Sales

My sales journey started in a mandatory course called Professional Selling, where I was first introduced to the fundamentals of sales, various techniques, and how it could benefit me. Later, I was introduced to the Program for Excellence in Sales, which marked a significant turning point in my development.

Program for Excellence in Selling

The Program for Excellence in Sales is recognized as the nation’s #1 sales program. It offers over 275+ hours of comprehensive sales training, including live sales quotas, role-plays, prospecting, and cold calling. The program spans two semesters, requiring students to complete five rigrious courses to earn their certification or minor in sales. It also partners with top companies such as Gartner, Eli Lilly, 3M, Service Corporation International, Delta, BMC, and many more.

In the first semester of the Program for Excellence in Selling, we are required to take 3 classes, Personal Branding, Advanced Professional Selling, and Customer Relationship Management. All the classes are interlinked but the main goals in each class was to find a mentor and convince them to pay for our jackets, achieve a quota of $1,000 and 4 golf players for the PES golf tournament, and create a video/website showcasing our personal brand. During this time here was what I learned:

Discipline, Courage, Practice

I never imagined I would end up in sales, but when one of the TAs in my Professional Selling class pointed out that being a great listener could lead to success in this field, my perspective shifted. I never viewed myself as a talkative or charming person. However, seeing the confidence and strong work ethic of my the members in the program, motivated me to join the program. I underwent a rapid mental transformation that challenged my potential. I had always thought change would be slow and steady, but I learned that it doesn’t have to be that way when I really discipline myself, push beyond my comfort zone, and keep practicing. I realized I had changed when others started to see me as an extrovert rather than an introvert, and when I took the MBTI and shifted from INFJ-T to ENFJ-A and the confidence I exude when it came to public speaking. This surprised me because, deep down, I still felt like an introvert and I usually stutter when I do public speaking; I hadn’t fully recognized how much I changed.

Persistence

Sales is not easy, and it isn’t for everyone. As my professor often said, it’s a "dog-eat-dog" world where you reap what you sow. There were times I struggled with imposter syndrome and questioned whether sales was the right path for me. However, one thing I’ve always known about myself is that I never give up on something I’ve started. With every email and cold call, I made sure to follow up and persist through all the "no's," knowing that each rejection brought me closer to a yes. Everyone is busy and juggling multiple tasks, so my goal was to keep reminding them and strive to stay top of mind as much as possible.

Time Management

Time management has never been an issue for me, but this semester truly tested my skills. I wasn't just balancing my sales quota and cold calling; I was also managing three other classes (totaling 18 credit hours), serving as a mentor for the Asian Business Student Association, attending a Mandarin class every Sunday, and occasionally babysitting on weekends. Throughout the program, I discovered that Google Calendar would be my lifeline moving forward. It significantly reduced my stress and enabled me to succeed in all my responsibilities this semester.

Second semester I took Digital Selling and Sales Management. Digital Selling allowed us to know what roles there are out there in the work force and see what it is like doing those roles. Some of these roles are Business Development Role/Sales Development Role (BDR/SDR), Customer Relationship Manager, and Sales analytics. Each role we took part in for each project had different quotas that we had to achieve. For Sales management, the main goal was to achieve the quota of one career booth for the PES sales career fair. During this semester I learned:

Consistency

Discipline and consistency are closely connected. By setting aside time to block out for task, it allowed me to establish boundaries, and saying "no" to some plans showed how much i priotize the task at hand. I became more productive with my time, which allowed me to become the Champion of the Week in my digital selling class during our project on learning what it mean to become a Busienss Development Representative (BDR) or Sales Development Representative (SDR). Consistency + Discipline = Success

Sales is not just Cold Calling

When we think of sales, we often focus on the surface-level aspects, but there are many operations happening behind the scenes, as I learned in my digital selling class. Becoming familiar with roles like customer relations management and using sales analytics during our projects showed me that I don’t always need to be prospecting or sending emails if that’s not where my strengths lie. Skills like creative thinking, research, asking the right questions, and finding ways to help customers are just as valuable and can be applied to different roles within the sales field. Which ultimately lead to my team to win the sales analytics competition and gain a scholarship of $2,000 together.

Team 10 out of 10 winning the scholarship

Presentation

Mattress Firm Internship

Because of the Program for Excellence in Selling partnership with multiple companies and the ability to network with these said companies. I had the opportunity to interview and network with some amazing sales representatives at Mattress Firm. It allowed me to have a deeper understand of Mattress Firm culture and values, their training process, internship process, work life balance, management style, how managers act as leader, and so much more! The internship was a three month long program and I learned so much about not just knowing how to be a better sales representative but how I could improve myself better in the corporate world.

Owning Your Business

My coworker encouraged me to think of our work as our own business, and since we own this business, we must do everything we can to make it successful. The little things we do for our customers can make a significant difference, as we enhance their mattress shopping experience from start to finish. Mattress shopping has a reputation for being worse than a trip to the dentist. Therefore, as sleep experts (also known as sales representatives), we need to consider what would make the experience more convenient and enjoyable for the customer, putting ourselves in their shoes throughout this journey.

Learning how to be Adaptable

During my time in the Program for Excellence in Selling, we had the ability of using past history notes with the use of Salesforce and contacting the pervious person who contacted them. During this internship this was something that we could exactly due. Though we had a system similar to Salesforce where we could add notes, not many Sleep Experts (also known as sales representatives) utilize the tool, or customer would come back to buy. It taught me to quickly be on my feet and learned how to meet someones energy and needs as quickly as possible, since the chances of them coming back were usually low.

Future Plans

Gain more experience in sales in a different Industry
Become more confident to overcome objections
Become quicker on my feet by connecting the dot with comments and question to undercover their needs