Professional Graphic Communications

The fun doesn't stop at 50. Additional suppliers responded to this year's Top Distributors survey, but just missed this year's list.

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

Distributorships discuss compensation for sales staff and thoughts on recruitment and retention. BFL&S spoke with the owners of the following distributorships regarding their compensation plans, as well as a variety of factors involved in developing an effective team: • Midwest Single Source, Wichita, Kan., John Osborne, president and CEO • Professional Graphic Communications, Sewickley, Pa., Mike Weinzierl, president • S.W.M. Printing & Promotions, St. Louis, Mo., John Sanders, president, CEO • Venture Corporation, Lewis-ville, Texas, Gary Dunlap, president Not surprising, all of the contributors reported that their sales professionals earn a commission on their sales. At Professional Graphic Communications, there are four inside sales reps,

Industry professionals offer tips for creating successful direct mail campaigns. The whole idea behind direct mail is to deliver messages that command attention and inspire a response. Manufacturers and distributors experienced in direct mail sales know that specifically targeting likely prospects—rather than appealing to the masses—and speaking to recipients with highly personalized messages increases the chances of eliciting that response. There are also some basics with regard to project planning and design that industry professionals pay heed to. For starters, both Michael Weinzierl, president of Professional Graphic Communications, Sewickley, Pa., and Dan Reid, marketing manager for Thorn Hill Printing, Freedom, Pa., stressed the

Suppliers offer product suggestions and production advice for better returns on direct mail investments. Except for commercial printing, direct mail probably takes more of distributors' time and energy than any other type of sell. Linc Spaulding, president of Sheppard Envelope, Auburn, Mass., and Mike Weinzierl, president of Sewickley, Pennsylvania-based Professional Graphic Communications, shared tips to help make it all worthwhile for everyone along the value chain. Return to Sender For instance, Spaudling discussed his company's two-way Boomerang mailing system—a low-cost, environmentally friendly product that dramatically reduces paper usage while stimulating high recipient response rates. Spaudling pointed out that "most successful direct mail campaigns

Offering direct mail services can help distributors penetrate accounts and boost shrinking revenues. Like lava slowly flowing down a mountain, the proliferation of distributors offering direct mail products has spread slowly but surely over the last decade, fueled by the twin fires of cost-consciousness and demand. As people throughout the forms and labels world desperately try to figure out what the future holds for this maturing industry, attention has turned toward finding new products and services to take the place of older, more commodities-oriented offerings. Direct mail products, with their ability to offer users significant savings over traditional stuffed envelopes, as well as

Industry professionals talk about the reasons and the results behind their interactive Web sites. Make no mistake. The World Wide Web has become the impetus behind greater business communication. And, although the initial incorporation of the Internet into daily business practices can be long, tedious and quite expensive, many distributors are more than willing to foot the e-commerce bill in return for e-business potential. Interactive Web sites that allow customers to in-put and retrieve information on the status of their orders, as well as communicate with distributors, are proving to be efficient tools that should eventually level out upfront costs. To find out