Almost half of Home Depot's sales come from the professional contractor segment, and the company introduced a new website this year for that segment. About 30% of those pro customers have been migrated to the new website.

Ingram Micro's 2020 plans have end-user insight, solution portfolio and expansion, enablement, financial solutions and value creation as their five areas of focus, says Paul Bay, executive vice president and Americas group president.

Distributors can misuse the potential of big data when they let it maintain old ways of operating or assume that big data alleviates the need for strategic planning and prioritization, says Jonathan Byrnes, a founding partner of Profit Aisle. "If the availability of Big Data encourages a massive flock of independent tactical initiatives, it will do more harm than good," he says.

Guy Marion predicts seven customer retention trends for 2020, such as increased adoption of subscription models and personalization becoming more sophisticated to encompass customized digital and product experiences. Marketers will prioritize metrics that focus on retention and must provide a friction-free digital experience for prospects who want more control, he writes.

The party who makes the first offer in a sales negotiations usually has the upper hand, writes Mike Schultz. Although there are situations where it's smart for salespeople to ask buyers about their budget before making an offer, the anchoring effect ensures that the final price will end up being close to the first offer, Schultz writes.

We can practice "the art of productive disagreement" by not avoiding confrontation and conflict, all the while understanding that having better arguments is difficult and slow work, says author Buster Benson. "If anything we should be yelling more, because there are very important things to discuss with one another, and our emotions should be invited to the table," he says.

Companies should audit their customer service experience regularly to ensure the process is easier for customers than it is for those helping them, writes Paul LaRue. These pain points can include an unreliable or unhelpful website, rude employees and inflexible policies.

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