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FEATURE
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Head Of The Class
PPAI Professional Development Over The Years
“The Geiger Way, our company’s value
statement, includes the following: ‘Our
associates are by far our most valuable
asset. We will hire talented people, train
and empower them, and recognize their
accomplishments.’
“We believe that investing in our
associates’ achievement of industry
certification makes themmore credible
to our customers and sales partners, and
better able to provide a higher level of
customer satisfaction,” she says.
Distributor firm AIA Corporation
(UPIC: advinadv) in Neenah, Wisconsin,
took its training programs up a notch
roughly four years ago, certifying its on-
site training classes through PPAI.
“We recognized that to better meet the
needs of our customers we had to expand
our staff orientation and ongoing training
program and focus on excellent customer
service as well as a deeper knowledge
of the complexities of the promotional
products industry,” says Marie
Miller, MAS+, director of continuous
improvement for AIA. “The certification
program is important because it gives
everyone a goal to strive for as well as
additional knowledge and credibility with
our customers.”
Miller says by providing new staff
members with a broader understanding
of the overall industry and the supply
chain, and by increasing product
awareness, “we’re able to bring them up
to speed quickly so they can build lasting
relationships with our customers.”
Even though certification isn’t
mandatory, 82 percent of AIA associates
are certified, something Miller says is
indicative of the quality of the training
program as well as the significance of
certification. Employees who earn PPAI
certifications are recognized through
announcements, on the company plaque,
and with bonus points toward AIA’s
company incentive program.
In addition to providing internal
professional development, AIA partners
with a nearby college to invite instructors
who teach skill building in core
business areas such as communication,
technology, performance management
and customer service, she says. “Often
these classes are certified through
PPAI, so our associates get the benefits
of a fresh, outside perspective, a
business-experienced instructor and
credits toward their certification.”
The payoff for professional development
doesn’t stop with the individual
learner, says Miller. “The impact is
seen in numerous ways including
higher customer satisfaction results,
increased employee engagement and an
overall sense of cultural unity.”
Today’s PPAI Certification program is the culmination of
decades of dedication on the part of Association members
who believed that formal industry education was important to
increasing the legitimacy of promotional products as a business
and the professionalism of the men and women who earn their
livelihoods from it.
PPAI’s formal professional education began as an
Executive Development Seminar in 1961. The curriculum
for the eight-day session was created by industry pioneers
including Jim Albert and Ralph Thomas, with a hyperfocus on
specialty advertising business. The supplier and manufacturer
participants—then called jobbers and manufacturers—were
awarded with diplomas at the conclusion of the seminar that
conferred upon them the newly minted designation of Certified
Advertising Specialist.
Sales training clinics were added to the roster in the
late 1960s, and in 1983 the Master Advertising Specialist
designation was established, along with the adoption of certified
education units, or CEUs, as the formal measure of skills
attained to achieve CAS and MAS status.
Since the program’s inception, more than 5,000 members
of the industry have achieved a CAS, MAS or MAS+ designation.
The industry’s dedication to continuing professional development
is a testament to the efforts of those early Association leaders
who believed that education makes the industry stronger.
Photo provided by Gene Geiger, MAS.
The 1973 CAS class was an all-male group. Even in the mid-’70s few
women were active in the industry.
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JANUARY 2017
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