News and Trends

• W.W. Grainger to expand in NYC
  Leading industrial supplies distributor W.W. Grainger will increase its New York facilities this year and next. By the end of 2008, the company is slated to have six new locations, a huge new office space and a larger warehouse, which in turn are expected to help boost Grainger's profits and provide more jobs to NYC residents. Crain's New York Business (3/28)

• Pharma ready to put ID tags on products, looks to RFID
  The pharmaceutical industry faces deadlines in California and Florida to begin identifying their products with codes so they can be traced through the supply chain. The broader ID industry still has not decided which technology to use, RFID or 2-D bar codes, but the pharma industry is leaning toward RFID. Yahoo!/Information Week (3/28)

• Senate tax package could compound minimum-wage hike
  A $12.2 billion Senate tax-break package for small businesses could further complicate ratifying a previous minimum-wage-increase measure in the House. "Obviously, they didn't take the message that the House had sent. ... I just don't think it has a chance of flying in the House," Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., said. CQ Today (3/28)

• Other News

• AmerisourceBergen to acquire Bellco Health
  Reuters (3/28)

Best Practices

• How to make employees want to stick around
  Retain employees by focusing on the factors that make them want to stay instead of those that lead them to leave. Offer and deliver perks, such as day care, career counseling or discounted memberships, which create ties between employees and the company and larger community. Forbes (3/26)

• Experiment with CRMs before you commit
  You can use a customer relationship manager to better maintain client information and make selling easier, but try out several systems before you settle on one CRM or another. There are online programs available, such as Salesforce.com, that offer scaled-back software solutions for free, so you can test-drive them before deciding to pay the monthly fee for the full version. AllBusiness.com (3/26)

More than 60% of back orders are cancelled. How can you ensure that you have product available to avoid back orders in the first place? Learn what other distributors are doing to upgrade their supply chain in this free whitepaper.

Sales

• Pros, cons of cross-selling
  Cross-selling is "team-selling with other specialists within your company." It can be a profitable and low-risk technique, but if not properly monitored, customers may view it as too aggressive, or it may cause rifts between salespeople. The sales team and customers should be educated on this type of program from the beginning, so as to avoid mishaps or confusion down the road. Manage Smarter (3/28)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by NAW SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Parker Hannifin CEO starts new pricing strategy, finds success (The Wall Street Journal)

• HD Supply's fate still up in the air (Forbes)

• The future for IT in wholesale distribution (The Merrifield Consulting Group)

• Encourage employees to take vacation (The New York Times)

• Berkshire Hathaway wins approval to buy TTI (Houston Chronicle)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Small Business Manager

• The importance of a business model
  Most investors will ask for a business model as a shortcut to asking how a company plans to make money. But, a business model should also include how the business plans to position itself in the industry and how it's going to break through and engage customers where other businesses have failed. BusinessWeek (3/27)

	The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS) Distributors now can reduce invoicing and collections costs, speed cash flow and increase efficiency -- without engaging in costly IT projects. Learn how in the special feature - Invoices & e-payments: Reduce cost and lower DSO - presented by SmartBrief and Transcepta. Interested in learning more about advertising in NAW SmartBrief? Contact Henry Murphey at (202) 737-5500 ext. 245 or hmurphey@smartbrief.com

Executive Life

• Retirees take a shot at video games
  Baby boomers and their parents -- especially women -- have been increasingly turning to video games to keep their minds sharp. PopCap Games, the maker of video game diversions, found that older players play more often and for more time per session than their younger counterparts, while "casual" game Web site Pogo.com says baby boomers and their parents are the fastest-growing demographic. The New York Times (3/30)

• Atlanta reinvents itself as child-friendly destination
  Atlanta long has been a city rich in history, including the Civil War and the civil rights movement. Now, the city has introduced a number of attractions aimed specifically at kids, including the $200 million-plus Georgia Aquarium. The New York Times (3/30)

NAW Insider

• What are your employees worth?
  As the U.S. economy continues to expand, wholesaler-distributors are reconsidering their staffing needs and how to attract and keep top performers. NAW's 2006 Employee Compensation Report, completely new, is available immediately for downloading to your desktop. It lets you see how your company's compensation program compares with those of other wholesale distribution companies.

• Move the distributor-supplier relationship from dysfunctional to effective
  It takes a long time to develop good distributor-supplier relationships, but it only takes a short time to destroy them. Working at Cross-Purposes from the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence examines what drives these relationships, how often they go bad and why. Both partners can learn to avoid the economic and other consequences of a relationship turning sour by correcting emerging problems before they become critical.

Weekly Poll

• Does your business use cross-selling techniques?
  After voting once, check out the real-time poll results on NAW's All Access page as often as you'd like.

	Yes, cross-selling works well for us.
	We might give cross-selling a try.
	No, we do not plan on using cross-selling.
	We used to, but cross-selling did not work out.

Senior Marketing Manager C. H. Briggs Reading, PA Vice President Distribution APA Search, Inc. Tampa, Florida Branch Manager Rexel CLS Waterford, CT Sales Manager ESP International Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sales Manager HireElements Seattle Account Manager/Branch Mgr 1 or 2 Valley National Gases, Inc. Bluefield, VA, USA

SmartQuote

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise." --James Russell Lowell, poet and writer