Grainger reported $3.37 billion in third-quarter sales, an 11.7% increase from the year-ago period, thanks in part to strong demand for core, non-pandemic-related products. Net profit was $297 million, a 24% increase from the previous year.
Sally Beauty Holdings turned to technology to help modernize its workforce across its nearly 5,000 stores, rolling out a platform from Zebra Technologies' Reflexis over three years that revamped task management and workforce management and improved sales conversion and customer service. "You have to spend time understanding store operations and eliminate the tasks that take associates away from customer-facing time," Sally Beauty executive David Hamilton said.
Avnet earned $111.32 million in its fiscal first quarter, compared with an $18.89 million loss in the year-ago period. Sales were $5.58 billion, up 18.2% from a year ago.
SFGate (San Francisco)/The Associated Press
(10/29)
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Electric vehicles, electric batteries, artificial intelligence tools for sales and hiring, and virtual ledgers using blockchain are just some of the technologies poised for wider adoption in distribution, says futurist Simon Anderson.
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Salespeople are often worried about coming across as pests to potential buyers, which is a byproduct of being encouraged to meet prospecting quotas without being given the tools and training to have meaningful conversations, writes David Brock. To solve this issue, ensure salespeople are focusing on customers' needs and helping them deal with pain points instead of merely chasing orders, Brock writes.
The taxing, stressful job of leadership requires time to recharge, whether that's by rediscovering your purpose, reinventing your job or dedicating time for exercise and new hobbies, writes Art Petty. "While you hate to say that the workday becomes less critical, pursuing a new passion is energizing and creates a halo effect around your workdays," Petty writes.
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In this 4-part series, we'll take distributors from the basics of Artificial Intelligence all the way up to adopting it within your business. Those that follow along can expect to learn how AI actually works, the way it will transform B2B sales, what kind of outcomes distributors can expect from it, and how it can be implemented successfully. Learn more.
