Sell Me This Pen

On an average day, how many times do you think you try to sell something? Whether that is your credibility, a product, or even something as simple as a pen? Well, this summer, I had the grueling honor and task to sell advertising through a collegiate company based from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

For ten days at the beginning of summer, I traveled to the beautiful campus of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and went through the company's sales training program known as "Sales Foundation Academy" where my title was a Sales Team Leader. I attended a leadership training session for 3 days before the sales representatives arrived to learn sales training. Once they arrived, I met the rest of my team, which consisted of UIUC students interested in cold sales. This 10 day training was the hardest, most worth-while experience of my life.

After returning back to the UIUC campus, I was in charge of holding daily and evening meetings with my team as we strived to hit a sales goal for our university. We were to go on 32 cold sales calls a day and sell advertising space in a university planner, as well as endorsing a collegiate food app known as UConnection.

This summer, as a team, we set a regional standard as the number one team selling over $60,000 in advertising for the local collegiate area. In our region were schools such as, Notre Dame University, Saint Louis University, Ball State University, Illinois State University, Purdue University and many more.

Overall, I learned this summer a seriously important life lesson. Working in or with sales is a brutal, unique experience that every single person needs to have in my opinion. I stepped out of my "ag" comfort zone this summer and jumped into a entirely different world. I learned who I want to be and where I want to go in life; something I hope everyone gets to experience someday as well!