PPB January 2015

60 / 108

PROFORMA PROMOTIONALLY
YOURS (D)
Kansas City, Kansas
Jeff Levy, co-president (right)
Jeff Bowles, co-president
• Founded: 2004
• 2014 Inc. 5000 Ranking: 3156
• Three-Year Growth Rate: 111%
• 2013 Revenue: $4.3 million
• Number of Employees: 15 (seven new jobs added
within the past three years)
• Previous Years On Inc. 5000 list: Three (2009 No. 4141,
2012 No. 2976, 2013 No. 3432)
Best Friends And Partners: A Winning Combination
Back in early 2004, Jeff Levy wanted to start his own business, and
it was advice from a neighbor that prompted him to consider
Proforma. “I called Proforma—it happened to be during The PPAI
Expo out in Vegas—and they asked if I wanted to have lunch with the
CEOs, Greg and Vera Muzzillo. After a four-hour lunch, I was
hooked. Proforma was my new home.” In April 2004, Levy started
Proforma Promotionally Yours.
Around the same time, Levy’s best friend from college, Jeff
Bowles, decided to join the company as a salesperson. “We agreed
that after he hit a certain milestone, it would justify his 50/50 part-
nership in the company,” says Levy. “During his second year in the
industry, he sold more than $1 million in promotional items. Since
that time, Jeff and I have been 50/50 partners and are still going
strong.”
Strategy For Growth
Levy believes that he and his partner have done a good job of
diversifying their income streams within the industry. After losing
some large clients, they realized it was too stressful to continue to
book $1 million plus each and every year. “We would lose one big
client and work our tail off to replenish that business … just to make
the same money we did the year before,” says Levy. “That is when we
started to shift the way our company profile looked by acquiring other
companies, bringing on sales reps and even adding inside account
managers to the mix to manage accounts that sucked up our time but
didn’t generate the profit we wanted.”
Creating Differentiation
“It’s tough to differ from others because we all sell the same prod-
ucts for roughly the same quality in roughly the same production time,
so we can’t tell our clients/prospects that we are better because our
products are better,” says Levy. “Customer service is the differentiator.
Proforma Promotionally Yours has put a process in place that is repeti-
tive and works.
“Our production managers do daily follow-up for all of our sales
reps, as well as our orders, and update all of our clients, which we
think is much different than our competitors. Our clients love not
having to ever ask the status of any order.” Levy believes this makes
the company more efficient and allows the company’s employees free-
dom to do their jobs and even work fewer hours.
Sustaining Growth
Levy and Bowles are always looking for sales reps and acquisition
opportunities that are a good fit for their company. “We understand
that each and every year you will lose clients, which is out of our con-
trol. So the only way to continue to grow is to replenish them with
new clients, which we now get from new sales reps and acquisitions,”
he says.
What’s Ahead In 2015
Levy looks for a specific type of sales rep who sells a specific type
of product where they think there is a huge opportunity in the next
couple years. “In 2013 we billed $4.3 million. This year we should be
close to $6 million ($1.5 to $2 million in growth this year). We expect
to at least have that same growth for next year. I expect 2015 to be
$7.5 million or more.”
60 • PPB • JANUARY 2015 GROW
On The Up And Up
“Customer service is the differentiator.
Proforma Promotionally Yours has put a
process in place that is repetitive and works.”