FleetPride is upgrading its digital platform to give customers a true omnichannel solution that helps them solve supply chain challenges, in addition to making purchases, according to Kenneth Clinchy, the distributor's vice president of digital-ecommerce. The digital platform facilitates self-service, so customers can easily access a wider range of sources and functions to locate parts, Clinchy says.

Distributors have "a rare opportunity to transform the way they price their products and services" in the current inflationary environment, writes Nelson Valderrama, CEO of Intuilize. Valderrama recommends four steps, including using an enterprise resource planning system to optimize pricing and making faster, more informed pricing changes.

Much of the cargo traffic headed to the US has shifted away from the West Coast, a trend that might have long-term effects, a Cowen report states. "Shippers are increasingly motivated to organize their supply chains using multiple points of entry," according to the report, which notes that West Coast ports could see a permanent loss of 10% of diverted maritime traffic.

Business-to-business companies that adopt e-commerce solutions without first consulting with IT leaders often wind up with faulty software that requires too much maintenance, thus threatening revenue and cybersecurity and damaging the IT department's relationship with other areas of the company, writes Arno Ham, chief product officer at Sana Commerce. To avoid these problems, "IT leaders must have a prominent role when it comes to tech and business strategy alignment," Ham writes.

Alex Macura, founder and CEO of Your Digital Assembly, provides a guide to incorporating emotions into business-to-business marketing, addressing emotions in the decision-making process and creating emotional content for each stage of the buying journey. "In all marketing, your target audience is another human being. ... And behind every person, there are emotions," Macura writes.

If your product or service could use more explanation, a tutorial on your website could help bring in new customers. Here are step-by-step directions on how to create a tutorial, as well as a practical example.

A formal "servant purpose" that clearly spells out what your company does and how it serves customers can help employees feel more engaged and inspired to do their work, says S. Chris Edmonds in this video. "Formalizing your company's servant purpose -- its present day 'reason for being' -- helps employees understand how the work they do contributes to improving customers' quality of life," Edmonds says.

It's all right to give your direct reports feedback on their performance, but include some "feedforward" as well, giving them advice on how to enhance their skills, writes Joel Trammell, a former CEO and the owner of Texas CEO Magazine. "Keep your employee from dwelling on their failures and instead help them see how they can improve outcomes in the future," Trammell writes.