Fastenal is spending more on areas such as IT and automated distribution centers to get its products closer to consumers, Chief Financial Officer Holden Lewis said during the recent Fastenal Expo. This extends to customer service, where 85% of those employees are working at customer facilities.
CDW has "built a high-performing selling engine for our technology and service partners" by cultivating personal relationships, long-term sales training and switching to Salesforce for customer relationship management, says Jill Billhorn, CDW's senior vice president of corporate sales. "But really our secret sauce is that we are an intelligence resource for our clients," Billhorn says.
Amazon has introduced a service called Buy with Prime that allows select third-party merchants to offer free next-day or two-day delivery using the e-commerce company's logistics network. Separately, Amazon has created an extra-large storage category for merchants that use its Fulfillment by Amazon program and has increased rates for small and light items to $10, compared with $8 previously.
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The Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach and South Carolina Ports Authority all reported record-breaking volumes for March, while the Northwest Seaport Alliance, Port Houston and Port of Virginia witnessed substantial gains. Port officials attribute an overall 16% annual increase in cargo volume for the month to strong consumer demand for retail goods.
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Salespeople should focus their questions on serving customers, instead of asking about issues that serve their company or themselves, writes David Brock. The more relevant those questions are, the more information you can reveal to the customer, which brings you both closer to your stated goals, Brock notes.
Business-to-business companies need a solid plan to generate returns on paid marketing, digital marketer Gajendra Singh Rathore writes. Rathore describes how to use seven results-driven strategies, from Google Text Ads to display advertising and remarketing.
Leadership is about the experiences you have with people, not just the work, and "the possibility that we can develop a huge and lasting impact on our colleagues' lives -- if we choose to," writes Becky Robinson, founder and CEO of Weaving Influence. "Your openness creates a sense of safety and shows people a way of bringing more of themselves to work," Robinson adds.
Leaders need to be able to act from conviction even as they consider other viewpoints and admit when they're mistaken, according to Mike Robbins. "Communicating with conviction is essential to building strong and trusting relationships with those around us, and with having healthy discussions and debates within our team," Robbins writes.
