Distributors can get customers to accept paying a fee for services by preparing for negotiations and explaining why fees are necessary, writes consultant Frank Hurtte. Fee-based services can both make smaller customers more profitable and improve a distributor's reputation, Hurtte adds.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations to two Amazon warehouses in New York and one each in Colorado, Florida, Idaho and Illinois, saying they violated rules for properly recording and reporting worker injuries. Amazon may have to pay penalties surpassing $29,000.

A.P. Moller-Maersk, IBM and Walmart have abandoned or struggled with large-scale blockchain-based shipment tracking efforts, due to challenges with complex technologies and inadequate supplier buy-in, experts say. Former UPS technology executive Juan Perez, now the chief information officer at Salesforce, says blockchain was all the buzz a few years ago, but "[i]t never really took off in my world."

North American buyers placed 39,000 orders for trailers in November, up from 32,103 a year ago and the second-highest number this year, according to ACT Research. "Nearly as soon as a build slot is available, there is a fleet ready to fill it with an order," said Jennifer McNealy, director of commercial vehicle market research at ACT.

Sales training programs often fail because they lack plans for measurement, knowledge sustainment and purposeful transfer, as well as performance milestones, writes Mike Kunkle, vice president of sales effectiveness services at SPARXiQ. Companies can avoid this by adopting a prepare-guide-cement model for change that holds salespeople accountable for results, Kunkle writes.

Nearly 60% of sales organizations saw higher voluntary turnover in 2021 than the year before, Xactly reports, and such job-hopping is detrimental to the larger mission. Maura Kautsky, president of Sales Xceleration, says sales managers should listen well to employee concerns and address them, reevaluate compensation and create upward career trajectories within the company.

Managers are facing a variety of challenges, and many say they need more resources to develop employees' skills and better tools to communicate effectively, according to Betterworks data. "Investing in strengthening managers through tools that promote alignment, flexible goal-setting, high-quality conversations and better collaboration can yield better business outcomes while making work better for all," writes Michelle Gouldsberry.

Leaders have plenty of opportunities to work on their executive presence by conveying their confidence and skill in everyday meetings, at trade shows and events, during presentations and when crises arise, writes Joel Garfinkle. "You can also think of these situations as dozens of micro-opportunities to tweak your reputation and others' perception of you," Garfinkle writes.