Bearing Protection Specialists From Around The World Gather In Florida For Annual Inpro/Seal Sales Meeting, Training Sessions, Learn Corporate Initiatives For 2009

Inpro/Seal Company held their annual sales meeting in Fort Myers, Florida Jan. 2,3, 2009. The two-day conference was designed to bring Inpro/Seal regional managers up-to-date in every aspect of the firm's products and applications, help further their ongoing commitment to provide world class customer support and maintain their worldwide leadership position.

Rock Island, IL (PRWEB) February 7, 2009 -- Inpro/Seal Company held their annual sales meeting in Fort Myers, Florida Jan. 2,3, 2009. Chaired by David C. Orlowski, CEO and inventor of the bearing isolator and Jim Lapaczonek Sales Manager, the two-day conference was designed to bring Inpro/Seal regional managers up-to-date in every aspect of the firm's products and applications, help further their ongoing commitment to provide world class customer support and maintain their worldwide leadership position.

The Bearing Isolator

Invented by David C. Orlowski (patent #4,022,479), the bearing isolator is a non-contact, non-wearing, permanent bearing protection device. It has a rotor and a stator, and the two are unitized, so that they don't separate from one another while in use. Typically, the rotor turns with the rotating shaft, while the stator is pressed into a bearing housing. The two components interact to keep contamination out of the bearing enclosure and the lubricant in. Its main competitor, the lip seal or contact seal operates with contact, the bearing isolator makes no contact, never wears out and can be used over and over for many years. Contact seals, on the other hand, have a 100% failure rate.

Inpro/Seal regional managers

A typical Inpro/Seal regional manager is a highly trained professional with special training in lubrication, rotating equipment, manufacturing processes, bearing protection and sealing technologies. With their technical knowledge, process and application know how, they are able to handle an end user needs with the fastest time frame in the industry. Direct employees, they supervise an assigned area and manage a growing distributor network. They are responsible for: distributor relations, sales, end user contact, training and the implementation of corporate policy.

The Programme

The meeting began with an address by Orlowski, President/CEO of Inpro/Seal Company. In his opening comments, Orlowski stated that the regional managers are important as they make day-to-day contact in the field. He also stated that the firm's cumulative efforts including the regional managers, management, staff and distributors are key to the world class support, product development and enhancement that fuels their growth. Tom Riley, an authority in sales and motivation conducted a seminar on the importance of selling practices and how that affects corporate growth while contributing to their world-class support efforts.

Importance Of Training

According to Orlowski, "Our products are sold extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, the Pacific Rim and Europe through our regional managers who work with established distributor and OEM organizations. Though, we have invested heavily in our facilities and our products and are building the highest levels of awareness for both our products and non-contacting technology, it remains critical to keep our people up-to-date. Long ago, I learned that the best customer is an educated customer and the reason for our ongoing training programs. We not only invest in our products, we also invest in our people."

Training Is Ongoing

According to Jim Lapaczonek, Sales Manager and moderator for the sessions, "Training at Inpro/Seal never stops. Aside from our annual meeting, our Regional Managers also attend intensive training sessions at our corporate campus. For distributors, there are three formal workshops during the year at our facility and numerous regional workshops during the year. In addition, distributors travel with the regional managers where they receive one-on-one training. This type of training is also conducted in our overseas operations".

Review of 2008

In his review of 2008, Orlowski highlighted sales and marketing activities that included a 14% increase in sales over 2007. Other accomplishments for 2008 include: an increase in sales for the 31st consecutive year; same day deliveries played a key role in this increase; distributor relationships continue to be important; the Air Mizer™ Series Shaft Seal, fairly new to their line-up was their fastest growing product; the IEEE 841 Motors which offer bearing isolators as a standard specification have become widely accepted; International is now 30% of their business; lip seals are fast losing favor and as they do are being replaced with bearing isolators; Inpro/Seal has firmly established itself as the preferred brand of bearing isolator; the Air Mizer™ Shaft Seal was awarded Product Of The Year by a leading trade magazine; despite economic conditions, the company invested nearly one million dollars in facilities and equipment.

2009 Will Be Even Better

Orlowski went on to reveal; product marketing, strategic planning and communications initiatives for 2009. For 2009 the company anticipates: increased product awareness and brand preference will continue; the IEEE 841 motors will maintain to play an important role; the Air Mizer series will grow by a minimum of 20%; distributor relationships will get even stronger; investments in the future will continue; contact seal converts will increase significantly; International efforts will be expanded; the growth of the Air Mizer will lead to new applications; media relations such as paid advertising and editorial opportunities will continue at the highest levels. In addition, tying into their Educate and Inform marketing philosophy, the company plans to revise all corporate literature, bringing it up-to-date with the latest information. All literature will be available electronically on their website.

Successful Meeting

According to Jason Putman, Director of Marketing, who helped plan the event, "The purpose our annual meeting is to have our people from around the world get together in order to: cover the latest non-contacting technology and product developments; discuss year-end results; learn about what is planned for the upcoming year; and importantly, confer with other regional managers through round table discussions. When the meeting was over our regional managers returned to their respective territories with a fresh prospective of the company, its products and plans".

Board Of Directors Meeting

The next day, January 4, the company held their annual Board Of Directors Meeting. When asked about the significance of this meeting Orlowski replied, "We are at a unique point in our history as the eyes of the process industries are focused on Inpro/Seal, where we maintain top of mind awareness, which took us over 30 years attain. Our plans for 2009 will give us the resources and the exposure to further this position. The board unanimously approved these plans, setting the tone for next year in the process".

About Inpro/Seal

Inpro/Seal Company is the originator and the world's number one manufacturer of bearing isolators, used to protect motor and pump bearings, machine tool spindles, turbines, fans, gear boxes, paper machine rolls and many other types of rotating equipment. Additional applications include the sealing, handling, processing, packing and storage of dry particulates, powders and bulk solids.

Of the 4,000,000+ bearing isolators delivered, almost all of them continue to be in operation in process plants worldwide, where end users continue to report significantly reduced operating costs with increased productivity and reliability. Protected bearings have run 150,000 hours (17 years) or more, eliminating the need for costly maintenance and repair. Documented cases show that a plant can more than double the mean-time-between failure (MTBF) and reduce maintenance costs by at least half, with users reporting an extremely high ROI.

Signoff

For more information on authentic Inpro/Seal Bearing Isolators or shaft seals, free literature or the name of the nearest trained distributor contact: Jason Putnam at: Inpro/Seal Company, P.O. Box 3940, Rock Island, Illinois 61204. Phone numbers are: (800) 447-0524 or (309) 787-4971. Fax number is: (309) 787-6114. Website: www.inpro-seal.com or www.bearingisolators.com

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