Amazon Business has released its first national ad campaign, including a TV spot based on a fictional pet-device seller, along with radio, out-of-home and social media advertising. The company, which is Amazon's business-to-business arm, is also advertising in airports and planning an in-person marketing event in September.

Distributors can ensure sufficient inventory and better serve customers by automating business-to-business purchase processes, according to Ray Grady, president and CEO of business technology company Conexiom. "The more time that you can free up your thought leaders and your thought workers to work with your manufacturing partners and/or work with your customers, the better...experience you're going to deliver to your customers," Grady says.

As more commercial fleets transition to electric, warehouse developers are seeing a new opportunity to play a part in growing charging infrastructure. Developers say they are getting requests from logistics companies to install charging stations in distribution centers as companies try to cope with rising fuel prices.

Different backgrounds of sales and marketing managers can be one reason behind the departments' disconnect, but the two leaders working in sync can be a "game-changer," Joe Cumello, the marketing leader for telecom networking company Ciena, writes. Giving the departments equal weight, working to minimize clashes and having both focus on customer experience can help align the departments and yield more deal closings, Cumello writes.

Sales managers should teach their teams how to regularly incorporate best practices, rather than expecting salespeople to learn them on their own, writes Dave Kahle. "Those companies that systematically and methodically expose their salespeople to the body of knowledge regarding best practices of the sales profession consistently outperform those that don't," Kahle writes.

Leaders could be fooling themselves into thinking they're effective when they're not if they neglect to develop their self-awareness, integrity, listening skills and consistency, writes Steve Keating. "The greatest leadership 'myth' of all is that a position or title makes someone a leader," Keating writes.

Leaders can make it safe for their team to bring concerns to them by regularly soliciting feedback, listening deeply even if they disagree and speaking last in meetings to allow others to be heard, writes Dina Smith, president of Cognitas. "Speaking last encourages your team to put their ideas and suggestions on the table, helps them feel listened to, and boosts ownership and team morale," Smith writes.