Apollo Global Management has offered almost $5 billion to acquire Tech Data, or almost $20 a share more than Tuesday's closing price, according to sources. Tech Data did not comment.

Wakefern's ShopRite stores will introduce almost 3,000 private-label products during the next year and a half as discount supermarket chains continue to thrive in the US. Limited-assortment grocers are forecast to grow their US sales by 5.6% annually over the next four years, compared with 0.5% for traditional supermarkets, according to Inmar Analytics.

Trucking companies struggling to find drivers are increasingly hiring women, although roughly 93% of drivers are men. "If you go to a fleet and ask how much drivers are paid, it is by experience level, routes, etc., not gender-specific," says Bob Costello of the American Trucking Associations.

Instagram has released a guide for marketers on how to maximize their efforts on the platform, including visual composition tips such as spotlighting products by surrounding them with space and using light at different times of the day to create various moods. The guide also includes a holiday content calendar to help map out campaigns and advice on product launches.

Buyers need more than just assistance with choosing the right solution, and salespeople should adjust their strategies accordingly, writes David Brock. Salespeople should offer buyers assistance in aligning the priorities of other stakeholders within their company and help address areas of potential risk in a collaborative manner, Brock writes.

The idea of an "elevator speech" is to quickly and simply convey your idea and entice further interest, Jim Anderson writes. "The speech that you deliver has to have any buzzwords or meaningless phrases removed from it so that your message will be crystal clear," he writes.

Companies that think about the customer's needs first -- and build teams and incentives around this idea -- are more likely to survive industry disruption, writes Suman Sarkar of Three S Consulting. "To achieve customer focus, companies should get rid of silos and create teams organized around customer segments, not by geographic location, type of product, or size," Sarkar writes.

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