The world of commerce has changed and will continue to change. The pace of this change is clearly accelerating because of technology. The 1800’s gave us print, the 1920’s color print, the 1950’s gave us color TV, the 1970’s gave us the cellphone …you get the picture.
Bill Beard likens his job to that of an air traffic controller. He can’t lose sight of the prop planes or the Boeing 747’s, and they both require his sharpest focus so they don’t come crashing down.The Highlands Strategic Account Manager, based in Florida, works exclusively with a Mega-Reseller (or Mega, for short) in the US.
Re-imagining The Way You Present Your Products
B2B distribution channels are merging – we like to call it ‘channel blurring’. Wholesalers, distributors and resellers are all looking for ways to grow, so they seek new product categories, new services and new channels. Some examples: Staples is the second largest Jan-San distributor in the USA, Grainger sells business machines, HD Supply offers stationery products (through strategic alliances), and Amazon Business has a stated intention of tackling industrial and healthcare markets.”
It’s no secret that the office supplies category is in decline and has been for some time. Like any successful company with its heartland in office supplies Highlands has been evolving its business for some years. We try to stay ahead of trends and help our clients evolve and win with us.
People are different. Countries are different. European business practices are different, as are the products they use. To me, different is good. Why? While some products can face domestic decline, many find renewed life crossing the ocean – either going there or coming here! And it’s not as hard as you might think because digital transformation and logistics improvements have brought foreign markets much closer. Getting them into effective distribution channels and purchased by end-users is another story, and why local knowledge of that last mile is so important.
Like everyone, my professional life is surrounded by emails, texts, meeting requests, tweets, blogs, newsletters, not to mention phone calls from robots, making travel plans, political solicitations, fundraisers, marketing flyers, market research, and Mom. It’s truly hard to know what’s an important message or what’s not. Even your refrigerator can send you information, so it’s easy to understand how important opportunities can get overlooked.