The ever-present threat of digital disruption tops our list of the most-read blogs from May 2019. From embracing e-commerce to neutralizing Amazon, our contributors cover all aspects of the ongoing digital revolution. Join MDM June 18-20 in Denver for the Digital Distributor Summitto gain the insight you need to make smarter technology investments. Follow the links below to read more.

1. Distributors are About to Get Commoditized

If you don’t have top-flight technical talent, a state-of-the-art ERP and the ability to implement the AI your new customers will prefer to use to place orders, then that business will go to your more-enlightened competitors, warns MDM’s Ian Heller. Read More.

2. How to Get Your Sales Team to Embrace E-commerce

There are at least four ways distributors can take action to reduce the impact of sales team objections while also taking care of customers and sales people, says MDM’s Jason Capshaw. Read More.

3. Neutralizing the Amazon Threat

There are actionable strategies for B2B distributors of different sizes and in different verticals to take in order to remain competitive in the age of Amazon, says Applico’s Alex Moazed. The platform design company recently published a report detailing Amazon’s B2B marketshare across distribution categories. Read More.

4. It Takes More Than Account Managers to Drive Sales and Profitability

The customer controls the relationship, and they have a growing self-service digital mindset. They can research more products and solutions online, MDM’s John Gunderson point out. The list of products, concerns and general issues they have to interact with your account manager to address is steadily declining. Read More.

 5. How Distributors Can Leverage Their Unstructured Data

Data that lack structure and present in formats such as emails, webpages, or document files have traditionally been overlooked or ignored due to length and complexity. Harness them to unlock valuable business and customer insights to identify patterns and pinpoint supply-chain inefficiencies, recommends Conexiom’s Earl van As.  Read More.