Sysco last month began charging suppliers fees for missing product information and partial orders while reiterating that suppliers should prioritize Sysco orders. Meanwhile, Gordon Food Service is encountering higher prices in a range of areas, says Jagtar Nijjar, director of imports and commodities.

DXP Enterprises reported first-quarter profit of $0.3 million on revenue of $245.6 million, both down from a year earlier. However, sequential sales increased by 5.6%, thanks in part to acquisitions in Q4 2020.

Sally Beauty Holdings reported $926.3 million in net sales in its fiscal second quarter, a 6.3% increase from the year-ago period, which President and CEO Christian Brickman attributed to "an acceleration in consumer demand in the latter part of the quarter." Profit was $38.3 million.

Warehouse and logistics professionals can analyze data from powerful surveillance cameras to track inventory and improve quality control and supply chain security, writes Anton Wintersteller. "The technical possibilities of smart cameras can detect issues that often go unseen by the human eye but have significant impact on efficiency of operations and overall customer experience," Wintersteller writes.

It's important to set goals for your sales team, but it's just as important to create a plan to reach those goals, writes Colleen Francis. The best way to do this is to separate long-term goals into smaller "chunks" that keep salespeople on pace, Francis writes.

Business-to-business marketers need to position their department as "the architect of organizational success," according to Forrester's "The Future of B2B Marketing" report. The report outlines six objectives for B2B marketers, including engineering customer experience, championing all customers and actualizing the brand.

Companies survive economic downturns when their leaders know how to manage fear and show employees what things are predictable, controllable and achievable, write Kotter CEO Rick Western and Russell Raath. "By helping ever-larger numbers of people feel that a positive outcome is realistic and attainable, you're building a movement -- an unstoppable engine -- that can get you through almost any adversity," they write.

With signs that masks, social distancing and, especially, vaccinations, may put COVID-19 in the rear-view mirror in 2021, we'll explore in this free webinar how the effects of the pandemic will change the distribution industry in the long run. Join NAW and Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein of Distribution Strategy Group on May 19 at 2 p.m. ET. If you can't attend the live webinar, register anyway and we'll send you the recording. Sponsored by Oracle Netsuite and Conexiom. Register here.

How have distributors been innovating their business during the pandemic? Find that out and much more from 10 distributors who tell their stories and share ideas for both surviving and thriving in a drastically changed business environment. Author Mark Dancer shares up-to-the-minute ideas and insights from distributor leaders based on their experiences and lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic. Order this just-released e-chapter, "Distribution Leans In: Stories of Resiliency and Innovation During the COVID-19 Pandemic."

Designed for C-suite executives, these NAW roundtables provide actionable strategies that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms that exceed $1 billion in annual sales. You'll engage in thought-provoking conversations with your peers and hear from industry experts on topics that will ultimately increase your profits! Register today.