Essendant has weathered the pandemic by strengthening communication with employees and customers and maintaining its culture of prioritizing customer needs, says President and CEO Harry Dochelli. The distributor is also branching out into fulfillment and revamping its sales operations and e-commerce content, Dochelli says.

Sysco is looking for additional suppliers and different products that can fill gaps without resorting to order minimums, says President and CEO Kevin Hourican. "I'm confident that Sysco is performing better than the industry at large in delivering what we call customer fill rate, but we are performing below our historical performance standards," Hourican says.

Distributors that want to add industrial vending machines should examine the total cost and how the machines will help customers improve inventory control, writes Mark Hill, founder of 1sourcevend. "Vending profitability isn't a given; you must design a suitable program for each customer and partner with the right vendor to generate the desired results for all parties involved," Hill writes.

Amazon first announced plans to deliver packages via drones in 2013 but the much-publicized program has yet to get off the ground, and now the company is shifting its focus to delivery robots that keep their wheels firmly on the ground. Scout, a sidewalk delivery robot Amazon rolled out about two years ago, will be further developed and tested at a new facility in Helsinki, the company said last month.

Salespeople often make the mistake of asking questions based on their desire to sell instead of questions that are focused on helping customers improve, writes David Brock. By focusing on each customer's problems, salespeople can uncover pain points that can be remedied in a mutually beneficial way for all parties, Brock writes.

Spark more engagement on social media by creating content that invites a response, such as polls or conversation starters, and create a scheduling calendar to ensure regular, consistent content that audiences can rely on, Laura Rike writes. Consider outsourcing the management of your brand's social content and post content designed for each stage of the buying funnel to increase conversions, Rike recommends.

Former YUM Brands CEO David Novak built a "recognition culture" that rewarded employees for behaviors that pushed the company's brands to succeed. "We used it to drive performance, but we recognize the behaviors that we knew would get great performance in our restaurants, team or positive energy, collaboration constantly recognizing people for doing good things," Novak says.

Interchange rate increases and changes to rate tiers implemented in April are the largest in a decade, according to Bloomberg News. The fees target payment types common in the wholesale distribution industry. Stream the "Restructured Rate Tiers and Increased B2B Card-Not-Present Transaction Costs" podcast from Unified Payments Group to learn more.