PPB July 2015

F YOU SELL IMPRINTED t-shirts, drinkware, pens, electronics and other standard promotional products day in and day out

to your clients but shy away from offering brand-name merchandise and incentive items because you don’t understand how to

sell them or don’t know how the process works, you are not alone. Only about one-third of distributors say they sell incentive/

safety programs, according to PPAI research. What’s holding you back from providing your clients even more options to promote

their brands, and reward and motivate employees? These six experts explain how to overcome the most common obstacles.

Meet The Premium/Incentive Experts

JULY 2015 •

PPB

• 51

Norma Jean Knollenberg, CPIM

Owner, Top Brands, Inc.

Knollenberg has been supplying merchandise to

the incentive and promotional products industry

for 37 years. In 1982 she joined Top Brands, Inc.

and became owner of the company in 1993. She is

past president of the Incentive Manufacturers and

Representatives Alliance, past president of the

Incentive Marketing Association and currently

serves on PPAI’s board of directors and as a board

member and treasurer of the Incentive Federation.

Barb Hendrickson

President, Visible Communication LLC

Hendrickson spent 30 years as an incentive rep

and also ran a distributor division specializing in

incentives before starting her current company,

which provides web design, branding, inbound

marketing, social media, reputation management,

content and communication strategies to a num-

ber of industries, including the incentive industry.

Mike Landry

Vice President, Special Markets, TUMI

Landry has had a long career in the incentive

industry including serving as regional sales manag-

er for Oneida before joining TUMI. He is a char-

ter member and a former member of the Incentive

Marketing Association’s board of directors.

Chelsea Piereth

Buyer, Hinda Incentives

Piereth spent more than 10 years as a buyer for

retail giants Sears and Macy’s before joining

Hinda Incentives in 2012.

Pete Mitchell

Director B-to-B Sales,

Samsonite and Hartmann

Mitchell is a 25-year veteran of the incentive and

promotional products industries. He has served as

vice president of corporate markets for Swiss

Army Brands and TUMI, and has been a consult-

ant to many branded products suppliers. He is also

a frequent speaker and writer on incentives, a for-

mer board member for the Incentive Marketing

Association and past president of the Incentive

Manufacturers and Representatives Alliance.

Sean Roark, CPIM

Executive Vice President,

PromoPros/IncentPros, Inc.

Roark is a promotional products industry veteran

who wrote his first incentive program in 2005.

Since then he has become a respected writer and

speaker on the subject and is a nationally recog-

nized authority on safety incentive programs. He

serves on the board of directors of the Incentive

Federation and the Incentive Marketing

Association.