach audiences, they will respond positively to the effort," he writes.
During this 90-minute open discussion, you'll exchange ideas with a trusted network of C-suite peers in distribution. Companies belonging to this community are from firms that exceed $1 billion in annual sales. There is no formal agenda or speakers -- just you and more than a dozen of your friends in distribution discussing today's pressing issues. Last year, participants shared how they were protecting their employees during the pandemic and more. Don't miss this opportunity. Register today!
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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.
