I constantly find myself using the communication and sales skills that I learned in those classes. But even more than that, the personal challenges presented in those classes allowed me to develop a level of self confidence that I had never had before and set me up for a wonderful career. I am now a regional sales manager and proud to say that I am coming back to ISU to recruit more sales students to join our organization.”
"; ar_businessText[ar_businessText.length] = "Things are going very well! I live in downtown Milwaukee and am employed at a hedge fund. Even though I´m not a direct sales representative, I use what I learned in our sales classes everyday. In fact, it even helped me get my job. I work over night with the overseas financial markets and I´m doing pretty well for myself. I am not a trader yet but hope to be in a year or so.
I guess another semester has just started. How are the students doing? Tell them to pay attention and do exactly as they are being shown because that is exactly how it works out here in the working world. I´m, sure you and the sales faculty members hear this from a lot of other students, but, thanks for the quality learning experience!”
"; ar_businessText[ar_businessText.length] = "When I started my first sales class, I was scared to hear what all we would be doing, video taped sales call role plays in front of a class and not to mention the sales call planning report that, at first, seemed to be so ambiguous that it would be impossible to complete.
Before these classes, I never really appreciated what salespeople really do. I always thought they just pushed products, but I soon learned that is definitely not the case. We are truly professionals working as business consultants helping our clients identify opportunities and solve problems. Thanks to my sales classes I learned so much and found a career that I absolutely love.
These were definitely the scariest and the hardest classes I took while at Illinois State. But I will also say they were the best and most meaningful courses I took as well. I came into the program with a definite fear of public speaking and not having a clue as to what kind of job I wanted to pursue. These classes developed my self confidence and helped me realize my abilities. I am proud to say that I am a professional, a salesperson, and a darn good one too! Thanks for all the work that the sales faculty put into the sales classes, they are the best!”
"; ar_businessText[ar_businessText.length] = "After completing an internship last summer the Personal Selling class brought everything together for me. The class was so real and identical to what I had seen out in the sales field.”
"; ar_businessText[ar_businessText.length] = "During my interview we were talking about how I never wanted to be a salesperson because I didn't want to force myself on people to buy something because I hate when it happens to me. Anyway, I went on to tell him that I have changed my view because of what I have learned in class. I told him that I have learned that you are not selling the product to make the sale. Instead, your focus throughout the whole process is to find what the customer needs and to help them aquire it. He loved it.
Then we started talking more about the class and what I had learned and I told him about the sale calls and role playing we are doing and he was very impressed. He commented that there are not many universities that offer something like that and that I was learning exactly what good salespeople do and complimented the ISU sales program. He even said that there needed to be more classes like these offered to students. By the way, I also got the job!”
"; ar_businessText[ar_businessText.length] = "It was a good deal of work . . . but I learned a great deal. I feel as though I can really put that forth to my career after I graduate.”
";