2007’s Top Distributors

And the Muzzillos are all about having fun. To ensure franchise owners enjoy some play time, Proforma offers a significant incentive for its top performers: Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Clubs. “This year, we took about 200 people to Palm Springs, California to celebrate the success of these performers,” noted Muzzillo.

Heading up a multi-million-dollar enterprise such as Proforma, one would think Muzzillo would find it hard to sleep at night. Hardly. “I sleep like a baby. Ask Vera,” he said. However, Muzzillo said his single largest ambition is to “tell our story to great distributor owners and great industry sales people that would be far better off as members of the Proforma network.” He continued, “I believe that most distributors and their sales people are so busy with the tyranny of the urgent that it is hard for them to hear the important messages and opportunities in their lives.”

3. Bensussen Deutsch & Associates (BD&A), (www.bdainc.com), Woodinville, WA

For a company looking forward to broader penetration into Fortune 500 enterprises, major sports leagues and global entertainment companies, BD&A has already charted a winning course. In 2006, the company reported total promotional product sales of $200 million, up an impressive 37.9 percent (a dollar amount of $55 million) from the previous year’s figures.

When asked what keeps him up at night, CEO Jay Deutsch said: “Maintaining a BD&A workforce that is motivated and excited to come to work each day.” He said the company has been able to do that “successfully” for the last 23 years. In fact, so important is employee satisfaction to Deutsch, the company employs a budget for external training as well as 45 hours of internal management training, technology/software application classes, sales university and a three-part, six-hour series on the company’s culture, corporate history and “how each individual and team can set and achieve goals.”