Distributors can generate better performance and outcomes with even simple digital tools, such as dashboards, to track and evaluate results, says Aaron Howard, founder of Mass Ingenuity. Companies should also have "a continuous improvement mentality" toward processes and metrics, says John Wiborg, founder, president and CEO of Stellar Industrial Supply.
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Contract freight costs increased in March, with van prices up 19 cents per mile to top February's high, but spot market van and refrigerated truck rates dropped, according to DAT Freight & Analytics. "What made March unique is that shippers paid historically high prices to ensure that more of their loads moved under a longer-term contract, reducing their need for trucks on the spot market and causing rates to soften," all while higher fuel prices drove up carriers' operating costs, said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT.
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Traditional sales methods call for questions that yield information about a business and its most pressing issues, but Anthony Iannarino suggests modern salespeople should tweak their approach to improve the solution-searching process for the business owner. In lieu of making it one-sided, Iannarino writes, salespeople should seek to more robustly include owners in diagnosing issues within their businesses, because doing so can increase the perceived value of sales personnel.
Successful business-to-business e-commerce is driven by a combination of strong customer data, automation, search engine optimization and "rich, creative brand content," writes Mollie Barnett of The SMART Co. "Unlike in the past, the relationship between your business in the market and the strategies available today to acquire business are quantifiable," Barnett writes.
Paid searches topped budgets for 56% of business-to-business marketers in a Stirista and Thrive Analytics survey, while 44% spent the most on digital display and video. B2B marketers are most worried about website analytics, targeted ads and data integrations when considering a cookie-free future, the study found.
Managers are often good at the upfront parts of employee communication but forget to "close the loop" on what was decided and why, writes John Baldoni. "Closing the loop makes employees feel included, valued and crucial to the team," Baldoni writes.
Teams are more productive when they have reasonable deadlines that allow them time for thinking, rest and learning, writes Kate Dames. People also benefit from "more frequent and shorter feedback loops" that value positive feedback over negative, Dames writes.
