The motivational phrase "there's no 'I' in team" has never rung truer for Bradley Marketing Group. That's because teamwork is key for the Hauppauge, N.Y.-based distributorship, run by six partners who share administrative responsibility for the firm.
John DeAngelis, Joe DeMeo, Ed Brucia, John Melillo, Jim Lemmo and Lee Steinberg lead Bradley Marketing Group, which operates a 40,000-square-foot Long Island headquarters facility, plus offices in Cheshire, Conn.; Fairfield, N.J.; and New York City. With more than 800 clients in the tri-state area (including a slew of Fortune 500 companies), the company focuses on providing market-savvy business solutions that include business forms, commercial printing, fulfillment, promotional products and custom online company stores.
Expanding in a Shrinking Market
Although teamwork dynamics are chaotic for some businesses, they work for Bradley Marketing Group. In 1988, Melillo and Brucia used their extensive experience in the printing industry (both had worked for Standard Register and Unified Data) to start the distributorship.
"I had been offered the job as vice president of Ohio-based Shelby Business Forms (now Miami Systems/ Shelby Division), and at that point I'd decided it was time to try it on my own," Melillo says. "Knowing that the business was going to change, we took advantage of the ability to change it."
Soon, the pair joined forces with Bradley Marketing Group's remaining four partners, who collectively brought decades of printing industry experience to the company. During the company's first five years, it functioned strictly as a forms distributorship. That changed when the management team realized the standard forms market was dying. "We saw a shrinking market in the forms industry and felt the need to branch out into other areas" such as inventory management, graphic design and fulfillment, DeAngelis says.
The distributorship began taking crossover accounts (starting with promotional products) and eventually developed its services to the "mixed bag" offered today--a range of printing, promotional, marketing, fulfillment and online solutions. The company now boasts 81 employees and has grown from $3 million to $20 million in annual sales.
Fuller Fulfillment
Bradley Marketing Group's ever-increasing lineup of services, including its recently expanded inventory management, fulfillment and online solution programs, perhaps has influenced its growth the most. When it comes to fulfillment, Bradley Marketing Group exudes a take-charge, "let us do the dirty work" attitude. DeAngelis explains this approach simply: In order to stay on top in a highly competitive market, the distributorship "needs to be equipped to provide our products wrapped around value-added services."
Bradley Marketing Group understands the importance of providing multiple services for its clients, from creating, managing and storing promotional products and print collateral to offering pick-and-pack services such as kit assembly, collating, labeling, package stuffing and shipping, says DeMeo, who leads the distributorship's warehousing and fulfillment efforts. "Our fulfillment services complement every program we offer," he says. "It's a direct byproduct of the work we do."
Recently, Bradley Marketing Group implemented a pair of solutions it hopes will boost sales and enhance its national presence. The first, a financial institution training program, offers training packages for new bank employees. Because banks usually don't have the time or resources to thoroughly train new hires, they experience an average annual turnover rate of 35 percent, DeMeo says. Bradley Marketing Group seized this opportunity to step in and provide necessary materials for bank training. "This is a solution-based organization," DeAngelis says. "We build the program around our customers' needs."
After meeting with bank clients such as Fleet, Chase Manhattan, JP Morgan, Union Banks California, Astoria Federal Savings, Independence and LaSalle to discuss the needs of particular branches, Bradley Marketing Group designs training materials, prints them and places them in kits. The kits include mock documents that bank employees encounter on the job daily. Banks use the kits in role-playing exercises with new employees. Bradley Marketing Group warehouses all items placed in the kits, so additional materials can be shipped within 24 hours if needed.
The second recent addition to Bradley Marketing Group's services is its custom online company store offering, Catalog eStores. The distributorship recently spent $250,000 on updating its computer system as a push toward marketing internet-based products, DeAngelis says.
Catalog eStores, which has drawn interest from firms such as JP Morgan Chase, delicatessen products provider Boar's Head Brand, and George Weston Bakeries Inc., whose brands include Entenmann's®, Boboli®, and Thomas'® (of English muffin fame), allows clients to sell products to customers and offer employee sales and safety incentive programs. Products, which are presented in full-color photos accompanied by detailed descriptions, are organized by categories such as apparel, desk accessories, golf items, quick-ship items, and service and recognition awards. Bradley Marketing Group often warehouses the merchandise in its Hauppauge warehouse. Clients can log on to their company stores to submit orders and view order histories, order statuses, detailed order tracking information, real-time inventory details and more.
Selling Its Way to the Top
Because selling is in Bradley Marketing Group's blood (all six partners are former top sales representatives of large direct-selling manufacturers), they're committed to "selling the company 40 percent of the time," Melillo says. In order to reach its goal of $50 million in annual revenue within the next five years, the distributorship is recruiting experienced individuals to join its team of 36 full-time salespeople. "We're a company that's for salespeople, by salespeople," Melillo says.
Sounds like a strategy for a winning team.
