A minute for everybody to get on here. And thank you for having your videos on so we can see you and you can obviously see us. Kelly is everybody in. Yeah, we should be good to go. Wow, I actually see a few of my students. This is great. You're attending. I see Alex. Alex smiling there from Baltimore, Maryland. There you go. Welcome everyone. So I think it's two after the hour. Kelly, do you think it's good to kick it off and to start? Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Well, welcome everybody. I know it's a lot of bad weather if you're living here in the Northeast. So thank you for making this even with some bad weather. This is the first of the superstar selling series that we had for the spring for all of you students. So it's one of many. So hopefully we're going to add a lot of value to you and that you'll keep coming every Friday. My name is John Scott and I'm one of the University of Delaware adjunct professors in the selling minor program. Suresh sunroom, the director of the program, usually host these every Friday. But she rash, unfortunately has a family emergency and had to go to India suddenly and he's going to be over there for a couple of weeks. So I'm going to pitch in and try to help him out. The sweet. We have a lot of great people to talk to you and we'll introduce them to you in a moment here. These last for about an hour max. We typically have a presentation or a dialogue like we'll have today for 30 minutes or 45 minutes. And then we'd love to have interaction with you students, right? So please start thinking of some questions that you can ask live a little later on in the program. Or if you don't like to ask live, that's okay. You can send a question in the chat room. And today's topic that you set that yet signed up for was, how do you find a job, a sales job? In today's environment? In today's environment, It's real different than what it was 12 or 14 months ago, right? Especially with COVID coming in. So that's kind of what we're going to be talking about. And other than thanking the, the three speakers that will introduce shortly, I wanted to thank all of us students for attending. I appreciate your attendance. And also I wanted to thank some of the UD sales minor sponsors that we have as part of our program, they may be attending as well. And maybe at the end if we have some time, we'll have them introduce themselves as well. So with that as the backdrop, I'd like to really thank the three speakers that we have here today to talk to you about a number of things and they're really cool people and really experts in their field. And it's Scott Reagan and Jim Fisher, and it's Jeff stencils. And gentlemen. Welcome. And I'd like to have the three of your first kick this off by maybe just introducing yourself, you know, little about your company and a little about your role. And out of a random order. How about if I start with Jim Fisher? Everybody. And my company is called concretize on the Vice President of Sales. And we'd are the industry leader in advertising on uber cars. Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub on those things. So if you've ever seen a wrapped car driving around, dance concretized. You're out of Boston, right? Yeah. The headquarters right to Wilmington and actually the two founders were University of Delaware grads. So we started a company and Wilmington the yeah, I'm personally out of Boston. Okay. Great. Great. And I use the CEO was a UTI rat and you mentioned another another individual as well. So thanks for jumping on. Yeah. Hey, Scott Reagan, how about your How about yourself? Well, good afternoon. My name is Scott Reagan and I'm the Education Services Manager for ecosystem services. So we're a software as a service consulting company that faith in the Washington DC area. I actually used to live and work in DC and worked out of the office until COVID happened. And now I'm living and working out of my home here in South Carolina. And we've got a lot of my colleagues that work across the country, even one of my colleagues that lives and works in South Korea. So all of our opportunities are remote. And what we do is we have a software platform that really helps large enterprise companies tell effective value storied, and tailoring the message around that specific solution to resonate with the customer as far as the outcomes they're trying to achieve. So we've been around for almost 22 years now and I've been with the company for almost 3.5 years. So thank you, Scott, and welcome. Chuck. And then the third, just tensile. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, John. As he said, I'm Jeff, I'm also working remote just like everybody else is nowadays, but I am down in Raleigh, North Carolina. I worked for Gartner who we are the global leader in research that advisory services, savvy, if you're familiar with consulting research advisory is very similar to that. And how we're helping our clients is we're connecting them with research, data, insights, connections or analysts to help them solve those big business problems that they're facing like this big challenges as mission critical priorities. They're keeping them up at night. We help them navigate those issues and help them work through those problems and are either with Gartner for a little under four years now. And most of our starting operations are in Florida or taxes, but we're in OS every mid to large metropolitan area around the country where to a 100 countries around the world. So we're a little bit a little bit of everywhere. Great. Yeah. Thank you, Jeff. And thanks for the three of you. Again attending here and sharing your expertise with with with our UT students. Got a couple of questions that I have for all of you. And getting a different perspective I think is really cool. So the first question that I have for the three of you is, is, you know, how has hiring changed for you in the last 12 to 15 months, specifically around this COVID-19 environment. If you can kind of share that at a high level, that would be perfect. And and Jeff, why don't we why don't we start with you. So I mean, it's, it's it's changed pretty significantly in terms of what we're looking for and how're we had to evolve our training program are recruiting program. Give you an example. Today is one of our what we call invitational days. It's a final round in interview day for seniors that are interviewing for one of our consultative sales roles. In the past. If we would have flown people down to Dallas or Fort Myers and done a whole day of it. Now that's for that's in a virtual environment. And so we've had a transition, everything from how we interact with our clients to how we interact with college students like yourselves. So everything is transition in the past year. But I think what, what hasn't is just the communication channels in the growth and development opportunities at Gartner for us as college students. In the past, we might have been on campus speaking to a class and in person or we would have it at networking fair, career fair competition, and all those things that transition into a virtual environment where those things are happening and z and rooms or Microsoft Teams or via Webex, they are all platforms that we utilized. So just everything's move to a virtual environment. So I think just the environment has changed, but our hiring goals are still intact right now. And thanks. Scott, your perspective. Well per acre, we really haven't seen that dramatic of a change because we've been utilizing virtual meetings to engage with our our clients and also that's part of our sales process. I mean, yes, we would have people come into the office to do interviews. But I'll give you an example that we actually had a 35 percent hiring increase last year despite the pandemic. So we're a fairly small organization, but we hired like 15 new people. So for us that the coronavirus pandemic has really not had a negative impact on our business and really not a negative impact on our hiring. It's actually really helped it. We started our Academic Partnerships about a couple of years ago, and we're really kinda gotten them off the ground last year. So nothing has really changed from a hiring perspective for our partners that I mean, that everything's been working out great and great. And Jim, your thoughts? We've had a lot of structural differences. The Zooms now instead of come to the office. But from really more of a personal standpoint, we're looking for people a little bit differently now, what are the advantages I think you all have is, is understanding the digital world, being able to work from home and you guys are experiencing now where we've got to pay attention to that. Because if we're in a sales role, hiring somebody doesn't really get how to do or how to structure their days. That's important now than it was in the past. But also our business. Like a lot of businesses, there's some earns uncertainty in the future, nowhere in the advertising business. So some people are on advertising as much. I'm going to advertise more. So really, what I'm looking for is people who are more motivated and more driven. Then probably I would have a few months ago where we might not offer as high as a salary to start, but it might be heavier in commission to find people who are willing to bet on themselves. They give us the flexibility that, Hey, have you perform well, we'll pay you really well. But if you don't perform well, It's more on you. And COVID has really driven that for us, even more so because we've gotta be flexible with how the rest of the year it's going to pan out. So Jim, let me come back to you with it with a follow on question and I'll come back to Jeff and Scott in a moment here. You know, the students signed up for this seminar here on a Friday afternoon, which we appreciate. And they're all yellow. And the topic is, is, you know, some of the ways, whether it's creative or whatever, what are the ways that you have found students for finding full-time sales jobs or even full-time marketing jobs, whatever jobs they are. How are they finding them out? I'm a pretty strong believer in like it. If when you come that is school, I think you got to find what you want to do, like what you're passionate about. Don't tell a story real quick. I was passionate about the Philadelphia Eagles. I love football and I really want to work in some capacity with eagles. So I got an interview with The Eagles radio network. I did all the normal stuff of applying and I'm reaching out, we're following up. I think that's the basic. But after the interview, which I thought I did great on, they called me and said, Hey, we just think you're too young for the job. Sorry, come back to us in a few years. And I didn't take no for an answer there. So I went back, I create a proposal, why I would be a good fit, how I would bring value Iraq that proposal up in like a one day FedEx. Send it to the boss, though he get it. And I will just let you hire me. I outgrew my value. But would you guy and I ended up getting a job just a couple days later after then suddenly I was too young to know what sales like. You know, your job is to sell to people. Well, that should start in the interview process. You want to get a full-time job, especially at a company where you want to work, just draw on your resume in following up the HR manager every once in awhile like that's not going to separate. You gotta go figure out who the boss is. Figure out who the CEO is. Follow up, follow up, follow up, get created. We find how you can bring value. Come up with ideas, even if you're not a 100 percent sure of what exactly you'd be able to do. Just come up with an idea that might be different. That would help you stand out because everybody has their own resumes and everybody's phone up, HR, math, you should be selling you yourselves from the second you start the interview process. Even get the interview start. Great point. And I really like it because you're an Eagles fan. Hey, hey, hey, hey Jeff. The ways that you've seen college students or students coming out of college, fine tribes, any any any advice or any thoughts. Yeah, I love what Jim said there about just standing out, finding a way to separate yourself and, and probably in this environment, it could be a little bit more difficult, right? You're not maybe having those employers come to campus anymore or you're not meeting with people face to face, maybe as much as you would have in the past and in some situations you wouldn't have had the opportunity. And so how, how do you stand out? And so in addition to being persevering like Jim did there, It's finding if you if you find a company that your passion about like a lot of times what companies are doing in this environment is there. They're hosting webinars, professional development sessions, other ways that we think that we could present value to our clients and to recruits. So being a part of those, I know a lot of companies that are doing case studies or role-plays or competitions or different things like that. That might seem scary to a college student, but really this is an opportunity, put yourself out there. It's also an opportunity to get some feedback. And then I loved what Jim said just about following up, whether be your initial communication, whether it be email would be a letter, whether it be LinkedIn, whatever it might be, you will find a way to stand out. Whether it be something that you've done research wise about their company that really you find that resonates with you. Or maybe it's just something about you that stands out. But there are so many applications that come in. More things that you can do to stand out yourself the apart, and connect with people in different ways. It's going to really help accelerate your opportunities to land a job at a company. Yeah. In Jaffa yo-yo commission check because we're doing a lot of things here in terms of not just teaching out of textbooks at the sales minor, but we have 12 minute role-play sales competitions in our course or will have an elevator, an elevator pitch competition. And some students are going to some of these regional and national programs where they're actually even doing cold, cold calling events now here as undergraduate students, so we hear what you're saying and we appreciate the validation. Just leave it even example, if like if you decided to contact Scott or GMR myself, I've linked dented a personalize your message. I get so many messages that are just like they connect. And I attend sessions like this all over the country and say I'm like, okay, well, were they part of that session I was part of or do they just find me on LinkedIn? Like send somebody personalized, say, Hey, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff Scott. Jim, like, I loved what you said today or the Delaware session, panel session about this that really resonated with me because I'm this and this and that. And so that's going to stand out to them. I'm like, Okay, I'll connect with that individually. I want to have a conversation. He or she was lists each school and I was saying so that's going to resonate. And Scott, Any final thoughts around the ways that you've seen students get some full-time jobs. So I want to, I want to share a story about because and John, we've, we've had conversations about this too, that with our academic partners, we actually incentivize them to utilize our platform as part of their competition. And so I would, I would encourage your students to definitely participate in a competition. I can give you a great example. So one of our partners, LSU, that to students to the International Collegiate failed competition last year. And one of the students actually utilize utilize our software platform to help her win the filled role-play. Unfortunately the competition, but she was also interfacing with a large variety of different companies. And one of the company he ended up getting hard with was just company darker. So, you know, I mean, through through the the interactions that you get, I'm just going to different weather to a conference or a competition and I know a lot of that, that's going to be virtual, but take advantage of it fiercely. Take advantage of any, any networking opportunity that you have. And I know that networking face-to-face was much harder because of the pandemic. But LinkedIn, it's a pretty good substitute like Gojek that you met to any one of us on LinkedIn and personal life that nitrogen. And I think that's going to really help set you apart if you're really out there showing the initiative because that's what we're looking for to employers. Are you willing to show the initiative? Because if you can't show that, if the candidate, how can we expect you to maybe show that if you're actually in that role. So yeah, and it's interesting the panel has answered a couple of questions that I had all this one session. They're much smarter than I write so you can hear the different messages, you can hear messages of personalization. You can just talked about and Scott taught, Let's talk about get yourself out of the comfort zone. And you know, Jim was talking all about perseverance. He was told no, he was too young to go to the Philadelphia Eagles, right? He didn't quit, he didn't stop, and he found out who who sign the check. Those are all type of real-world things that all of you need to experience. And Jim, did you want to add something? Yeah. I would also say, obviously, looking at job boards for openings is great, but like don't limit yourself. You find a company you want to work for it like the best jobs in my opinion that are available are the ones that aren't even available yet. So just a quick story. A good friend of mine really wanted to work in the music and entertainment business. And he came up with this whole idea to pigs, this artist with this brand. He put it together and he ended up pitching PDD. Pdd hired him to be one of his right-hand man and he was there for six years. And so you have to start his own thing though. Like, it wasn't like Did he just posted a job and said, Hey, I'm looking for someone to help. You went out, you just provide value. So figure out will accompany figure out what industry and I looked at the job boards but you can't find one. Don't let that stop you. Yeah. It's great. The Great advice. I want to transition here a little too. You know, I forget which one of you mentioned that, you know, obviously these students, this generation of Generation Z and millennials are very digital savvy, right? And so I'd like to get the perspective, the three of you as to how important is social media in terms of its use for finding a job? That's kinda the first part and the second part. What's the best API found that people use to get hired? And why don't I go, Scott, we'll we'll start with you first. Though. Let me go ahead and also add to what thing that any employer now and day and take a look at. Once you have your settings that public on what you put on your social media. And this is just a cautionary tale. Be very careful what you put on your social media. I can't tell you how many candidates I've looked at that. They looked great on paper. And then I scroll through their Twitter feed or their Facebook feed. And I'm Sir, John knew Jim and Jeff can say the same thing, you know, and it's like now. So that's another piece of advice that I would I would give to all of you is make sure you know what you're putting out there for the public to see is what you would want the public to see and not something that's unsavory. Media is great. As I mentioned, LinkedIn is a wonderful tool to use for networking. I've done it myself, especially preparing for interviews. Like if you know that you're going to be interviewing with the Senior Director of Development at a certain university. Like go connect with them and find out and do some research about them. Go do some research, not just about the company, about that, about the potential individuals that you may be working with in that job and being LinkedIn gives you that opportunity. So I can't stress that enough that, you know, being savvy on social media and using that as a networking opportunity and a research, researching tool is critical for your job. You're now at a rate and then jam your thought. I couldn't agree more sky and judge people based on their social media is in good, in negative ways. So definitely be cautious. Linkedin is incredible. Instagram, Twitter, I mean, you guys, you guys can do so much, but if you guys haven't started using Clubhouse yet, I mean, there's that could be serious decision-makers in a room just like this with 20 people where you can get on their radar. Scott mentioned this early. You can listen to what they're saying and reference it back in an e-mail. Hey, I was sitting on your clubhouse. You I said XYZ. So I think clubhouse for getting job is going to be sludge a great opportunity. Because you can really connect with some important people in a very personable thing like this. And Jeff, your thoughts? Again, I say, yes, there should be is really key. And this just like the other panels that talked about, I mean, I probably use LinkedIn more than any of the other platforms. Incidence of like a recruiting, connection sense. And I often hear students talk about like idle. I don't use LinkedIn as much. I have a profile, but I haven't got it. I'm just a student at night, You know, I don't have a lot of connections yet. And like like we all have talked about, like connect with all of us on the panel, connect with your professors. Definitely. If their sales organizations are organizations of business that you're interested in, that you're passionate in. Whether you're just curious and maybe you're not passionate about that, but connect with these organizations because many of them not just on LinkedIn but on Twitter and other platforms and stuff like that are sharing, sharing stories. Whether it be professional development, whether it be how they're helping clients, whether it be how people are growing in their careers culture or different things like that. So like UC social platforms to not only connect with leaders, connect with professors, connect with your peers, but also. Use it as a way to learn about these companies that maybe are coming to your campus anymore because they can't because of the pandemic. It's a great opportunity to learn ahead of, ahead of time. So definitely, definitely do those things that I think you'll feel like it's a gain more knowledge and hopefully stand out as well as really great insight. And for my two classes, I went into LinkedIn and every one of the individuals, right? Every one of the students, just to get some more background. Because as I said in my two classes that I teach this week, is you're my customer. As students, you are my customer and I have to know about my customer. So the way I did it was pretty much go into LinkedIn. Some of you had it up live, some of you didn't. And it's a good thing to it's a good thing to use to find a job for sure. So I appreciate all three of you being consistent on that. This is a hard one for the three of you. You've had a lot of softballs I call now we're going to give you how fast you're going to give you a fastball. And it's going to say is what is the 1? 1. I've heard so many great things for me today. But what is the one critical characteristic or personality trait that you would look for? A new hire. And let's not an experienced higher, let's just call it a student come in out of school. What would be that personality trait or that characteristic? And why is that? So I'll start with you, Jim. I really look for passionate people. If you don't believe in our Purana. You know, I, I, I can teach you whenever you want, but if you're not passionate about, it won't matter. If I have somebody who's like, I think you guys are the future, they believe in it. I can hear that to me. If they're paginated, I could help train them to be a really good salesperson. But if they're not passionate about what they're selling, It's almost a non-starter to me. Yeah. Scott. Thanks. Jim. Scott, what do you Thanks. Well, I will certainly echo Jim sentiment about passion being very important as a key characteristic of being effective and failed. But I would also add, just because of my own personal background is preparation. You know, not just preparation for the interviewing process, but, you know, that has to be reflected throughout the interviewing process and enter the job. If you're not somebody that that taking the time to actually and like you said, John, knowing your customer, knowing their their specific needs and their challenges and pain points. This is what we do at ecosystems. Then it's going to be very hard for me to look at you, the serious candidate. I'm an Eagle Scout. I'm very proud of it. And part of the, the, the scout motto is be prepared. And it's something that I've learned from that, that I've implemented in my life that get the good life left in the habit of being prepared. Do you know you just you never know what life is gonna throw you to specifically in the unpredictability of sales. The more prepared you are, the more successful you're going to be at your job. Great ingests, what would what would you say? Yeah, I mean, I love what both instead because I think preparations huge. I work for a research advisory committee, preparation and research is this huge breast that drive and passion that that Jim was talking about is, is key for any sales or client facing position. I would say that the communication skill set, we call it internally, we call the executive presence of an individual. For our organization, you're working with sea level clients, executive leaders and organizations. And so not only that high level communication skill set, but it's also the b ought to be concise and confident in your language. And said being able to narrow down your thoughts and your communication is really huge. And I think that just that's more important thing, that it's an important thing to work on it in this virtual environment. Because you're not maybe live in an internship or live in an office somewhere, or you're not maybe live in a classroom, you're in a virtual setting, SSI or your chat, your communication just happening in a chat room. Or you use the texting your friends. And so working on those communication skills with a level of clients that we're working with is it's really important. So, so great. Thank you all for that. And it's pretty cool. We almost had a number of p's here to, to to make we rent. But remember it real easily. But to me is is I heard him say It's all about the passion. Right? And then Scott came in, gave us a second P. It's about the preparation. You know, Jeff came in and said, Hey, he agrees with all that and he added communication. Right. And if you would ask me as well, from being in high-tech for, for a number of decades in the selling function, I'd probably throw a P in there and it would be perseverance, perseverance and grit. Because what I tend to look at is in sales, especially there's a lot of things you can't control and you're going to get knocked down. You're going to be told no, right? And then the superstars that I find are the ones that can get back up and just say, like, you know, Jim story early on about trying to go to the Philadelphia Eagles and say He's too young and go away. He didn't go away. He had the passion. He had obviously communication skills. He obviously had preparation that Scott talked about, but he had perseverance. He believed in himself and he was going to go after it. So, you know, you may think, oh boy, that's at a high level, but it really isn't. It's kind of in a number of people and I've said that TEA. So maybe you can take a couple of those points as you move on to the to the interview stage. Before I open it up to two, I'm live questions and I'm hoping you students really have some live questions. Don't be shy here. Knowns. No one's going to say anything bad or whatever, or if you want to send something in chat, you'll start throwing them in chat. Now. Jim and Scott and Jeff, we've asked you a number of questions. Is there anything else that you think would be relevant or important to students? Here is kind of your final thoughts before we go into this question and answer period of Scott, I'll start with you. Again. I really I think just taking the different points that all of us, the wraith and implementing that. In the job search and then the the interviewing for the job search that the interviewing preparation process, I think all of these different points where are clickable in and helping students to be successful and meet starting off with, you know, with the networking. I mean, I can't stress that enough. I've gotten so many jobs. It's not by like Jim said, are just sending out resumes and praying that some hiring manager is going to take a look at it. It's about engaging with folks on LinkedIn, engaging with folks like, look at your different social groups that you're a part of. Like if you attend a specific religious organization, you're part of any kind of group, use those networking opportunities. I mean, that's just going to be especially nowadays with the job market being stretched. This because of the coronavirus pandemic. Really thinking about thinking outside of the box with both creative way that you can network and looked at those specific job conversationally. In jeff, your thought? Yeah, I think I think just one of the things that you have an opportunity to issues in this environment, to stand out as just being resourceful and trying to, I guess, connect with leaders and try to get feedback. So like you know, whether you're working with John, another professor, maybe you have a boss or a job or maybe just part of a class assignment or group assignments. I would try to solicit feedback and utilize that as an opportunity to grow. I think one of the big opportunities we have in this virtual environment is to learn from others. And even if we can't always do things in person right now, you know, solicit, solicit that feedback and see how you can implement it. And moving forward that I think that's the, one of the biggest things is that I've concentrated on. I've seen a lot of students concentrate on through some of these competitions are role-plays and case studies I mentioned earlier, but pull yourself up out there. Experience practice, what you're doing, practice why you're, you're preaching and get that feedback and just uses his opportunity growth over the next couple of months. Jim E, any final thoughts from Iran? Yeah, this advice isn't going to be for everybody, but it works for me. In back to my Eagles radios story. I got offered $36 thousand to start at eagles radio. And another radio station was offered me 48 thousand. So I said to the person I was kind of mentoring me. I said they're often be $12 thousand more like shouldn't I jump all over that? And he sat like, in sales. It's really all about how hard you work in the Commission you make. And if you're more passionate in like this job, more than they can go for that one because you'll do better. So I did. And by year two, I was making way more money than I would at the other place. And that same concept was true for when I came to concretize. I was making a lot of money selling radio. And when concretize came around like they were a startup, they couldn't offer hardly anybody. I got equity in the company to become one of the owners of the company. And and hey, it was a step back. But I was I was still confident. I do so well that now we're a multi-billion-dollar company, which i of an equity stake in it. So the advice that worked for me was don't necessarily like this one's open 5 thousand more, this one's got a little bit more stability for somebody like me with very motivated in sales and motivated by commission, which is typically what salespeople are given off of, you know, save as much money as you can and take those risks while you can. Because if you're confident in yourself, they'll probably pay off in the future. Great advice. I appreciate, appreciate the the the parting comments from from all three of you. And again, I just truly thank you for your time because I know you're all busy. So Kelly and I forgot to mention Kelly and Kim from you'd either just fantastic people that put these type of seminars together and all the technology. So people like me don't don't destroy it. So thank you. Kelly. Kelly, I don't see anything in the chat room, but I'm going to open it up right now and see if anybody has any questions. I hope you do. And if you don't, Alex, I'm going to come after you. Didn't hear me, Alex. Let's see. Does anybody here be accidental class and brain homology saying your biggest challenge lies in starting out like looking for jobs. Who wants to take that from the panel? I'll take it. I mean, my first job out of college was I was actually working as a Construction Consultants for one it was one of my parents neighbors companies. And it was because of that connection that I was able to they brought me on kind of part time and they hired me full time, but realize that's not what I want. But again, I I, you know, it, it's taking advantage of those networking opportunities. I mean, it could be as simple as, you know, your friend that had had a great sales position at a car dealership and it may not be your first job is not necessarily going to be your career making job. So my best advice is to go and try different things and then, you know, you may not know exactly like what you're passionate about, but it through that trial and error process, the thing like, well, I know I don't want to do this, but I may want to do this and, you know, I mean it and in time, but really you have to be willing to persevere and to get out there and ask for the feedback and really just try different thing. That's my best advice and networking. It's going to be key in helping you to kind of get closer and closer and closer to the specific type of role that you do want. But just be patient with it. It's just not going to be intermediate thing for a lot of people. It wasn't for me. How about Zoom or any comments? Yeah, I would I would agree agree with that because I was a broadcast journalism and Holly side double major at UNC, Chapel Hill. And I realized by the time I was graduating, I really want to get into that business job. But I didn't have this, this experiences. And so what I later found out was I really did like yield when you're thinking about like what you want to do. Sometimes I meet students that say, well, I want to get into sales or I want to get into this career, but I only worked at a restaurant or I only did this. But think about the things that you're doing. Be intentional about your job search. And be intentional about like the things that you're doing on campus as do other jobs, other internships. And think about how those might translate. Because I realize I had a lot of skills that I gained from my campus and work experiences, even though they weren't traditional business jobs and sales jobs. That translated to sales and said, think about how those things could translate. And then once you get into that career, I would say just raise your hand, like raise your hand and get yourself, put yourself out there to get involved in a lot of different things within your organization. Raise your hand for projects. Even if you think that you might not have that bandwidth early on, just put yourself out there. I know in our culture at Gartner is super collaborative still like our account executives are working with, our analysts, are working with our research team that we're working with client services. And so a lot of times they're able to connect with different parts of the organization that they didn't realize were even there. And that you might find a passion, passion for another opportunity within the organization down the road, but just raise your hand and put yourself out there. That's how you get noticed and that's how you get connected in your organizations. And Jim, your thought. And he thought, I'd big boat Scott and Jeff is phenomenal feedback and advice. My thing would be day. It's not, it doesn't happen overnight. The goal is you want to reach, aren't going to have an overnight when you join the sales company or you join any company, you're going to be starting at the bottom of the totem pole and wanted to get to the top of the totem pole, but It's not going to happen in the first week, the first day, the first year, you just got to keep working towards whatever your goal is. Be patient, it would be aggressive and you'll get there if you put in the work. That that was probably my biggest challenge. Whether it's trying to find a job or while and that my job was just writing. It's not going to happen OK. Now, in my biggest, my biggest challenge when I came in, I went into high-tech sales after getting my MBA and economics. And I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had no clue. I had I had no idea what a sale is. And the only advice I give you is I found a mentor real quickly. I found somebody that was a lot smarter than me, lot more experienced. And then I just ask that person to be a mentor. And he said, No problem. So mentors or a big thing as you get started in your career would be a suggestion. I would give him IN. Great question and thank you for asking that. Anybody else out there have had have another question? I have I have another question actually. Given the current pandemic and everything that's going on, It's a little obviously a little harder to get jobs right now and stuff. And I'm I'm coming for me. I'm a hospitality business management major and I see it for another year to minor in entrepreneurship. Just like broaden my options. What would you like recommender advise for someone like me or anyone else in this light? Group of people that are looking for jobs up to college because I'm graduating this semester. Like what steps I should take, if anything different just because of the pandemic and how much ordered his panel anybody have have an initial thought? Yeah, I will go back to it. I kind of said earlier like, hey, maybe it is harder, maybe it's not. It might be easier in some ways to get a job. It might be harder, but this figure out what you like to do and do whatever it takes to get a role. You know, like don't be discouraged if daisy, Hey, I don't have any paying jobs but I have an internship. Or you want to work for free for a little bit, like, yeah, go for it, you know, good weekend job to help pay the bills or something by bats, I puzzle. It's going to help you get to where you want to be. So, you know, I, I I would figure out what you want to do, figure out where you want to work and no do well, we take to work there. Don't let anything hold you back from that. Thank you so much. Yeah. But also I would also just say that when we were all talking about like looking for ways to stand out. Like I know, like on the recruiting front, like I know a lot of companies last summer they were send a job offer or they, they cut their internships or they made them virtual and say like, maybe you didn't have those opportunities at you. Maybe we're expecting to have last year. But I think employers know some of the limitations that are out there in the market this past year. But the what they will want to see is what did you do during that time? So yeah, maybe that internship you want it got canceled. But like, what did you do to stand out to you? Like like I mentioned earlier, did you attend a webinar? Did you investigate companies in attendance types, the sessions that you get like a certification, but try to be able to communicate like, yeah, OK. Whoa. Is me this didn't happen last year, but what did you do to make a difference and try to improve yourself for that time? And I think that will resonate. So some of your abilities and how you wanted to stand out and how you buy invested in yourself? Yes. Go ahead, Scott. Yeah. I was going to also add volunteer opportunities. You know, when you're applying for a job and the big concern that you you're you know, when your faith, if you've got gaps in your resume, is the question's going to be agitated. You you had a period of time where you weren't working. Can you explain that? Well, if you if you were out volunteering, you're doing something that was like like Jeff said, of getting a certification. But, you know, I was going to suggest volunteering that there are organizations out there that you can volunteer for that would you require the similar types of skills that you have gotten your degree AND, and OR looking for job and and it's also a networking opportunity. You know, I mean, like I'm going to give you an example so I don't I don't have a business background. I have a master's degree in public administration. So my passion was I wanted to work for political candidates and eventually work on Capitol Hill. That's why part of the reason why I was in Washington DC. So I graduated from graduate school that the economy was terrible at the time. And so I started volunteering on different presidential candidates campaigns and actually ended up getting hired by one of those presidential candidates. And it was from there that I was able to get more jobs working on different candidates campaigns. And unfortunately, none of those candidates ended up going on to win their respective races. But from there I ended up getting a non-profit job that allowed me to get a DC. So, you know, it's a funny way like there's no defined right way to do something. It's all about how you approach it. And yet it may take you a little bit of a detour, but there's maybe a purpose behind that detour. And as long as you can you can show that you were doing something that was effective, that helping you, you do to advance towards the type of career goal that you're looking for and volunteering with a great opportunity, not just for networking purposes, but for building your skill set. And if it's something that you're really passionate about and you're putting in the hours, who knows, you know, to come to you and say like, hey, I know this isn't a business, but we've got somebody, we've got a position available in our organization will create a position for you that you feel like. We feel like your skill set will be great for. So never discount those opportunities of going out and volunteering and finding something you're passionate and to do that, can I guess I want to touch on just a little bit. I think it's so like standing out, right? Yeah. I think when you apply for a job and you send in your resume, just assume that there's a hundreds if the other people also sending a resume. And, and when you follow the HR manager, you've got a Zoom is a 100 other people, five of the HR manager. And when they look at your resume, you're probably going to have 90 people who all have a good degree, longer. 3.43.5 GPA is like though. If you look the raspberries, who's going to be 90 of you guys who are all pretty similar, right? So how, how are you going to keep standing out? How are you going to go from 90 to 40? How you can go up to 40 to 10. I know that 10 is keep taking these things that you don't want. The social channels do something outside the box and the experience and volunteering. It's such a great advice. So just thing about guest stating Allie, everything you're thinking about these, a lot of people also doing that. So we'll just keep begging me another level that really make yourself stand out. Great responses, great question. So thank you for asking that. Let's move on to another one who has another question out there? I have a quick question. Sure. So I'm recently went to John students, so I have a few books. And my reading my sir, I was just wondering if there is any book or article or maybe even podcasts that you guys have had helped you professionally or as far as your sales process or a mindset? Anybody on the panel do you have? I have a number of favorite books that I've given my students, but I'd love to hear some because I'm going to steal some of your books. So go ahead. Oh, sorry, Scott. No, no, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm no good at them carefully. I had two recommendations. I don't read many books, I probably should read more. I think they're really valuable and I just I know that's an area I need to work on. But I read Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People. It was recommended by my old sales manager and it was phenomenal. It we read it like seven years later I ran this, ran a college. 78 years ago and we did it again at concretize. And everyone kept saying, Man, I feel like I'm just, I'm I'm I'm reading what you do and it all came from that book and not even realize it was such a great bloke How to Win Friends and Influence People. But in the social media world, I also like following just like inspirational people. Because even if it's just like a little a meme or something that just keep workin are like it might be quantity but like yeah, it's kinda, it's really just keep working on it and those little things do help me get through the day. So How to Win Friends and Influence People? I know I need to read more books, but it's a great one. And then social channels. But influential things like that gets me going is inside you. And Scott, you're going dads. Well, so I was going now I'll do another plug for for Jeff's company. So I've read The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson, who they are Gardner, alum and Jeff was actually kind enough to do a podcast for us at ecosystems. We have a series called The Voice value podcast where CEO Chad, when interviewed all these different individuals, whether in their business, we actually had general and leave the crystal is one of our POC apt-get. And the overall theme of each one of these podcasts that how are the individuals in their respective roles demonstrating value? And so I really like, I think Brent did a fantastic job of kind of going through the nuts and bolts of almost approaching sale. That kind of a, an a research methodology. And that's something that kind of resonated with me. I, we were actually required to read it. It's one of the first books here at ecosystems and it's something that's kinda stuck with me. So the Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson. I'll smiling. Ioa to missing check. Yes. Yes. Yeah. This book, The Power of moments, I thought that was a good look at Jim and Dan, yeast. Radical candor, Kim Scott. One that's not really sales book, but just an interesting business book I love. The last year I read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The Nyquist. It yes, sorry, a Nike. Those are all interesting. Jim was talking about like podcaster, REO, newsletters, that dialogue. I think Seth Godin, John Gordon. John's like a more inspirational motivational type guy. I love that kind of stuff. And then one thing going back to my communication thing from earlier, find and find TED Talks are so many TikToks out there. Rate the wide range of topics and interests and find, like from blurbs and comments, what interests you. Whether it be fails, whether it be professional development leadership, whatever might be. Ted Talks are great and how it comes back to communication for me is if you're listening to a 30 minute TED Talk, 50 minute TED Talk, our to attack. See if you can work to condense that message into about a minute. So like that, like see if you could practice going from like a 15, 30 minute conversation that you heard and the value that you gained, a condense that into like a 30 or 60 seconds spot that you could share with a family member, a friend or whatever might be. And that's just something that we look for that communication channel. How do you condense your thoughts? How do you, how do you become more concise? And that's just something you could do from. Watching a TED talk that interests you have. Man, I love you guys. You guys are unbelievable. The messages you're giving. We actually have a sales competition and my sales management course. Words, why hire me in a 120 seconds or less, right? And then the sales competitions that are nationally that we're starting to participate at University of Delaware. It's actually a 60-second. So exactly what you're saying is get the messaging out whether it's about yourself or something else. I used to hate to read. When I was an undergrad. I just disliked it. And all of a sudden I was getting these golden nuggets by reading books and I'm now I have a lot of time on my hands being retired is I read a book a week or if not a book a month. So I'll stop at four for those people that aren't taking my class. I have some fantastic sales books that are unbelievable. Scott mentioned the Challenger Sale fantastic book. The second follow-on that they did was called the challenger customer for you marketing types. It better be on your credenza. That's fascinating. And a lot of its statistical analysis behind what they say. I love grit, right? If there's a book on grit that talks about perseverance and it's, it's unbelievable. A mine for sales by Mark Hunter is another one. And then the last one. And I'll stop. Fanatical prospecting by Jeb blonde, right? Those are ones and I have a probably three to 400 different books. Those are the ones that are sitting on the left-hand side of my credenza that you can't see, that I recommend for everybody in the role around 25 or 30 bucks. Great question, Jenna. Thank you for for for asking that. How about we take one more question from anybody. I see I see a book somebody gave me. It is it mindset? Where was that? Your cell? Was that you, Jeff. And as big as another book that I fix it just again, a good thing for sale as sales minded individual or so I think getting into the professional environment, just talking about growth mindset is another one. I I would document it. Got it. Thank you. Anybody else? I have a question. Go for. What is like for all of you, what are your opinions on going to grad school after you graduated and kinda like the timeline for when you should go like how many years for I think with working and kinda what not. And if you think it's valuable, that sounds like the voice. And I can't see your name here, but that sounds like Kyle. I'll ask a question. Kyle. He's one of my students here. So Scott, you've raised your hand. You can answer. Yeah. Yeah. So let me just say this about grad school because I'm still working on paying off my graduate student loans. It's not cheap. Don't go to grad school for the thicker. Go into grad school. You need to figure out first what career path you're going to go on, what you're, what you're wanting to do and then determine from there if it's necessary for you to even go to grad school. I mean, a lot. I mean, especially if you're going into tech nowadays, if you want to be a software engineer. There is, we're seeing this, we're seeing this. What I mean, we've got HP and Google, those are two largest client. And for instance, if you're wanting to go into tech like software development, they're not even looking at folks really that have computer science degrees. They're really looking at folks that have this designation, like your, your, your, your Microsoft or your Cisco or your Google. So really you need to understand what type of role that you want to work for, what type of company you want to work for. And then decide from there that he met the theory could even go to grad school. So I really had a passion of eventually wanting to go into politics. And so I got a master's degree in public administration would be good for that specific purpose. And I feel harbor ambition to potentially run for office down the road. So but again, don't go out and get an MBA for the sake of getting an MBA. And I think John, can you can back me up on this as well. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing. I went and got an MBA and I really didn't need to do that. So Scott, I am I here when she says I should have done it a few years after I started the war. How about gym or just you guys have any opinions on that? Made it really, it really just depends on what you want to do, like so it really depends on the pathway. And Scott was alluding to like finding out what what do you truly want to do? Is it really a necessary thing? So I mean, I know, you know what I had when I was coming out of college and you're getting into, into sales and my colleagues, a couple of them got their MBAs, but it didn't necessarily help advance them in the sales world in terms of like what they were doing with our organization. A definitely, you know, these, these individuals are passionate about learning and learning new skills and ideas and things like that. So it's beneficial for that, but it didn't really help them in terms of like growing that that career, at least in the early levels of their career when they're still trying to figure out where they wanted to get it. So yeah, I think I think it really just depends on where you want to go with your career, what what path you are on. Okay, well, we're almost to the top of the hour. The last thing I'd like to do well, before I do that, again, Scott Jim, and Jeff just thank you so much on behalf of myself and all of the students for for your time. I know you're real busy and just an unbelievable amount of great data that you've imparted. So thank you. Are there any UD sponsors out their salesman's, a minor sponsors out there that are that have attended this session as well. I professors guides jacket from Beacon Hill, her or Yale or our you for thank you for attending. Thank you. I'm great. Insight shared. Thank you so much. Jim Jeffries. Scott. And can you just briefly introduce yourself as part of the sponsorship program here? Yeah. With Beacon Hill staffing group, it's great to see some familiar faces that I got to meet with last semester and also speak to more recently. And we will be sponsoring the sales pitch competition. I know Professor Scott and I are going to be talking soon and we will be here doing the theories on April 9th on sale. So staffing is connecting job seekers to jobs. Very much relationship-focused sales. We have a variety of entry-level roles. It could be eight locations across the country. And I'm super excited to be part of the program and spend more time with you all this semester. Thank you and I appreciate you helping us here on supporting it. It is there anybody else out there from the UD sales my her program sponsorship, going once, twice, going three times. So we said we'd be done in an hour. Where I think right now at the hour. So I wish each and every one of you a great weekend. So thanks for attending and gown. But by now, you might think leg is.
Superstar Selling: Welcome Meeting Feb. 19, 2021
From Kimberly Ragan March 22, 2021
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Friday, February 19th, 2021 2:00 p.m.
Welcome Meeting - Panel Discussion: "What is the best way to find a full-time sales role in today's environment"
- Scott Reagan, Education Services Manager, Ecosystems
- Jim Fischer, VP (Sales), Carvertise, Inc.
- Jeff Stencel, University Recruiting Team Lead, Gartner, Inc.
- Tags
- Department Name
- Lerner College - Professional Selling and Sales Management
- Date Established
- February 19, 2021
- Appears In
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