Distributing Ideas, The NAW Blog
Optimize Pricing and Improve Profitability – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #12
Marketplace pressures continue to evolve and change the competitive landscape, ranging from commoditization to eCommerce to the changing workforce. These factors are beginning to negatively impact the bottom line for many distributors. Distribution is traditionally a thin-margin business to begin with, so these new pressures are challenging many distributors. What is your company’s [...]
Data-Driven Selling: 3 Common Mistakes (and How to Stay on Track)
Data-driven selling can be incredibly powerful for distributors. The right insights and information, packaged the right way, provided at the right time, and launched with proper training can be a game-changer when it comes to driving profitable sales growth. This approach: Aligns the entire company around key performance metrics. Reduces perpetual firefighting and leads to more [...]
The New Normal of Vendor Cost Increases – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #11
The current economic environment provides a once-in-a-generation window of opportunity for manufacturers and distributors to take pricing actions that boost profitability – significantly now and compounding into the future. Due to the overwhelming demand, supply-side constraints and monetary inflation, both manufacturers and distributors are experiencing an unprecedented frequency and [...]
When Lean Meets Sales Management: 5 Tactics That Boost Value-Based Selling
Lean principles state that to eliminate waste and optimally use resources, we should spend more time on customer-value-add (CVA) activities rather than business-value-add (BVA) and non-value-add (NVA) activities. Based on the Lean logic, we can call CVA the excellent business we must stretch and protect, or the "business we want to do." Customer relationships that are important but less [...]
Preparing for the Next Phase of the Business Cycle
Planning and budgeting season is upon us. As you strategize for 2022, keep in mind that a different phase of the business cycle ̶ Phase C, Slowing Growth, ̶ will characterize the overall economy for the majority of 2022. Adapt your budgets, strategies, and preparation in accordance with and in anticipation of the shifting economic environment next year. Where We Stand [...]
Fueling Your Organization’s Ability to Execute Strategy
Strategy is essential to an organization's success. While it's critical, most organizations aren't good at it. In a recent survey, less than 50% of CEO's said their organization was good at executing strategic initiatives. In addition, only 33% of employees consider themselves actively engaged at work. With this low level of engagement, it's no wonder that so many organizations fail to [...]
3 Analytics Oversights that Stunt Growth for Distributors – Driving Performance with Analytics #14
In our article, Tips to Manage Blind Spots Using the Growth Cube Framework, we outlined how analytics can help distributors avoid blind spots that manifest in distinct phases of growth planning and ultimately impede growth. These phases are Generate Growth, Manage Growth and Sustain Growth. The four foundational analytics to deploy in these Growth Cube dimensions are customer, supplier, [...]
Amazon Survey: B2B Procurement’s No. 1 Goal in 2021 is Increasing Efficiency – Leveraging the Power of AI #27
The pandemic brought with it a rise in digital B2B purchasing. Boundaries were broken down and expectations were removed as businesses began making purchases like consumers: quickly and conveniently from their home computers. Although this trend may have been well on its way, the pandemic certainly accelerated it. Amazon surveyed 250 B2B buyers and 250 B2B sellers in the U.S. and found that [...]
Pay Attention to These 3 Customer Trends – Value Creation Strategy #19
Being on the defensive is only a strategy if you want to lose more slowly. Distributors that are willing to play offense will pay attention to three key trends in terms of customer expectations: Customers expect their online buying experience to be as good as the experience in their everyday B2C life. They will not put up with an archaic ordering system. They have choices. Technology [...]
Four Steps to Effectively Manage Your Sales Organization – Driving Performance with Analytics #13
Many distributors struggle to manage their sales teams effectively. They oversimplify the sales management function, failing to recognize that every salesperson is unique and requires a customized approach. Effective sales management demands a close evaluation of your sales force with the goal of segmenting salespeople by the characteristics of their performance, also known as sales force [...]
