This month’s expert series call features our guest Rena Huber, who is Director of the APS/AAAME Program. Rena has great advice to offer business owners about their sales and business development process from two perspectives. One, she spent years as a purchasing agent for a large corporation. Two, for ten years she has become a coach and mentor to a select group of owners of small businesses, with the goal to help those businesses grow and thrive. The award-winning AAAME program is a model for small business excellence and fast growth.
The focus of our interview will be understanding how purchasing agents think, what they want and need, and how you can position your company to sell successfully through a big company purchasing agent. It’s all about your Target Filter, the Buyers’ Table, and your proposed solution (whether presented face-to-face or through an RFP).
“APS/AAAME Program” stands for “Arizona Public Service” (APS) and the program is a two year business mentoring program for small, minority and women owned enterprises. This award winning program helps businesses grow via an intense combination of business training and one on one advisor work. Many of Arizona’s recognized fast-growth companies are AAAME graduates; and a large number have subsequently become whale hunting companies! Rena has directed this program since 2000 and is uniquely skilled at weaving the needs of AAAME companies with many collaborations and relationships within the Phoenix community to obtain a results-oriented program for all the participants of AAAME.
Rena has 20 years of professional purchasing experience in the utility industry, having worked at nuclear power plants as well as transmission and distribution areas. She also served as the Manager of Supplier Diversity and Development for APS. She has obtained a lifetime designation as a Certified Purchasing Manager via ISM.
This call is a free monthly teleconference, hosted by The Whale Hunters, devoted to topics relevant to the fast growth of small and midsized companies. Spaces are limited; you need to register to attend.
You will experience a 45-minute interview followed by 15 minutes of audience-directed questions to our guest. Please forward this invitation to your business-owner and sales executive friends with our compliments.
I look forward to talking with you next Wednesday! If you have specific questions for Rena, please feel free to post them here.
