Operations Coordinator
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- Job function (e.g., overall role, assigned tasks)
The basis of my role at Xpogo was to maintain and improve its SalesForce databases containing information on past and potential clients in various performance circuits.
I also used research and analysis to categorize potential clients by size and probable budget.
In addition to database work I contributed to constructing sales strategies by reorganizing contact lists by priority, based on research of numerous variables dependent on circuit and client type. For this we used SaleForce’s various analytical tools.
- Examples of projects (e.g., list the projects you worked on and what you accomplished)
Maintain and improve SalesForce databases: Among my responsibilities in working with the database were standardizing format, verifying data accuracy and identifying missing or incorrect entries. Some of the data had been purchased and was found to be of poor quality or outdated. I suggested we add an input for regional data so that when the time came to develop a call list we could consider location as performers have to travel from various locations around the world and travel is a top expense to consider.
Categorize contacts: Each contact file contained inputs meant to help us categorize them. Again, we needed this info so that we could arrange them on the call list. Among the main elements under consideration were; “size” which was based on things like attendance, length of event and types of attractions; “anticipated budget” which we marked along a spectrum from very small to very large based on similar metrics but paying special attention to things like regular booking of nationally/internationally traveling acts etc.
Sales Strategy Development: To develop our sales strategies post-database work I contributed to the use of SalesForce analytics to find the contacts with the most potential to sign with Xpogo. We considered and weighed factors such as previous relationships/contacts, rate of deal success by circuit/region, size, budget or possible special cases (where we may have a relationship with an employee of a contact etc.)
- What you learned and how it relates to your major (e.g., describe what you learned from this experience in the context of specific courses)
This internship will likely remain among the most valuable learning experiences I have encountered so far in these early stages of my career path. To finally get a chance to roll up my sleeves and get to work with real, sometimes massive, often poorly assembled databases was as difficult as it was eye-opening.
First, being at a relatively small company I realized how crucial it is to maintain integrated departments and be able to consider the big picture. In each of my MIS courses professors have repeated that in order to perform effectively it’s crucial to understand the entire process. I now have a first-hand account of that truth.
More specifically however, I’ve learned that there are innumerable ways to approach MIS work. In Data Analytics, we were introduced to SQL, R and their complementing studios. These are great, highly applicable tools that could have been used to dive deeper into the work I did at Xpogo. However, SalesForce was chosen by Xpogo for its ability to enable sales from a much more broad range of capabilities. There are seemingly endless options and SalesForce and the tools within, while not taught in the MIS department, is just one. In such a rapidly expanding field you can’t possibly learn it all in school. It will be key for me to learn on my own to find my niche. Over all, I now know not only the true importance of “the 30,000 foot perspective” but how crucial it is to find a specialty in order to get and maintain an edge in such an expansive space.