AI has been all the rage since ChatGPT was unveiled. Not only is it the talk of every conversation relating to technology, price management, operational improvement, customer service, marketing and more, it has also powered the construction market with the explosion of data centers, advanced chip manufacturing, and, of course, the stock market. But, it’s impact to date is … [Read more...] about Making AI Real Intelligence
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Opinion – Quick thoughts from the 2024 NAW Executive Summit
The National Association of Wholesale-Distributors Executive Summit was held this week in Washington D.C. Jan 30- Feb 1. This event has a wide mix of distribution leaders from leading Electrical, Industrial, MRO, Construction, Food, Packaging, Specialty, and two step distributors. It is one to the few events where you can see Electrical channel leaders sitting next to … [Read more...] about Opinion – Quick thoughts from the 2024 NAW Executive Summit
Today, it takes more than your Account Managers to drive Industrial sales and profitability
The past few months I have had the opportunity to spend a lot of face-to-face time with distribution leadership teams working with them on their go-to-market sales plans. I have some advice and counsel to share. If you are just refreshing your 2010 belly-to-belly selling playbook, I would recommend you consider some slight adjustments for 2025. Your end customer is short on … [Read more...] about Today, it takes more than your Account Managers to drive Industrial sales and profitability
Is AI Coming to Your Industrial Warehouse?
The technology topic of the year in distribution has been, and will continue to be, AI. In reality, much of AI is really ML (machine learning) but it's not as "sexy" to talk about data being built into algorithms, to mine data and then deliver information, insights and/or potentially predict (or recommend) actions. The difference between AI and ML, from a theorist's viewpoint, … [Read more...] about Is AI Coming to Your Industrial Warehouse?
Labor. Tomorrow’s Workforce is Smaller
Labor. Many have talked about it’s shortage. Be it a lack of technicians, a lack of qualified people for distributors to hire, or a lack of staff for manufacturers. Many have “blamed” Covid, the focus on “work from home”, an emerging “gig” / freelance economy, and other reasons. Lots of efforts, and initiatives, have been undertaken to “get people back to work.” Recently, … [Read more...] about Labor. Tomorrow’s Workforce is Smaller
