My summer 2014 internship
This summer, I worked for a marketing firm called First Class Consulting as an Account Associate. First Class Consulting is a branch from the company called Cydcor. The office is located in Marlton, New Jersey. First Class Consulting represents fortune 500 companies to help market products. The client we currently represent is Direct Energy. Direct Energy is the largest energy provider in the United States. As an Account Associate, my responsibility was to reach my weekly sales quota by meeting 20-30 business owners daily, consulting them of their power usage and monthly payments, managing my own schedule and appointments, keeping record of sales, and most importantly, closing the deal.
From this internship I’ve learned many invaluable things. I worked in a team of 20 and more associates. Not only was our goal to reach our own quotas, but to also help those who are struggling to reach theirs. The important lesson here is the efficiency of team work. Together as a team we are able to go above and beyond our standards. Also, from this internship I learned the importance of managing your schedule. Rarely will business owners take time out of their day to accommodate yours. Given that I see 20-30 business owners a day, it was very important for me to schedule my appointments according to their availability. The most important skill I learned from this experience is how to communicate with different people. Every client I come across is different. We are trying to market the company’s product, but essentially we are trying to sell ourselves. Business owners decide within the first couple seconds if they want to speak with you or not. In other words, I only had a couple seconds to break the ice and sell myself to the business owner. All these skills together helped me reach standards and deadlines, manage my schedule, and to communicate efficiently with each and every business owner I come across.