News and Trends

• Trucking industry may not have the happiest of holidays
  The trucking industry usually sees a seasonal spike in business during the holidays, but that "peak season" may be somewhat diminished this year, this article notes. Amid a down economy, it is predicted that many consumers will spend more conservatively during this year's holiday season. "Once the economy gets back to a more normalized state, I expect to see that typical holiday surge again," said Eric Starks, president of research firm FTR Associates. Fleet Owner (11/11)

• Air freight begins to spread its wings again
  Demand for air freight has been improving since July, according to analysts with Wolfe Research, who recently noted: "Global airfreight capacity is beginning to leave the market, and rising oil prices remain a catalyst for further capacity reductions of less fuel-efficient aircraft, while demand has been gradually improving since July with pockets of tightness out of Asia more recently." Purchasing.com (11/11)

• First-time unemployment claims ease in U.S.
  Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. declined to a seasonally adjusted 502,000 last week, the Labor Department said. It was a smaller number than economists had forecast and the lowest since the week that ended Jan. 3. Abiel Reinhart, an economist with JPMorgan Chase, said initial claims will have to drop to the high 400,000s to suggest even a weak improvement in the job market. He said the economy should start creating jobs in the first quarter. Google/The Associated Press (11/12)

• Other News

• If oil prices continue to rise, 2010 demand could drop, warns OPEC
  Google/The Associated Press (11/11)

• Auto parts distributor predicts recovery for sector
  Google/The Canadian Press (11/12)

Best Practices

• Tap into employee's heart power to boost sense of pride
  Aside from tapping into employees' brain power, leaders need to create heart power in employees. Managing employs matters of the brain, but leading, and a focus on improving people's lives, employs matters of the heart, and if employees understand that, they will take ownership of customers and a greater sense of pride in the company. HarvardBusiness.org/HBR Now blog (11/11)

• Don't let bad decisions take your team down the wrong track
  Too often, leaders compound one bad decision with another because they are fearful of admitting they were wrong in the first instance. Derail the bad-decision train by teaching team members to compare assumptions to market realities, fostering a culture of learning and encouraging dissent. Art Petty on Management (11/9)

The recession offers you a once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity to create significant and long-lasting changes in your sales effectiveness. Start with your sales managers. Send them to the Kahle Way® Sales Management System seminar in Orlando, December 3 & 4. Click here for more information, or call 800-331-1287.

Sales

• Ask questions before turning to technological solutions for low sales
  Before throwing technology at a problem, an organization must make sure that its core sales processes are in order. Contemplate whether you are seeking to bring automation to an already-productive process, or whether you are viewing the technology as a panacea for resolving more fundamental problems in your sales operation. Selling Power (free registration) (11/9)

Hot Topics

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

• Firms say goodbye to drama of high-maintenance clients (The Wall Street Journal)

• How to lead in 20 minutes (Manage Smarter)

• Largest U.S. beer distributor to move HQ to larger building (Crain's Chicago Business)

• Economist says U.S. unemployment could hit 13% (Bloomberg)

• Survey: U.S. economy to expand 2.7% in 2010 (Reuters)

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

Small Business Manager

• How to get a reporter to notice
  A feature story about a business provides more benefits to a business than an advertisement because it represents an independent, third-party validation, writes USA TODAY columnist Steve Strauss. To get the attention of a newspaper, Strauss says, a marketer needs to develop a newsworthy angle, find a reporter whose work matches the idea, pitch the story informally via e-mail and make it easy for the reporter to follow up. USA TODAY (11/10)

Featured Content

Executive Life

• Travelers expected to keep expenses down this holiday season
  Hotels and airlines are luring some travelers with steep discounts and other deals, but many consumers are expected to take the car and stay with family and friends this holiday season in an effort to save money. An airline trade group released a report that says air travel will be down 4% this Thanksgiving, compared with last year. Other research supports that expectation. Los Angeles Times (11/10)

• 47 airports offer free Wi-Fi for the holidays
  With 100 million travelers expected to pass through airports this holiday season, Google says it will offer free Wi-Fi Internet access at 47 airports through Jan. 15. Google will use the Wi-Fi service to encourage public donations to three charities, with a company match of up to $250,000 and a $15,000 award to the airport with the highest donations. The Christian Science Monitor/Horizons blog (11/10)

NAW Insider

• NAW Roundtables: Exclusive opportunities to network
  NAW's Billion Dollar Company Chief Legal Officer Roundtable is a unique and valuable business meeting that allows senior distribution executives to benchmark and meet with executives from other noncompeting billion dollar distribution firms. Relationships and trust built during these events are conduits to learning from noncompeting peers and are unique to this forum. See group members and join now.

• Order NAW Institute's new book: Sharpening Your Competitive Edge
  Sharpening Your Competitive Edge shows you how to build a stronger, strategic selling organization and lead your sales team to more proactive selling efforts that can increase your competitive advantage, sales and profitability. You'll answer the seven strategic questions that lead to sales success, and you'll learn to identify and fix potential gaps in your team's selling skills and processes.

• Register today for the 2010 NAW Executive Summit
  The 2010 NAW Executive Summit will focus on several fundamental questions: Where is the economy headed? Where are business and wholesaler-distributors in particular headed? Where is our country headed under the Obama administration as the United States continues to battle through the worst recession since the Great Depression? You'll hear and participate in expert presentations, distributor case studies and peer-to-peer discussion roundtables.

Weekly Poll

• How will you travel for Thanksgiving this year?
  After voting once, check out the real-time poll results on NAW's All Access page as often as you'd like.

	By car.
	By bus.
	By train.
	By plane.
	I won't travel this year.

Controller Robinson HR Consulting (search consultant for client) Wilmington NC

Editor's Note

• What do you expect from Congress in 2010?
  Read the NAW SmartBrief Year-End Report, which will be published on Dec. 15, to find out how your peers respond.

	Mostly legislation that will be beneficial to business.
	Mostly legislation that will be harmful to business.
	A mix of beneficial and harmful legislation.

SmartQuote

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." --Aristotle, Greek philosopher