Lorne I. Ordel, founder and president of Toronto-based Sales Dynamics (asi/316955), reflects on 50 years in the promo industry, his hobbies like painting and writing, and the future of the company.

Lorne Ordel, owner of Toronto-based Sales Dynamics (asi/316955), met former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the keynote speaker at ASI Orlando in 2020.

Q: When did you found Sales Dynamics?

A: In 1975, I was working for consumer brand Libby’s as a product manager and also handled new products. I began to prepare to become an entrepreneur – I wanted to create a small business. In my basement, I set up 8-foot boards on boxes where I put piles of paperwork relating to my research on various business ideas, including new products for Libby’s. My claim to fame is my introduction of Zoodles, a canned pasta, to the marketplace. Fifty years later, Zoodles is still on supermarket shelves.

Before joining Libby’s, I was a salesman for a Montreal company importing and decorating glassware, and the owner and I had kept in touch. One day I got a call from him, when he told me he had bought the rights to sell 1976 Montreal Olympics-licensed glassware and pottery. He wanted me to leave Libby’s and work for him, selling Olympics-logoed glassware and coffee mugs to the corporate world. I presented the idea of forming a partnership by creating a new company, but he wasn’t interested. For weeks, I held on and kept pushing for a partnership (one of my strengths is patience). Meanwhile, the 1976 Montreal Olympics was looming.

Finally, early on a Sunday morning, he called my home in Toronto and told me he was in the mood to become my partner, but I had to be in his office in Montreal before 2 p.m. that same day and he would cover the airfare. I got on a noon flight to Montreal, and I was in his office at 1:30. We put together a business plan and a budget, and that was the beginning of Sales Dynamics Inc. Years later, when Sales Dynamics was a successful promotional products agency, I bought him out and was on my own in Toronto.

Q: Has your family been involved?

A: I’ve been married to Raisy for 56 years, and she’s worked with me from the start. Initially she did the bookkeeping, but she never liked it. She wanted to start selling. So, we hired people to do the books and Raisy focused on working with nonprofit organizations.

Lorne and Raisy Ordel in May 2025

My son Rob was three years old when I started Sales Dynamics. He graduated from business school at the University of Western Ontario in 1996, and he started his career as an account executive at a Toronto-based printing company. After two years, he realized that sales might be his calling and decided that Sales Dynamics would be the ideal spot to harness his skills and passion for selling. He’s now been by my side for 27 years and is responsible for generating the bulk of Sales Dynamics’ revenue. In 2008, Rob bought 50% of Sales Dynamics, and we created a beautiful father-son partnership. Rob’s wife Kim joined Sales Dynamics five years ago and she’s become an integral part of our HR and marketing efforts.

A few years after Rob joined, our daughter Carolyn started at Sales Dynamics by answering phones. Carolyn got started in sales by sending out self-promo packs that were filled with products and ideas. Potential clients began to call her, saying that they never received such expensive and comprehensive promo packs. They soon became her clients and then her loyal clients. She continues to be an industry leader by marketing with powerful self-promo. Building meaningful relationships came naturally to all of us – none of us ever put money and profits before relationships.

One of our most loyal team members is Letizia Buglione, who joined us nearly 20 years ago. When her young sons came into the office, I gave them little jobs to do – I still have one of the toy cars that they used to play with. They’re now successful adults. I have so much respect for Letizia because she brought up her sons as a single mom while working full-time. Letizia is truly a part of our family business. I’ve long been “Uncle Lorne” to her, which makes me smile.

Today we have a small team of highly efficient employees. We’re a true family business, built on hard work, dedication and responsibility. I love the company and all the people who’ve made it a success.

Q: Who have been some of your key clients?

A: We were the preferred supplier for over a decade to Research in Motion, which became BlackBerry. My son Rob developed and handled the account and made himself available to them 24/7. I recall one time he went on a vacation to a resort and was taking calls and placing orders with suppliers (with his BlackBerry) while in a canoe. In those days, orders for 5,000 pens would come in before breakfast.

We tell our clients that we won’t let them make a mistake. We’ll tell them if the product they selected is not suitable for the project, or if the art they sent won’t work. We know what we’re doing, and we research what clients wish to achieve with the promo they select.

A Sales Dynamics advertisement from the 1990s

We love working with the major banks. For instance, my daughter Carolyn has cultivated relationships with Scotiabank over many years. She has consistently earned their trust and has diligently ensured that their requirements are fulfilled to the highest standard. To add a bit of humour, years ago she changed her email address from carolyn@ to care@salesdynamics.com, because she truly cares about her clients.

As the population ages, retirement homes and healthcare companies have become big business. Despite the recent restrictions on foreign students, the colleges and universities continue to use promotional products as a key tool in their marketing mix.

Q: What’s most important in promo relationships?

A: It’s all based on relationships. We say, give us the specs on your project; we’ll get it done with speed.

We’ve always sold the relationship first – that will never change. We always emphasized that our clients are working with a promotional products agency. It’s not just the products they’re ordering from us; we take an interest in what the promotional products will be used to achieve. In the promo business, timelines are of the utmost importance. Ensuring that a product is printed as per the artwork and delivered on time takes a lot of time, hard work, experience and detailed follow-up.

Q: How has your life changed over the past 50 years?

A: For 45 years, I went to my office five days a week and would stay after 5 p.m. When COVID-19 hit, Sales Dynamics provided PPE that we imported from China, so we were able to stay open when many businesses closed. I began to work from home and when COVID subsided, I began to come into the office once a week and anytime a specific event needed my attendance.

I also have a very specific breakfast that I’ve made every weekday morning for the past 40 years – I cover my plate with dried parsley before adding cooked vegetables, one sunny-side up egg and an All Dressed bagel. I’m convinced this breakfast has helped me get to 80 years old. After breakfast, I head to my home office and work until 2 p.m.

Lorne has written several self-published novels in the past several years.

I enjoy taking a daily bike ride, mostly in a nearby cemetery where there’s less traffic and fewer distracted drivers. While riding, I write novels in my mind and then late into the night I’ll write them out on my computer. In 2022, I self-published my second book, Love Me to the End of Life – two of my grandchildren and I designed the cover. I’ve always given the books away to interested people I meet along the way; I don’t sell them.

My current book, Papa, Can You Hear Me?, is about to go to the printers. I created the cover with AI, and I think it would make a fabulous Netflix series.

Q: What else do you enjoy doing in your free time?

A: I’ve led a reasonably balanced life as an entrepreneur. That is, I developed and maintained many other interests and activities.

In my 40s, I volunteered at a women’s shelter in downtown Toronto. This type of work made me tougher, more courageous and deeply compassionate. Although it’s very rare for a man to volunteer in a woman’s shelter, I spent one evening a week there for five years. One night a woman came to me and asked if I knew why the women accepted me, although they hated most men and for good reason. She said that I was brought up by my mom and I had none of the dark attributes of many men. She was surprisingly right.

I had a horse for many years. On Friday afternoons I would leave the office early and be on the back of Good Herb by 4 p.m. I rode outdoors, 12 months a year. When I got home for family Shabbat dinner, I felt like I had been on a rejuvenating mini-vacation. I had cleared my head of all the business issues. When my two kids were living at home, we lit the Shabbat candles, sang a short prayer and ate together. Business was never discussed during meals.

I started painting in grade six – I went to art class on Saturday mornings at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University). I was the youngest person in the class. Now, 68 years later, I still paint. Many of my acrylic paintings are on the walls in our homes in Toronto and Southwest Florida, and in our Don Mills, ON, office.

Lorne Ordel calls this piece “a mystical painting with a flow of colour and light that invites contemplation.”

My life is a testament to the fact that you can be a successful businessperson and entrepreneur, and still have a well-balanced life. In fact, if you have a host of other passions and interests, these will help you carve out a successful business. For example, your ability to speak to clients will be enhanced because you have a lot to share with them.

I have proven that it’s possible to run a successful distributorship and spend considerable time and energy developing other interests. To me, effectively balancing both business and pleasure is the real measure of success.

Self-promo mobile device stands that Ordel makes sure to have on hand.

For years I have been telling my family that I remain healthy because I’m still working. I’m fearful of retiring. Now at 80, I laugh to myself thinking that my body creaking isn’t arthritis; it’s early onset rigor mortis. I hope to be around for Sales Dynamics’ 60th anniversary.

From Rob Ordel: We’ve always focused on providing the highest level of personalized and trusted customer service that our clients both enjoy and value greatly. We believe, despite the shift to more automated and offshore customer service, that having experienced staff onsite and working closely with our clients will always be core competencies. As a family business we treat our clients as an extension of our family, and this promotes a trust level that takes the supplier/customer relationship to a higher level.

We embrace technology, we welcome AI, and these are and will continue to be important areas of how we do business. However, the key component that Sales Dynamics will continue and strive to perfect is the world-class customer service experience that we have provided to our clients for the last 50 years. I project many more successful years ahead.