MSC Industrial Supply and FleetPride executives were part of a recent panel debating advanced pricing strategies, including how transparent such pricing should be and how aggressive distributors should be with price monitoring and price updates. "Frictionless customer experience, there's a lot more to that than just pricing, but that's a big piece of it," says Darren Taylor, a senior vice president at FleetPride.

SpartanNash's overall sales for the quarter ended July 17 declined by 3.6%, to $2.11 billion, while food distribution sales of $1.06 billion were down 3.1%.

Distributors that have improved sales during the pandemic did so by digging into what customers purchase, especially slow-moving product line, writes Pradip Krishnadevarajan, co-founder of ActVantage. This article outlines eight actions that distributors might find useful for their business.

Salespeople often make a big mistake by shying away from pricing discussions, which can indicate to customers that the solution being sold isn't worth the cost. Other common sales mistakes include not involving decision-makers early in the process and not being prepared to talk about competitors when the topic arises, writes Neil Ringers.

The Forbes Agency Council highlights 14 ways brands can maximize their Facebook ad campaign conversions. These include retargeting site visitors, testing ads that target various interests and look-alike audiences, and developing ads that are designed to reach specific generations.

Strategy shouldn't be siloed in a C-suite role because it's the job of general managers -- whatever their title -- at every level of the company, writes Roger Martin. The role of chief strategy officer is to "orchestrate the strategy choice-making across the company to ensure the greatest level of fit and reinforcement among the strategy choices," Martin writes.

Leaders have a responsibility to regularly assess their beliefs and biases while seeking to understand people on issues with which they disagree, writes John Millen. "We so seldom really listen to people that it can be a remarkable experience for the listener to hear, as well as for the speaker to be heard," he writes.

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.