Distributing Ideas, The NAW Blog
5 Cloud Myths Debunked
“Moving to the cloud” is a phrase you hear a lot with technology these days. Touted as faster and more secure, cloud presents as an ideal choice. But many distributors still feel more comfortable with their feet on the ground and are hesitant to make a change. Often, it comes down to the ROI – how much the migration will cost and its time to value. Before you decide to stick to your [...]
Your Industry Is Moving to the Cloud. Are You?
5 New Findings Explain an Increasing Shift Toward Cloud-Based ERP Solutions Epicor has seen the growing interest in cloud-based ERP among distributors. So we conducted research on what hundreds of decision-makers are saying about cloud capabilities. We asked distributors what’s important to their business, what challenges cloud is solving for them, and what companies need from an ERP [...]
Sales Transformation: Why It’s Necessary & How to Start – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #18
Distribution sales forces have been evolving their sales model and processes to address shifting buyer preferences, improve productivity, embrace specialization, and anticipate changing buyer and seller demographics. Sales transformation is something that nearly every company has on its radar in some form. Some companies explored new sales-coverage models (hybrid inside/outside teams), and [...]
Why Heads of Sales Should Expand Their Inside Sales Function
The role of the inside sales rep is changing. Not long ago, an inside sales rep’s primary duties were to generate leads via phone or email and process reorders and renewals. In many ways, their responsibilities were more closely aligned to a modern-day customer service rep than to a traditional outside sales rep. Now, as technology advances and the sales environment is more remote than ever, [...]
Align Your Sales Team with The Modern Buyer – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #17
Buying behaviors in industrial B2B have shifted dramatically over the last decade. Digital content and e-commerce proliferated and changed how buyers proceed from identifying a need, understanding potential solutions, evaluating alternative suppliers, and finalizing solutions, terms and conditions with the chosen supplier. In the old days, almost all purchases occurred face-to-face in [...]
Master the 4 Essential Business Levers – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #16
As executives build their sales quotas and financial budgets for the year, many wonder which of their many assumptions and projections may come true. Unfortunately, with the continued market unpredictability in mind, it’s easy to believe that most business outcomes are outside of our control. In this article, though, I’d like to explore the levers you can control to predictably make an [...]
How to Make Customer Analytics Actionable with Growth Playbooks – Driving Performance with Analytics #15
You may think you’re leveraging customer analytics in your organization simply because you’ve segmented them into insights and made them available to your salespeople. But if you haven’t packaged those insights in an actionable format, it’s unlikely they’re being leveraged for customer retention and growth. You’ve done the legwork to pull those insights and segment your customers, [...]
The Sales-First Approach to Customer-Specific Pricing – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #15
In the unending quest to secure the revenue that fuels their companies’ growth and meets their personal quotas, industrial B2B sales professionals need flexibility in pricing to adapt to competitive or customer pressures (real or imagined) in the highly dynamic markets that they serve. If salespeople don’t have flexibility, they may fail to acquire new customers or drive share-of-wallet [...]
The Distributor’s Guide to AI Implementation – Leveraging the Power of AI #21
AI is an incredibly beneficial tool for distributors who want to transform their offerings and get ahead of the competition. Artificial intelligence can analyze complex data and provide unique insights into customer patterns, product demand and future sales. With it, you can support various sales channels and enhance how your team interacts with customers. AI implementation will not only [...]
The Growing Impact of Freight Recovery – Intelligent Sales and Profit Acceleration #14
There is a silent but growing profit drain leaking away at wholesale distributors this year, and according to experts, it’s likely to double next year and beyond. For the average distributor with an EBIT of four percent, it could potentially reduce their profitability by 60 to 150 basis points, or 15 to 25 percent. However, for a select group of companies, it will increase profitability by [...]
