UFP Industries CEO Matt Missad says he's a "reformed micromanager" who now allows employees to learn from their mistakes and become leaders. This profile explores Missad's career and why he restructured the company from geographic regions to business lines.
The rise in grocery pickup has revealed the lucrative value of parking lots for grocers during the pandemic as a reported 75% of shoppers used curbside pickup in the past six months, according to Digital Commerce 360.
"Parking areas became a vital part of business as many customers ordered groceries online," says Dawn Buzynski, director of strategic communications at Hy-Vee.
Are margins so tight there’s no room for error? Are you having trouble balancing upstream and downstream partner demands? Or worse, are you leaking profits? You're not alone. Achieving greater margins is possible—and we reveal wholesalers' secrets to profitability here - learn more
Shipping container rates have risen sharply during the pandemic amid growing consumer demand for goods, backlogged ports and delayed transport through the Suez Canal. "I have been in this business for 20 years, and $4,500 was the previous high I had seen for a container from Asia to the US West Coast before the pandemic," said Robert Khachatryan of Freight Right Global Logistics. "I think that will be the new floor."
Salespeople naturally spend much of their time communicating with prospects who are looking to make a purchase, but those who aren't actively looking to buy represent an even larger opportunity, writes David Brock. Use thought-provoking questions, testimonials and thought leadership to motivate these prospects to buy, Brock advises.
Forty-five percent of business-to-business marketers say creating targeted and engaging content is their biggest lead generation challenge, followed by gathering quality data and managing and tracking leads, according to a study by Wpromote and Ascend2. The biggest costs of lead gen challenges are wasted time and resources, and the top gripes from sales executives are related to lead quality and insufficient data.
Mindfulness can be practiced in almost any situation to improve your focus, regulate your emotions, set better goals and be more grateful, writes LaRae Quy. "At its core, mindfulness allows us to observe our interior thoughts and external circumstances with compassion and a lack of judgment, no matter how harsh the reality," she writes.
Business travelers are eager to get back on the road, according to a survey. As businesses weigh a return to sending employees on trips and to welcoming visitors to offices, they should create guidelines to keep everyone safe.
Through NAW's new exclusive Margin Protect for Distributors solution, we, with our partners at Gallagher and Liberty Mutual, can make true impact on distributors' bottom line. Give this video a quick look and hear directly from NAW, Gallagher, and Liberty Mutual leaders about what makes this program a complete game-changer for the distribution industry. Learn more.
Through the education alliance between the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence and Texas A&M University's Industrial Distribution Program, NAW offers this cutting-edge educational program that is customized to distributors. Learn more.
According to J. Michael Marks, NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow "Being on the defensive is only a strategy if you want to lose more slowly. Distributors that are willing to play offense will pay attention to three key trends in terms of customer expectations." Read his post here.
