Commercial Business Forms

1 WorkflowOne Headquarters: Dayton, Ohio Annual Sales $(000): 1,200,000 Principal Officer(s): Greg Mosher, Chairman; Mike Zawalski, President, CEO Locations: 140 2 Proforma Headquarters: Cleveland Annual Sales $(000): 293,933 Principal Officer(s): Greg Muzzillo, Founder, Co-CEO; Vera Muzzillo, Co-CEO Locations: 600 3 American Solutions for Business Headquarters: Glenwood, Minn. Annual Sales $(000): 249,022 Principal Officer(s): Larry Zavadil, President, CEO Locations: 455 4 InnerWorkings Headquarters: Chicago Annual Sales $(000): 160,515 Principal Officer(s): Steven E. Zuccarini, CEO

Rank: 1 Company: WorkflowOne, Dayton, Ohio Sales $(000): 1,000,000 Principal Officer(s): Greg Mosher, Chairman, CEO Locations: 150 Rank: 2 Company: Proforma, Cleveland Sales $(000): 293,000 Principal Officer(s): Greg Muzzillo, Founder, Co-CEO; Vera Muzzillo, Co-CEO Locations: 650 Rank: 3 Company: American Solutions for Business, Glenwood, Minn. Sales $(000): 239,776 Principal Officer(s): Larry Zavadil, President Locations: 410 Rank: 4 Company: GBS, North Canton, Ohio Sales $(000): 90,143 Principal Officer(s): Eugene Calabria, President, CEO Locations: 12 Rank: 5 Company: Merrill Corp., Monroe, Wash. Sales $(000): 83,950 Principal Officer(s): Mark Rossi, President Locations: 6 Rank: 6 Company: The Shamrock Companies, Westlake, Ohio Sales

Distributors talk about evaluating and compensating their sales representatives' job performances. These are penny-pinching times and, more than ever, sales professionals must go the extra mile to edge out competitors and convince customers to expend precious financial resources. So, just what is it that keeps printed products distributors going day after day? Here, 12 company executives—identified in the chart below— share their views on compensating, training and hiring. New Blood When it comes to hiring sales representatives, the consensus is that industry experience is a definite plus, although both Sherie Bartlett and Walt Smith observed that it isn't always easy to come by. Mark

Labels remain a dependable source of income for small distributorships. For the smaller distributor, labels have found their niche in providing a dependable—and often lucrative—source of income. "Labels have been a part of our product mix since the company's inception in 1983," said Michael Gordon, president of Commercial Business Forms, Cedar Knolls, N.J. "At that time, however, labels didn't play a significant role in the business because business forms dominated the market," he explained. "Now, about 25 percent of our business is centered on labels and tag materials that are adhesive-based." Veteran distributor Murray & Heister, Beltsville, Md., has been selling labels for

Ingenuity plus attention to detail helps distributors land lucrative accounts. When it comes to selling catalogs, brochures and booklets, the question isn't who buys them, the question is who doesn't buy them. Serving as vehicles that market and promote business and list or display information that is pertinent to a company's sales, these items are basic necessities among end-users in any market. As such, distributors can expect them to be fairly easy to sell. The difficulty, however, lies in the way distributors present solutions to end-users that require these products. "Distributors are well suited to go after business in this arena," said Mike