Ohio-headquartered distributor Proforma (PPAI 196835, D13) has promoted Greg Armstrong to the post of chief sales officer. Armstrong, a veteran of the promotional products industry with more than 20 years of experience with a variety of companies, served as the served as Proforma’s vice president of sales development for nearly two years until 2018 when he left the company before returning in 2021 in a different VP role.

The Promotion

• The title and role adjustment became official earlier this month. Armstrong had been vice president of sales, but in the new capacity will have more strategic oversightin recruiting distributors to Proforma’s owner network.
• Armstrong has an extensive CV in the industry, but he tells PPAI Media that he left Proforma in 2018 on good terms with an eye on his dream of starting his own business in sales coaching. After juggling a stint as vice president of sales for supplier Logomark, he focused solely on that dream as the owner of Right Turn Advisors.
• Eventually, Armstrong says his relationships with his former clients “pulled me back” into the promotional products industry, where he was worked as vice president of sales for supplier Evans Manufacturing.
• The mutual decision to return to Proforma early in 2021 was based “100%” on the relationship that he had with Proforma’s founder Greg Muzzillo, CEO Vera Muzzillo and President Doug Kordel, according to Armstrong.
• Prior to his first stint at Proforma, Armstrong spent a combined 15 years working with Alcone Marketing Group, Gemline and AIA Corporation.

The New Role

• Much of Armstrong’s role as chief sales officer will involve attracting distributors, independent or otherwise, to Proforma and giving them the tools they need to succeed within the company. He describes the position as, “more of a role that allows me to look at it from a more visionary standpoint.”
• “What we’re trying to do with our owner network is establish a scalable, measurable and meaningful process to not only grow their business, but manage the business, all the while utilizing our own prior proprietary technologies,” Armstrong says.

Strategy

• “We’re not being disruptive just to be disruptive,” Armstrong says of the company’s mindset. “Let’s look at things differently. Let’s face it, the world kind of tilted on its axis a little bit in the last couple of years. So we’re not looking at it in a reactionary state; it’s more of an opportunity to rethink how we go to market.”
• “One of the biggest challenges and one of the best opportunities of this industry is that you can sell pretty much anything to anyone,” Armstrong says. “So where do you pick your swim lanes? How do you go about what is, in essence, infinite opportunities? That’s one of our taglines; ‘One source, infinite resources.’ We’re really embracing that and incorporating that.”