Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the PROSALES Excellence Awards program once again recognizes the best-of-the-best facilities, programs, and people in residential construction supply. In late July, a panel of industry experts selected this year's winners in the categories of Marketing/Customer Service and Showroom Design. (Underscoring the desire to restrict the awards only to those entries that reflected true excellence in the industry, the judges did not give a prize in the Facility Design category.) For the first time, the judging panel made a total of four awards—including two honorable mentions—in the category of Showroom Design, proof of both the overwhelming popularity and necessity of showrooms and design centers in today's builder economy and the extreme diversity that dealers and specialty suppliers are willing to explore with their showroom investments.

From millwork showrooms that include sculpture and museum-quality displays to a stone landscaping showroom and a pro dealer lighting laboratory and sales center, the 2006 PROSALES Excellence Award winners are not only extending the boundaries on display and design but also are pulling the building materials supply chain closer together in their attempts to collectively educate architect, contractor, and homeowner alike.

Approaching corporate promotion from a similar full-channel perspective, this year's honoree for Marketing/Customer Service makes an equally impressive investment of commitment and creativity, involving community, customers, and vendors in a full-scale marketing approach that literally takes to the skies.

Excellence Awards Links

PROSALES thanks the 2006 judging panel: Mike Butts, president, LBM Solutions, a DeWitt, Mich.–based education, training, and business coaching organization; Rich Cortese, president, Gaithersburg, Md.–based TW Perry; and Rick Davis, president, Building Leaders, a Chicago-based sales training organization.