Skyline x Trulite
Building a True Strategic Partnership: Skyline Design x Trulite
When Trulite and Skyline Design first sat down together, the goal was simple: bring beautiful, high performance specialty glass products to a much wider audience without losing what made each company unique.
What followed was a full strategic partnership. Together, we launched two new branded product lines, built a shared marketing engine, and put real systems behind quoting, order entry, and execution so this was more than a logo swap. It became a repeatable growth channel for both sides.
Setting the Stage: Why the Partnership Mattered
Skyline Design is known for design forward, specialty glass products. Trulite brings national reach, deep fabrication capabilities, and a broad customer base across distribution, glazing, and national accounts.
Both sides saw the same opportunity:
Architects and owners wanted more privacy, design flexibility, and branded environments.
Glaziers and fabricators needed a simpler way to source those solutions from a trusted supplier.
Trulite wanted differentiated products that moved the conversation away from purely price driven commodity glass.
The solution was a formal partnership that brought Skyline’s technology and design together with Trulite’s scale under two new brands: Truswitch and Truboard.
Designing the Partnership, Not Just the Product
From the start, we treated this as a strategic partnership, not a one off program. That meant answering questions in four areas before we ever announced a launch.
Commercial structure
How would pricing, discounts, and freight work so both sides could win?
How would we handle territories, key accounts, and conflicts?
Product and branding architecture
How do we position Truswitch and Truboard as Trulite brands, while honoring Skyline as the innovation engine behind them?
How do we keep the offer clean and easy for reps to explain and customers to understand?
Operational flow
How does a quote move from Trulite to Skyline and back again without creating friction for the customer?
How do we make one source of truth for specs, pricing, and lead times?
Go-to-market enablement
How do we equip 65+ sales reps, branches, and inside teams to confidently sell something new?
How do we keep the messaging consistent in the field, online, and in print?
Once those pieces were aligned, we shifted into execution.
Building the Marketing Engine: Truswitch and Truboard
Launching a new product line is one thing. Launching a new category inside a traditionally commodity driven industry is something else. We built the marketing around three principles: clarity, consistency, and real tools for reps.
1. Print assets that sell, not just look good
We developed a full print suite for both Truswitch and Truboard, including:
Market ready lookbooks designed for architects, glaziers, and end users
Product one pagers that distilled technical specs into simple language and use cases
Sample kit inserts and leave behinds that explained “what this is,” “when to use it,” and “how to get it quoted”
Every print piece had a purpose: either to spark interest, answer the next question, or make it easier to move a project into the quoting stage.
2. Digital and website presence that matched the story
Next, we brought the partnership online, aligning Skyline’s design focused identity with Trulite’s commercial voice:
Dedicated product pages on Trulite.com with clear positioning, specs, and application photos
Integrated Truswitch and Truboard content into broader market lookbooks (hospitality, healthcare, office, stadium, education) so reps could tell a complete story, not just pitch a single product
Downloadable technical resources and sales sheets that branches and customers could access on demand
The goal was simple: whether someone heard about Truswitch and Truboard from a rep, a sample kit, or a web search, they landed in the same story with the same language.
3. Sales enablement and training tied to real deals
Marketing only matters if the field can use it. We built a full enablement layer around the launch:
Live trainings walking reps through when to position Truswitch vs Truboard, how they solve problems in real projects, and what questions to ask
Talk tracks and objection handling around price, lead time, and “why not stay with what we’ve always used”
Simple internal guides showing how to request a quote, what information Skyline needs, and how to set expectations with customers
Instead of one big launch call that everyone forgets, we integrated these products into ongoing training, lookbook rollouts, and strategic account planning.
Making It Real: Quoting, Order Entry, and Systems
A partnership only works if the operational side is as strong as the marketing. We spent as much time on systems and process as we did on design.
Building a clear quoting flow
Early on, we documented the full end to end path of an opportunity:
Rep identifies a Truswitch or Truboard opportunity on a project.
Rep gathers a defined set of information (sizes, units, configurations, wiring or hardware needs, timeline, etc.).
Information is submitted through an internal quoting path that routes to Skyline while keeping Trulite as the customer’s main point of contact.
Skyline generates pricing within agreed frameworks and returns it to Trulite.
Trulite presents the quote in a familiar format so the customer experiences one unified brand.
We then:
Created quote templates that made it easy for Skyline to plug in numbers while keeping the Trulite brand forward.
Defined lead time and communication expectations so reps knew what to promise and customers knew what to expect.
Documented exceptions, custom requests, and escalation paths so the process would hold up under real world pressure.
Aligning order entry and ERP
On the back end, we needed Truswitch and Truboard to behave like “normal” Trulite products inside the system:
Built interim workflows using standardized SKUs and quote documents while full ERP part numbers were being implemented.
Mapped how orders flow between Trulite and Skyline so neither side was chasing status in email.
Clarified invoicing and revenue recognition so accounting matched the commercial structure of the partnership.
The result was a quoting and order entry system that felt simple to the customer, even though two companies were working behind the scenes.
Early Impact and Momentum
In the first months after launch, the partnership began to validate itself quickly:
Trulite generated a strong pipeline of Truswitch and Truboard opportunities, with millions in quoted volume of brand new product.
Purchase orders started to land from core accounts that previously only saw Trulite as a commodity supplier.
Internal adoption grew as reps saw that these products opened more strategic conversations with architects, owners, and GCs.
Just as important, Skyline and Trulite had a shared operating rhythm: regular check ins, feedback from the field, and a roadmap for future enhancements.
What This Partnership Model Proves
The Skyline Design x Trulite relationship is about more than two product lines. It is a blueprint for what a real strategic partnership looks like:
A clear value story that benefits the customer, not just the partners
Joint branding and marketing that feels unified instead of bolted together
Systems for quoting and order entry that reduce friction instead of adding complexity
Shared training and enablement so everyone in the field knows how to win together
When those pieces line up, a partnership stops being “nice to have” and starts becoming a real growth engine.
