Top Story

• Southern Wine & Spirits to distribute House Spirits gin
  Southern Wine & Spirits has agreed to distribute House Spirits Distillery's Aviation American Gin. "Aviation American Gin has already developed a passionate following, and it has demonstrated the potential to grow into a strong national brand," said Rudy Ruiz of Southern Wine & Spirits. House Spirits founder Christian Krogstad said, "The new distribution will roll out market by market through the second quarter." Just-Drinks.com (2/28), American City Business Journals/Portland, Ore./Real Estate Daily blog (2/28)     

• Other News

• McKesson picks Milwaukee clinic to receive EHR software reward
  Healthcare Informatics online (2/27)     

Operations and Technology

• Why branch managers need to understand the company's strategy
  Every part of your company needs to communicate a consistent message to your clients, according to Robert Kaplan. "It's critical for the corporate leadership to establish not just a clear vision and mission but a clear strategy and communicate that so that every branch manager understands it," he said. Modern Distribution Management/MDM Management Tip of the Week blog (2/27)     

• Experts: Melding Big Data and security isn't easy
  Using Big Data strategies and analytics to boost IT security can help prevent threats, but it also poses challenges because of the volume of data, experts say. "The Big Data challenge is to derive actionable information," Qualys' Andrew Wild says. Computerworld (2/28)     

Sales and Marketing

• Stay ahead of competitors by paying attention to customers
  You should adjust your sales process to meet your customers' needs rather than focus only on what your competitors are doing, writes Drew Zarges. "The company that disrupts the industry is not typically seen as a competitor," he writes. "It is the emerging company with a radical model -- dismissed as a niche or fluke." Sales Benchmark Index/Sales & Marketing Effectiveness Blog (2/26)     

• Salespeople should evaluate performance to improve skills
  The best salespeople don't just accept feedback; they crave it, this blog post says. In addition to seeking feedback from outside sources, they should evaluate their skills and look for opportunities to improve. NaturalTraining.com/The Blog (2/27)     

• Social prospecting, cold-calling and the future of B2B
  Can social prospecting replace the time-tested cold call in business-to-business selling? "No ... they work together," says Kendra Lee, founder and CEO of KLA Group. "With social prospecting you can become visible to more people and attract new, different prospects. ... However, as with the evolution of e-mail, it will take more time for these strategies to take off. Right now there is still the need to pick up the phone." But social selling strategist David Steel maintains that eventually a synergistic mix of social media and cold calling can get marketers to the point where customers call them for advice. OpenView Blog (2/27)     

Hot Topics

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

• Ace Hardware to certify stores for sales to small business (Home Channel News)

• Boosting core values of distribution with e-commerce (Modern Distribution Management)

• 7 traits that set great sales teams apart (Harvard Business Review online)

• How can distributors fund expansion this year? (TED Magazine)

• A look at 3 emerging inland logistics hubs (DC Velocity online)

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

The Business Leader

• 5 ways to hang onto entrepreneurial talent
  Instilling an entrepreneurial spirit in the workplace demands new management rules, such as keeping the talent engaged through challenging work and learning opportunities, Maynard Webb writes. "Understand your employees' goals and work to help them achieve them," Webb writes. "Consider allowing the employee to get confidential external mentoring." SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (2/27)     

• The underrated leadership quality of resilience
  Resilience -- physical, emotional and spiritual -- often means the difference between having a great idea and bringing that idea to fruition, writes John McKinley, manager of the Global Fellows Program at Acumen Fund. "We need to remain focused on building leaders who have the resilience to face stubborn problems head on for lasting social impact," McKinley writes. Harvard Business Review online/HBR Blog Network (2/26)     

NAW Insider

• Join us for NAW's Large Company Senior Executive Roundtables
  NAW's Large Company CEO/COO, CFO and Operations Roundtables for companies with sales of $100 million to $1 billion are the only place where C-suite executives can come together with other noncompeting wholesaler-distributors and share ideas, build relationships and evaluate best practices to improve their business.
  
  "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." ~ Henry Ford. Join now.     

Position Title Company Name Location Regional Sales Manager Johnstone Supply Columbia, SC Metals Buyer / Trader Olin Brass Louisville, KY Product Manager Ryan Herco Flow Solutions, Inc. Burbank, CA Eclipse Systems Manager Crescent Electric Supply Co. Dubuque, IA Corporate Credit Manager Behler-Young Company Michigan, MI Business Manager Curbell Plastics, Inc. Arlington, TX Customer Service Representative (Inside Sales) DW Distribution DeSoto, TX

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SmartQuote

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish-born writer