Who Wants to Be Just a Number? A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment   ⏱️ 4 min read By Desiree Grace Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to be treated like just a number. Not in life, and certainly not in B2B. People want to be treated like people. If you want to win the sales and marketing race, you must understand and invest in personalization. Real personalization. The kind powered by AI and enhanced by humans. Think AI + Humans So what is personalization? It’s customized communication that recognizes role, company, priorities, and buying stage. The design engineer searching for the right sensor for a new garage door opener cares about safety, response time, and what happens during a power outage.  The datacenter enterprise customer racing to activate a greenfield site cares about delivery and quality. The defense contractor? Delivery and quality come first, always. B2B personalization is the best practice of tailoring communication, content, and sales interactions to the s...

Merger or Messy Marriage? ⏱️ 4  min read By Desiree Grace We all know this scenario. You’ve done your due diligence. The financials check out. The employee agreements and golden parachutes are tolerable. You have complementary skill sets, and each of you brings new customers to the party. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Then, after the paperwork was signed, money exchanged, and announcements made, you realized, with a jolt, that there was far more work ahead than anyone expected.  You also had a few surprises along the way. It’s not exactly buyer’s remorse, but… Integration has its challenges. When companies buy another company, or even merge, the real work begins after the hullabaloo dies down. Much like marriage, the real relationship starts after the honeymoon. The sad truth is that studies consistently prove most acquisitions fail to achieve their expected value. Rarely is it because the “legal beagles” missed something in due diligence. Most times, it is because e...

AI for Production Planning, or “You can call me Al.”   ⏱️ 6–7 min read By Desiree Grace I need new friends. I need more friends. My production team is too busy to lift their heads from their desks. When they do look up, their eyes are beady little slits from staring at spreadsheets for hours on end. And, well, they are grumpy. Same goes for my other group of friends, the purchasing team. They have ripped out their hair over delivery delays, and their cortisol levels are through the roof. None of them are any fun these days. Nobody wants to party. They need a new friend. I’m going to introduce them to Artificial Intelligence, nicknamed Al. Al could be a great addition to your next dinner party, especially if you want to feed a crowd. Hear me out. When you plan a dinner party, you need to have enough food and supplies. You do not want to run out of napkins or beer. Right? Not very different from production planning, really, so let’s start there. Because dinner parties are easy for Al...

A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment Are You Marketing to Gen X… or Missing Them Completely? Know Your Target Market By Desiree Grace The “Forgotten Generation.” Yep, that’s me. Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980, we are a smaller cohort than the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Just don’t lump us in with the Boomers, no matter what those Tik-Tokkers say, because we are NOT the same. But overlooked doesn’t mean insignificant. Gex X represents roughly 65 million Americans and an estimated $5 trillion in consumer spending. We are also in our peak-earning years. Many are now in senior leadership roles, running companies, approving budgets, and shaping strategy. In other words: if you’re selling to people over 50, you can’t afford to misunderstand them. If you are crafting a sales pitch or a marketing campaign to those influential people from the Gen X crowd, know they are entrepreneurial and productive in the workplace and value work-life balance. This is the generation that didn’t automa...