AIA Corporation, Appleton, Wis., announced that industry veterans Julie Ross and Michael Singer have joined the company as business development managers.
Ross and Singer will expand AIA’s business development team, which is accountable for attracting and recruiting new distributors to the AIA owner community. They also will partner with AIA’s owner success team to support the sales planning and onboarding efforts for all new distributors. Ross and Singer will report to Kimberly Fulford, senior vice president of owner success. Fulford is accountable for business development at AIA, in addition to overseeing owner success and marketing. This mix of accountabilities positions Fulford to focus on owner recruiting and facilitating sales growth for AIA’s existing owners.
“We often hear from our existing and new AIA distributors how our tight-knit AIA community, highly engaged support teams, and breadth of technical, sales planning and company store resources are critical to their success,” said Fulford. “With Julie and Michael on board, they will connect with even more like-minded distributors who align with our core values and want to join one of the leading distributorships in the industry, while still maintaining their independent spirit.”
Ross comes to AIA with two decades of sales and marketing experience overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets and continually exceeding her sales goals. As an account services manager with a top-five promotional products industry distributor, Ross was a strategic partner for sales representatives helping them identify, solidify and maintain client opportunities and relationships.
“With experience in driving new client acquisitions in this industry, I look forward to meeting prospective AIA owners, understanding their strengths and pain points, and delivering solutions to help them succeed,” Ross said.
Singer has spent more than 20 years in distributor and promotional products services, and is fully ingrained in the sales, marketing, operational and financial aspects of the promotional products industry.
Most recently, Singer was senior vice president at a Midwest-based distributorship, where he achieved sales growth of more than 20 percent during a five-year period through solution selling. He also hired, trained, developed and managed sales and support staff.
“I understand the obstacles, needs and wants of today’s distributor, and I’m excited to connect with them to share how AIA’s robust resources and strong community can help reach their goals,” Singer said. “It was evident to me that AIA’s strong corporate values are an integral part of how they help entrepreneurs grow their business, and it’s a company I definitely wanted to be a part of.”
For more information on AIA, visit www.aiacommunity.com.
