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In this candid conversation on Politely Pushy, Tom Fitzgerald, CFO at Earnest & Associates, sheds light on the pressing challenges and opportunities facing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) today. Fitzgerald highlights the impending “brain drain” as baby boomers retire, taking with them invaluable institutional knowledge. He also explores the hype surrounding AI, acknowledging its potential […]

The post-COVID economy taught businesses a harsh lesson – without sufficient liquidity, companies cannot navigate and adapt to market disruption. As a result, businesses must find growth strategies that stimulate higher profits and yield higher returns on two of their core assets – inventory and customer base.  Many companies tend to go into reactive mode […]

How distributors can align the right messages with the right customers in the right places. As a distributor, you know that customer-facing business documents provide an excellent opportunity to promote your business. Your existing customers are the best source for growing sales, so it’s a no-brainer that you whenever you send a document to one […]

There are many aspects of smart manufacturing and its promises of improved business performance that may lead some to the opinion that the role and contribution of ERP will progressively diminish over time as the means to apply smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 concepts continue to become more readily available to the marketplace. The thinking […]

Best Practices for Boosting Sales Margins. A survey by Earnest & Associates (E&A) has affirmed the critical need for distributors to spend less time with their poor, profit-draining customers – a key to boosting sales margins. Over one hundred decision makers at small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the wholesale/distribution trade participated in the […]

Creating an experience that keeps your customers satisfied and loyal to your distribution business requires more today than it did 20 or 30 years ago. Back then, proximity alone generally meant customers were unlikely to defect to a competitor. Today, customers are more educated with more choices than ever, and they are swayed by criteria far […]

Key Themes from the NAW 2023 Executive Summit At the recent NAW Executive Summit, one overarching message was clear: the next frontier of the wholesale distribution industry will require pioneering business leaders to navigate a still uncertain future with a steady hand and a willingness to adapt. For three days, attendees mingled, networked, and collaborated […]

How Companies Can Capitalize in a Challenging Economy. SPEED* is a methodology defined by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW).  Leveraging the insights gained from a Customer Stratification analysis, SPEED can help your wholesale/distribution business grow sales more profitably and sustainably in 2013, as follows: Start by modeling what your Core customers tend to buy from you. Then, […]