2007’s Top Distributors

7. HALO/Lee Wayne (www.halo.com or www.leewayne.com), Sterling, IL

With total promotional product sales for the latest fiscal year recorded at $130 million, HALO/Lee Wayne has rightfully earned the No. 7 spot on Promotional Marketing’s Top 50 Distributors list. With a spike of 23.8 percent ($25 million more than last year), the company is poised for another record-setting year.

CEO Marc Simon’s method for success is an uncomplicated one: “Great people working very hard to delight our clients on every order,” he said. “It sounds simple, but it has worked very well for us since the company was started in 1952.”

Simon’s unwavering commitment to time-tested, client-approved business practices hardly diminishes his unparalleled commitment to technology. In fact, he said HALO/Lee Wayne “has the leading technology in the industry.”

“We continue to upgrade our proprietary order management tool, WebSTAR, which allows our account executives to enter orders and view order status ... 24-hours a day,” he explained.

Simon stands on the fact that technology can be effectively used to create more qualitative time with clients. “Clients ... require accurate information on products, pricing and billing, and they require it more quickly than ever,” he said. “Distributors must be able to provide this information quickly and accurately in order to free more time for qualitative sales pursuits, like prospecting via the phone, mail and e-mail.”

Simon said HALO/Lee Wayne’s corporate culture is “built on a genuine passion for our account executives and their business.” It is this passion that keeps him up at night. “It takes great focus to maintain such a caring culture while growing the number of people in it,” he said.

To keep its sales staff motivated, HALO/Lee Wayne hosts several regional and national short-term sales contests. Furthermore, the company has a full-time trainer that works one-on-one and via the Web to train account executives on company technology.