Arrow Electronics' Colorado Open Lab offers innovative technology, meeting spaces and other facilities for use by the company, its customers and other groups. The center provides opportunities for hands-on collaboration to enable "ideation, execution and launch," said executive Aiden Mitchell.
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Electrical distributors can court mobile customers more successfully by walking through the purchasing process to find areas of the mobile experience that could be improved, writes Bridget McCrea. Distributors can also deliver a better mobile experience through dedicated mobile apps and barcode scanning technology.
Marketers should use predictive analytics to create excellent data-driven experiences for customers, starting by identifying an end goal and mapping analytics to each buying journey stage to deliver experiences that are relevant, Wilson Raj writes. Be transparent with customers about how your company is using their data to enhance their experience and invest in artificial intelligence to benefit from real-time insights, Raj writes.
Technology has caused the roles of field and inside sales representatives to blur over time, as field sales reps often focus on more complex issues than in the past and inside sales reps meet with customers when complicated deals warrant such meetings. To support these changes, sales managers should regularly adapt the numbers and roles of field and inside sales reps and hire personnel with a focus on well-rounded skill sets.
Some leaders have the skill of a bricklayer, says former Tata Group director R. Gopalakrishnan, but truly influential people understand they are building a cathedral, not a wall. "The institution will be capable of making decisions that sustain its identity, contribution, and value over the long run," he says.
After 50 years of working in business, Wally Bock argues that people do well with a growth mindset that seeks learning experiences and isn't afraid to fail. "The major successes of my life mostly came from opportunities I couldn't anticipate, let alone plan for," Bock writes.
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