Ryan Paules pivoted to the promo industry after losing his job as a manager with a national chain on the same day of his wife's first ultrasound. With a new baby on the way and a mortgage to pay, he turned his IT hobby into a full-time venture, launching Radar Support, which he later closed despite its success.

Tim Andrews is a luminary in the promo industry, he’s the CEO of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) whose 350 employees serve a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors, and decorators in the industry.

Today we talk with Shed about so much, you’ll love the depth of his thinking, we talk about: candor with care, the most important traits of a leader, the struggle some of us have moving from roles like a sales driver to an organizational leader, and more - join us!

Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak, the two founders behind one of the industry’s most ingenious company’s Origaudio, are back. Jason and Mike sold their very successful company, Origaudio, to HPG in 2018, and after a few years, both retired from the industry. The two entrepreneurs, known for their innovation in product, production, and distribution, have launched a new brand with a bold new mission. The company is called Rupt — and it sounds just as it was intended, an idea meant to disrupt the industry, particularly the status quo when it comes to transparency in sustainability.

David Priemer has had 20 years leading top-performing sales teams, including his tenure with Salesforce, where he was not only the Vice President of Commercial Sales, he was the creator of the Sales Leadership Academy program, and he’s often referred to as “the sales professor.”

In our industry, too, distributors and suppliers have two distinct types of growth, and both types of growth are a requisite for future-proofing a thriving business. Since our last article talked about type 1 growth, today, we’ll talk about type 2 growth, the growth that means the real difference between winning and losing: building a richer environment.

In our industry, distributors, and suppliers also have two distinct types of growth, and both are a requisite for future-proofing a thriving business. And since Q4 is well underway, many of us are beginning to think about 2025 business planning and benchmarking, we wanted to share a few ideas from our numerous interviews with leaders on how to create benchmarks for both type 1 and type 2 growth.

Today, we are talking with Neil about two fundamental priorities for Polyconcept: sustainability and how deeply sustainability permeates all of their decisions at PCNA, and technology through the lens of making distributors’ lives easier.

Stephen Musgrave is the Executive Vice President at Genumark, the largest Canadian-owned distributor and one of the largest in North America. Genumark has been recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, is a 13-time Prix Image Award recipient, and was honored as one of Counselor Magazine’s Best Places to Work. With its 42,000-square-foot sales and distribution facility and over 100 full-time employees, Genumark serves over 2500 active accounts. 

We’ve created a step-by-step guide, first, by painting a picture of how things can be better, second, by demonstrating the problem bogging you down, and then finally, a clear path forward. You’ve taken the most important step already, moving toward wanting to make a change!

Today, we chat with Craig about this astonishing growth, covering topics ranging from their new e-commerce academy, to tips on integrating new DCX employees with your team, the incredible cultural exchange happening between American and Filipino employees, plus, the new DCX + commonsku collab!

To respond to the demand, today’s successful salesforce has had to deploy rapid-fire response tools: mobile technology to respond from anywhere, cloud-based technology to work from anywhere, seamless solutions to move swiftly from project-to-project to respond to the demand.

We’ve created a step-by-step guide, first, by painting a picture of how things can be better, second, by demonstrating the problem bogging you down, and then finally, a clear path forward. You’ve taken the most important step already, moving toward wanting to make a change!

A sustainable idea factory, that’s the vision of a Quebec-based company called Kotmo. Founded by Céline Juppeau and her business partner Cindy Couture, Kotmo is now selling their vision into the US Market.

If you’re near or above the $10 million category, first, congrats. Growing in this business, at this size, is difficult. Because the primary challenge most large distributors face when growing is learning how to grow with intimacy while scaling, a rare and signature feat for a successful enterprise company.

For mid-size distributors, speed is the most distinct advantage. There’s a key market advantage between being small enough as an organization to move faster than the big guys, and yet big enough to handle the largest projects.

We’ve created a step-by-step guide, first, by painting a picture of how things can be better, second, by demonstrating the problem bogging you down, and then finally, a clear path forward. You’ve taken the most important step already, moving toward wanting to make a change!

In the promotional products industry, there are thousands of small businesses – and the number of small distributors is growing. If you are a team of one, two, or three, this article’s for you. And if you’re not, you still might learn something from the secret of creating time: thievery.

Dale Denham joined PPAI as president and CEO in 2021, leading the rebound of the industry’s largest trade association following its 50% loss of revenue and staff due to COVID restrictions. Dale has guided the organization, now growing once again, through an explosion of industry initiatives, driving digital transformation and corporate social responsibility while also raising awareness of the power of promotional items.

In this eBook on sales compensation, we’re sharing the trends that are changing the way the promotional products industry compensates their salespeople and their selling teams. In a series of interviews with leading distributors, we’re unpacking unique ideas that are bucking conventional methods and rebuilding a unique comp model that inspires growth.