Work week Reflections

Week 1
(1/18 -1/22)
After working for this company in its warehouse for close to 3 years, I
had thought that I had it all figured out. I assumed that my transition into
the office would be very simple with little road blocks. After my first day on
the job, I figured out that there was a lot more to learn about the company
and the way it communicates internally and externally. In my very first hours
of the job, I was introduced to multiple networks that the company utilizes to
communicate to its customers. These include email center pro, Net Suite,
and Microsoft Outlook and through telephone. Learning to utilize these
programs required allot of attention to detail. I learned quickly that if things
are done wrong, a customer could be mis informed. I also learned that
communication externally is not always as formal as what youre taught in
class. It depends upon the relationship that you have with the customer or
vendor you are communicating with.
Communicating with other employees and members of the sales team
is very open. Clickstop utilize a company social media called Edison. Edison
allows for an enormous amount of collaboration within and outside of
different departments. This makes so that employees dont have to talk
around the water cooler in order to figure out whats going on around the
company.

Learning how to fully utilize all communication networks within the

company will take more than one week to master. One of my
communication strengths from this week was being able to work with
members of the sales department and find ways to get the training that I
needed. This was important to do because I didnt want to interrupt any
other functions in the department. My biggest weakness this week was not
asking more questions than I did. I could have asked for more clarity on
products and company functions. This would have benefited me so that I
could more effectively communicate with customers. If the customers do
not have a good relationship with you then they may not return. The goals I
hope to accomplish for next week are to make further understand the
business, ask more questions , and learn quicker and easier ways to
communicate.
(1/25 -1/29)
This week was a very busy week. I think maybe I had 3 hours out of
the 9 hours I was there to work on web approvals. The rest of my time was
spent inside trainings trying to really get my product knowledge up as far as I
can before we try to put me on the phones sometime next week. Even with
all of the training I still dont know everything there is to know. This has
been no ones fault due to the fact that there is so much to learn.
The biggest communication lessons I have learned this week is how
important it is to have an environment where you can communicate openly. I

have had many questions this week in an attempt to accomplish my goal of

last week. If Clickstop did not have as great of work culture as it does, I
would not have effectively learned as much as I know now. I would
constantly ask the sales team and others this week if they could help me
with things I was confused about and no one was ever too busy to do so.
Areas I could improve upon for next week include website navigation and
inter-departmental communication. I came up with the Idea of creating a
flow chart to help guide new sales people through web approvals. It is my
goal to have that finished by next week before I get put on the phones.
(02/1 02/5)
This week was my Final week of Training. Like I mentioned in my last
reflection, I feel that all of my trainers have done an excellent job up to this point.
Although I have received excellent training, a person is never truly prepared for
being in the field until theyve actually done it. On Friday (02/5) I was pushed out
of the nest and it was fly or fall. Although it was a bit of a rocky start, I felt as if I
took flight. I was able to close my first sale and ring the gong to let everyone know.
That day I took 3 phone calls and was able to accomplish the task of all 3
customers. Although I had success, there was definitely room for improvement.
In those first 3 calls, I wasnt able to quite classify my customers like I should
have. In order to do this a salesperson must have very effective communication
and figure out customer needs from asking questions. I feel this was because I was
not able to slow myself down. I attempted to hurry through calls and rush myself.
Once I started tripping up, I would lose focus on the ultimate goal. For next week,
my goal is to slow down and ask the right questions.

(02/8 02/12)
This week I was able to answer more calls from customers. I still have
been struggling with slowing myself down and listening to the customer.

find myself trying to effectively navigate Netsuite and the website at the
same time and completely forgetting to listen to what the customer is
saying. This has resulted in some communication breakdowns. Luckily most
customers understand and the sale is still made. One big example of a
communication breakdown from this week was when one customer called
asking about a certain package deal we offered. The customer wanted me to
quote him a large order he was considering purchasing. After hearing out
what I thought the customer wanted, I immediately hung up the phone and
got to work. When I finally presented my solution, the customer was not
satisfied. It was the opposite of what he wanted. Had I initially asked the
customer more questions, I would have gotten a better understanding of who
exactly the customer was and what he wanted. Questions I could have
asked included:

What do you plan on using these for?

How often do you plan on ordering?
What kind of business are you?
Eventually I got the customers needs straight and started taking the

right steps towards alleviating them. Realizing how big this account could
potentially be, I ended up partnering with another person from business
development to get the account squared away. I have learned some

valuable lessons this week. After my vacation next week, my goal is to slow
myself down and ask the right questions.
(02/22 02/26)
Remembering my faults from the previous week, I was very excited
this week to improve myself. I received many calls on Monday. They were
not calls for very large clients but they were productive calls. These small
calls allowed me to begin practicing what I wanted to improve upon. I
managed to close allot of the sales and put through allot of small orders. I
began getting an idea of processes that worked for me. Before and after a
call was made, I set up four separate tabs for the company website. I am put
into certain call ques to answer so each tab has each different que pulled up
on it. Now when a customer calls, I am not scrambling to find the different
ques and listening at the same time. I also have different tabs pulled up on
Netsuite just in case. With my improved ability to navigate the website, I
also improved my ability to effectively listen to my customer, which in turn
created customer satisfaction. I began asking the questions I wanted to as
well, but feel that there is still allot of room for improvement. Sometimes I
dont always ask enough to figure out the customers full story. Overtime,
this skill will improve. Next week, I would like to work on improving those
rapport building skills along with finding ways to get more practice on the
phone.
(02/29 -03/04)

This week went rather well and posed some new challenges. Firstly, I
was able to begin building some sort of relationship with some repeat
customers. It was nice to have customers that recognized me and wanted to
have contact with me. This has told me that I must be doing something
right. I continued on some leads that I had gathered from previous quotes I
had made. I attempted to see if those quotes were within their price range
and if they still had interest in ordering. Unfortunately, I did not get a great
response from these customers. Even though the responses werent great, I
gained allot of knowledge in preparing the structure of conversations to
ensure I had a plan. This helped when I started making outbound calls for
other sales reps.

This was a touch more challenging because these

customers did not recognize me and I was calling them on their time. The
conversations for some were very quick, not wanting anything to do with
what I was saying. I did enjoy the new challenge of being on my toes, not
knowing what was going to come up. I did not perform as well as I wanted. I
had a structure but when I was thrown off guard, It all went away. Next week
it is my goal to roll with the punches and have better flow with my
conversations. I also want to keep up with my current leads that are looking
promising.

(3/14-3/18)

This week presented a great opportunity to me. It was Spring Break

and I had the ability to work a full week and be very consistent with my
customers. Being able to have consecutive days of contact with customers
gave me a bit more confidence when quoting. Being able to do this allowed
me to have quicker turnarounds and follow ups. If Ive learned anything
about sales, it is that the quicker and more often a person can follow up the
better chances they to win the sale. I did feel like this week I had more
quotes fulfilled. I also was able to get a few custom samples out to some
potentially qualified customers.
I also spent this week trying to enhance my enhance my performance
on the phone. I learned a cool quote from an old power point that when
doing inside sales calls Your voice is your signature. After reading this, I
tried to create a tone that said Kean McBurney. I am still working on it but I
have seen a change. Changing my tone has helped with my confidence as
well. Another thing I did was work on developing a project . The Project I
have developed will focus on our wheel net category. If successful, I will be
able to dramatically improve our customer service and implementation of
custom wheel-nets. I am excited to see where this goes.

(3/20-3/25)
This week flew by rather quick with how busy it was. Now that I have
taken on this project with the wheel nets, I have been constantly doing
something. Monday started off as a true test to my multi-tasking ability. I

received the most calls that I have ever received in a single day. My first call
was one from a woman who was attempting to take on a big project which
required some of our moving supplies. From this she requested quotes for
several projects with a couple different shipping methods. It would seem
that as soon as I began to dig into getting this quote out, I would get a call
from someone else requesting a quote. Although there was allot being asked
of me by several customers, I managed to get all of my tasks finished by 5.
On the Wheel Net front, I managed to get an idea of where to start on
this project. I had a meeting with our VP of manufacturing, who had been
there when we first began manufacturing them. I discussed with him the
benefits that my project could have for the company and the road blocks I
would have to finishing it. Ultimately, I think this project is attainable and
could be finished by the time my internship is over.
Lastly, I managed to have one of my most fulfilling sales at the end of
the day on Friday. This sale was small and simple, but I could feel the impact
that I had made with my customer. The customer was looking for one of our
straps and was having trouble getting them ordered (our On line shopping
cart was malfunctioning) . Because of this problem, they would not get their
order in before 4 P.M. and have it ship the same day. I told them that
because they were having trouble ordering I would go ship the order myself
and make sure it goes out the same day. The particular item they wanted
was out of stock and would take a while to be made. They would then have

to go with a more expensive one to get it in the time they wanted. For
customer service sake, I charged them the same price as the cheaper ones
and got the product out in the nick of time the same day. After this, I felt
their appreciation and felt as good as if I had made a huge sale.
(3/28-4/1)
This week was a really great week for me. Firstly, I continued to work
on my signature on the phone. I started to implement some new
introductions to my phone calls. Instead of only saying This is Kean with US
Cargo Control I added in How can I help you?. I honestly think this made
a night and day difference. I think customers felt more comfortable and it
just shows that I am here to assist them with what they need, not just
confirm they have dialed the right number. I also heightened my voice a
touch. I think this makes me sound more approachable.
I also had my monthly call review with Lacy. In my opinion, Lacy is
one of the best sales reps we have so I thought it was really great to get her
opinion. Her biggest positive feed-back to me was that she thought I was
one of the better people of creating connections and having constant
conversation with customers. She also I did a good job with being
knowledgeable about our products and sounding confident on the phone.
This was big to hear because confidence was one of the big things I was
trying to improve on. What I needed to work on was asking more qualifying
questions to find long-term, profitable customers.

Lastly, I had a good amount of time this week to work on my wheel net
project. I had spent allot of time trying to find a way to create effective
communication between the customer, sales rep, and manufacturing.
Through some research and calculations, I finally developed a way to do so. I
created an effective tool that allows Sales Reps to collect some universal
information from the customers and input it to generate a clear and concise
answer. This will change the game for the product line. Also, I have been
working with the Marketing team on re branding and overhauling this product
category. I am excited to see where this leads.
(04/04-04/08)
This week was rather low-key. I continued to work on my tone and
confidence on the phone. I was very encouraged this week when I was asked
by a couple of sales reps to take over a few of their accounts. They could
have asked anyone else to take on certain accounts but I believe they trust
me enough now to take on some bigger responsibilities. A couple of these
accounts, in the course of a week, ordered a couple of times from me. This
tells me that I am representing our business rather well and performing at a
higher level. I have also realized this week that working this job has
improved my communication skills outside of work. I am able to more clearly
make my points and ask effective questions in the right manner.
After being with this company for 3 years this week, I had my review.
This went really well in that my supervisors had nothing bad to say about
me. They had made points that I go above and beyond and do things that

most other sales reps do not. They have noted my ability to ask allot of
questions and communicate effectively. They had mentioned that although I
am a part time intern, I am one of the few that they consider a full time
employee because of the way that I work. Unfortunately, they were unable
to offer me a job considering how slow business is currently. None the less,
these comments were encouraging and I cant wait to take my new skills and
succeed with a future company.
In respect to my project, this week I made improvements in my tool to
help calculate fittings for other products in the same category. I also have
been testing my finished product against customer inquiries. Through this, I
have found some areas for improvement and fixed issues. Next week I plan
to continue my work in this area so that I can give a stellar finished product
and presentation to future customers.

(04/11-04/15)
Every now and then when you think you have it all figured out, you are
challenged and proven wrong. This was the way this week set out to be
when it came to my Wheel Net project. I had thought that I had gotten my
tool perfect to predict whether Wheel Nets to fit to a T. After conducting
further tests, I found that my calculator was off by some very large margins.
I also was faced with the challenge of getting some custom wheel nets done
for customers that needed them quickly. Fortunately, I managed to swallow
my pride and admit to myself that I was wrong and fixed the problem.

Through analyzing the issue with my calculator, I found that I was not
neglecting a major component when it came to the size of the tire. I found a
way to put the new calculation into the formula and made the calculator
even more accurate than it was before. Through this, I also discovered some
new information to include in the calculator to make the communication
between customers and sales reps even clearer. When it came to my
customers, I also developed a way to make the processes quicker. I worked
with Rachel, a co-worker who develops line drawings, to create a spec to
give to customers to be able to see. Before, it was not possible for
customers to see custom products before they had received it. Once
approved, I could then send it to manufacturing to be done with more
accuracy then before.
Along with that, I have been working with Marketing on the side to
revamp this whole product category. Through effective collaboration we
developed a new product to replace the old products in this product line. We
also collaborated on certain package deals to offer. All of this will allow the
company to be even more profitable than before. Next week will be may last
week with the company. I plan to have my projects all wrapped up and
completed by next Friday!
(04/18-04/22)
This week was one that is bitter sweet. My journey with the company I
had been with for 3 years is coming to a close as graduation day approaches.
Although I have not fully accepted a position yet, I have been offered a

position as an Assistant Sales Manager that will be hard to refuse. I

managed to finish my projects to their fullest and hand them off to be even
further perfected by future employees that wish to have this sort of impact.
Throughout this experience, I have improved in areas I never thought I could.
Firstly, I never thought that I would be an effective communicator over
the phone. Through a lot of criticism and self-motivation, I have managed to
become an effective over the phone communicator. I truly think the concept
of using my voice as my signature and having many failures early on have
helped me develop in this area. I have also improved my face to face
communication and written communication. During my time here, I have
had to communicate ideas, issues, criticism, messages, and reports to coworkers on a weekly basis. Through all of these interactions, I faced issues
that I wouldnt have inside of the classroom. In the classroom, you are faced
with only having to worry about communicating with one line of
communication, you and the professor. Through my experiences, I
developed the ability to multi task my communication with multiple people
at the same time. Being able to juggle all of these lines of communication
has made me even more confident in my future abilities. Having gained
these skills, I am excited to move forward with future career opportunities
that will challenge me every day.