Sysco has seen demand for products surpass its capacity in several regions and has had to turn away customers as a result, CEO Kevin Hourican said. United Natural Foods has experienced delays in receiving some imported products, leading to slower delivery to customers.

The pandemic made digital transformation in procurement and sourcing more of a priority, highlighting "the need and urgency to eliminate friction and barriers," says Petra Schindler-Carter, director and general manager at Amazon Business. "One thing that I'm passionate about when I work with customers is just really identifying with, where do they have obstacles in their everyday operations and execution where procurement becomes a burden versus an enabler?" Schindler-Carter says.

Companies are warning that supply chain disruptions are being exacerbated by strong demand for goods, COVID-19 cases that are limiting factory output and light inventory levels. "This is here for the rest of the year, and it's only going to get worse because of the Christmas season," says Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen.

Autonomous trucking startups such as TuSimple, Plus, Embark Trucks and Aurora Innovation have raised billions from investors and are aiming to have driverless commercial trucks ready within three years. Companies are focusing on SAE Level 4 trucks, which can automate all driving functions but still sometimes have a human driver.

Salespeople should jettison the old model of tracking sales and instead focus on tracking gross profit, writes Darrell Sterling, regional sales manager for Johnstone Supply. "What needs to be tracked is, 'am I really selling the right product mix to my customers? Do my customers only buy the inexpensive, low-margins products or am I able to teach my customer to upsell to their clients?' " Sterling writes.

Sales leaders must be willing to try new ideas and strategies from time to time to encourage constant improvement among their employees, writes Colleen Francis. Many great ideas can come from non-traditional sources, with fresh perspectives often leading to sales breakthroughs, Francis writes.

Leaders can minimize workplace bullying in the workplace by modeling respectful behavior and regularly measuring employee sentiment, says S. Chris Edmonds in this blog post and video. "If you tolerate demeaning, discounting and disrespectful treatment of others by anyone, you'll never have a purposeful, positive, productive work culture," he says.

Are you looking for professional development programs to help you retain and develop your key personnel? If yes, then the NAW Certificate in Distribution Professional Management program will help your leaders reach their highest performance levels. Learn more.

It has been a long time but, finally, we will be together again! Designed for C-suite executives, these roundtables provide actionable strategies that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms between $100 million and up to a billion in annual sales. You'll engage in thought provoking conversations with your peers and hear from industry experts on topics that will ultimately increase your profits! Register today.

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.