Professional Selling Program – Summer Essentials “Interview with a Sales Professional”

Student Name: Lionel Galvez

Conduct an interview with a sales professional and then write a short analysis of the interview answers.

Identify a sales professional. This person must be in a full-time sales position. Conduct the interview. Write a summary of the answers to each question. Write an analysis of the interview answers using the template below. The correct use of course concepts throughout the report will increase your points. Attach the business card of the sales professional (required to earn points).

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. What kind of sales position do you have?a. Business to Consumer √b. Business to Business √c. Other

For the interview with a professional, I have chosen to conduct an interview with Mr. Ted

Kulawiak. Mr. Kulawiak is the Vice President of Enrollment and student services for the

University Alliance, a business under Bisk Education, Inc. University Alliance is a leader in

facilitating the online delivery of associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as

professional certificate programs from nation’s leading traditional universities and

institutions. University Alliance is one of the largest facilitators of e-learning in the country.

Mr. Kulawiak is in charge of making sure students are enrolled in the right program that best

fits them. Also, he goes out to meet new business prospects like Verizon, one of their

corporate partners, he offers training programs to their employees or just to look out for other

businesses that want to become partners with University Alliance, in a way that they can

offer scholarships to students whom are eligible for.

2. How long have you been in sales?

Mr. Kulawiak, doesn’t consider himself a sales person because as he mentioned, “sales

doesn’t equal education.” He also stated that according to the Department of Education, a

person that sales education can’t have such a sales tittle but to answer the question he have

been in sales for over 35 years.

3. Why did you choose a position in sales?

As a child Mr. Kulawiak always dreamed of becoming a journalist writer for New York

Times. Right after he graduated from high school, he started studying a career in journalism

and advertising at Northern Illinois University. After college, Ted first job was at a local

newspaper company selling news, and ad placements. He really didn’t wanted to do that, but

that was what he got told to do and had no choice, but to go out to sale. Ted knew this was

only temporary and that this was the only opportunity to gain experience, and move his way

up. After selling ads for a while, he realized he so enjoyed building relationship, making new

friends, and the high commission that came with it. But he was not satisfied with anything,

his heart was still wandering around. After 12 years of working for the local newspaper

company, he decided to continue his higher education through DeVry University, persuading

a master degree on Human Resources. While getting his Master’s, he was the assistance of

the Director of the online enrollment program and that’s when he decided to persuade his

dream career of enrolled students to their well-suitable career.

4. How do you find leads/prospects? (Some sales positions will not apply to this

question)

There are many ways Ted find leads, some of the ways are the following: buy prospects

and pay for leads, referrals, and corporate business. He stated that buying prospects, is very

risky and expensive because not every prospect becomes a lead. However, I asked him how

the process is when it comes to buying prospects or leads. Which he said is very simple,

through the participation of the media department whom are responsible for reviewing brand

strategies, negotiating purchasing terms, & selecting quality of electronic campaigns and

media placements, Mr. Kulawiak reps cold called the leads and separate them in two groups:

qualify leads and non-qualify leads. Those who are qualify leads are follow up until they

become enrolled to the program that best fits them. The representatives are required to ask

for referrals to generate more leads as well.

5. What type of greeting do you use for new customers? Current customers?

a. Standard Introduction b. Referralc. Benefit √d. Product √e. Complimentf. Question

Mr. Kulawiak discussed that it really depends the business or what you are selling. When

it comes to approach new customers, he uses the benefit approach, due to the fact that he

doesn’t like to be wasting his time and rather go straight to the point. He mentioned that in

order to grab the buyer’s attention you have to be creative. One of his approaches techniques

is, for example: “Mr. Lionel, (Name is customized) I will like to take a moment to tell you

about a program that can make a tremendous impact in your life and I am sure everyone

would be proud of you.” When Mr. Kulawiak greet current customers, he uses the product

approach. At first, he starts with a follow-up appointment, then talks about any new product

launches. He mentioned, that the secret for this appointment, is to continue the business

relationship, in order to keep continuous business, the sales person needs to be a good

listener and a good note taker. He normally writes two columns; one side, all cons and on the

other side all pros, then he offers a better solution for the customers concerns, if there is one,

and last engage them with integrity of the perfect decision-making.

6. How do you build rapport with customers?

Ted said that everyone have some type of award on their office wall or a trophy on the

shell and that most sales representative use the same method of building rapport, which is

boring and not creative. “If you can’t be creative, then sales is definitely not for you,” Mr.

Ted shouted. He suggested to do research of who you are selling your product or services. He

starts building rapport by asking questions and listening carefully to identify the buyer’s

personality. He mentioned that the buyer’s personality plays a very important paper in your

presentation. As Mr. Ted being a driver, he finds very challenge interacting with expressive

people due to the fact that he doesn’t care about testimonials and he just want to get to the

numbers. He discussed that is something he had master over time and figured out how

important are the testimonials. He encourage me to get at least 4 to 6 testimonials or letters of

recommendation from my current employers or managers, or faculty members, as I finish my

way to college, it’s definitely a great perk when it comes to the hiring process along with the

closing part in sales.

7. Do you have any favorite questions or techniques to determine buyer needs?

Huge in sales, Mr. Ted claimed. In order to see if you are going in the right direction you

need to ask questions relative to what you have to offer. He discussed that before you come

up with your questions you need to start with your homework, “do your research to see

whether the buyer meets your criteria and start putting your thoughts together and writing

down as many possible questions you can use.” His favorite questions he likes to use when it

comes to identifying future student’s needs is: “If you could earn a degree in (major is

customized), what would you like to do with it?” Suddenly, he looked at my eye and said

why do you consider yourself a professional? I was shocked at first and thought I had

answered the right question but I was wrong. Seconds later, he said, you are professional for

reaching out to me and setting up a meeting to interview me, isn’t that consider being a

professional, Lionel? He got me thinking all day of who really am I? I came to the conclusion

that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter the experience you gained but the impact you

make in someone’s life.

8. What the toughest objection you hear? How do you deal with it?

One of the common and toughest objections Mr. Kulawiak mostly hear is, “I really feel I

don’t have the time to go back to study or how will I ever find time to fit into my already

busy schedule?” He normally uses the boomerang method in order to secure commitment.

He agreed their time is limited but this is a one-time opportunity. He said, “If you want to

become a CEO, (will vary depends on what they want to do with their life) you have to make

the change today. The pain of sacrifice is only temporary but the pain of regret is forever, is

your choice to decide what you want to do with your life. Didn’t you mentioned that your

goal is to (dream job is customized), so without a degree how will you make it happen?”

When it comes to overcoming objections, Mr. Kulawiak may sound a little tough, but I

believe in order to make a sale, you need to be serious.

9. What’s your favorite closing technique?

a. Direct request √b. Benefit summaryc. Balance Sheetd. Probing Methode. Alternative choice

Ted’s favorite closing technique is the direct request. Closing the sale is his favorite part

of the job. He really enjoys the gratification and satisfaction of making a change in

someone’s life. Some advice he gave me for closing the sale is to be able to read the buyer’s

mind, know when the buyer is ready to close the sale and lastly, be ready to close it at any

moment. These are the keys to finalizing the sale, he stated. Ted told by reading the buyer’s

mind I could determine if the buyer is a driver or is into small talk, which I need to be able to

close the sale quickly so that they can get back to their work. However, if the buyer seems to

be amiable and expressive and want to get to know you as a person, then be ready to close

the sale, but don’t rush it, build a little more rapport and become more likeable with the

buyer because that’s what they want. Lastly, Ted advised me to never forget to ask for the

sale! He told me that being new in the sales world, I could bound to get lost in my nerves and

forget to ask for the sale. He stated if I have a great presentation and the buyer loves me but I

forget to ask for the sale, I’ve lost.

10. When a sales meeting didn’t go well or as expected, how did you handle it?

When I asked Ted about his biggest sales challenges of his career, he immediately said

rejection. Which I sort of figured it out, but what threw me a little off was when he said

rejection gets harder once you’ve already been successful. He said he had learned how to

take rejection as constructive way and not personally. For example, after being so successful

in his career, if he were to be rejected tomorrow, it would be hard for him to handle it, just

because he knows what he’s doing and doesn’t understand why people wouldn’t invest

themselves in education. I asked him how he handled rejection before being successful and

how he handles it now after being successful. He said that at the beginning of his career, he

learned quickly to take rejection as constructive criticism. He learned from each prospect the

failure to deliver the message and altered his tactics for the next. Later on his career, after

already learning from mistakes and being successful in the industry, Ted had master how to

handle rejection all over again. His advice was to understand that rejection never gets easy,

and that no matter how much someone tries to act like it doesn’t bother him or her, rejection

bothers everyone. He told me to do my best at not taking rejection personally and to

understand that in any industries, where I like to persuade a career in sales, politics play a

huge role. Ted mentioned the key to overcoming rejection is to be confidence. Therefore,

being rejected by someone may not have anything to do with the salesperson, but the fact that

they do not need what you have to offer.

ANALYSIS:

1. Does this person seem well-suited to a job in sales? Why?

Base on the interview with Mr. Kulawiak, I believe he seem well-suited to a job in sales

because he knows what he is talking about, he is a professional, well-driven, and he knows

what he wants. One of the things I enjoyed the most about our time in his office, was that he

constantly repeated that he couldn’t feel compelled if he can’t make a change in someone’s

life. This actually opened my eyes that it doesn’t matter what kind of industry you want to

specializes in, you have to do your job with integrity, morals and always to be trustworthy.

2. What are the positives of this position from your perspective?

One of Ted’s favorite parts of his job in sales is getting to meet new people and helping

others. He says the amount of nice people outweighs the mean people. Being in sales, Ted

thought most likely everyone would be looking out only for themselves, but he was proven

wrong. Also, he has made many friends throughout his career and plans to continue making

new friends. Lastly, Ted said the commission is a huge perk, likewise for everyone in the

sales industry. He likes to be rewarded for his hard work, and working in an industry that

pays commission plus based-salary. He mentioned that every time his sales team breaks the

school-year goal on the size of students enrolled is what motivates him to go above and

beyond to find new corporate partners.

3. What are the negatives of this position from your perspective?

After analyzing everything Ted mentioned on this interview, I was able to catch up few

negatives perspective from his job. One of the negatives things I noticed that managing a

large group of sales reps can get difficult, especially to keep them motivated when they don’t

do as-well-as expected. He mentioned that out of 100 calls a sales rep makes daily about 10

become qualify leads, but not everyone gets enrolled into an educational program. For more

than I love sales, I can’t stay eight hours call calling prospects, it can get a little depressive in

sales if 100 calls you make are not sales made. And this can’t cause a turn down in the job,

which could cause a demand in employees quitting.

4. Lessons learned from this interview?

I agree that the best advice Ted have gave me for going into a sales career is to pick an

industry I will have an interest in. This goes back to where Ted said, “know the product or

service you’re selling, and believe in it. If you are not interested in the industry or product or

service, how can you possibly sell it?” Another piece of a lesson learned is to start building a

network of possible prospects and clients. He told me to do this by talking with friends,

family, and colleagues about what I like and what industry I hope to be in when I graduate.

He also said to keep up with friends and classmates after college because I never know, they

may be future clients or prospects. He highly recommended me to read the book, “How to

Master the Art of Selling,” by Tom Hopkins. When Ted goes out to the field to find new

corporate businesses, he make sure he doesn’t go out without an appointment, he mentioned

he tries avoiding the gatekeepers and go straight to the decision maker. One of the take way’s

I learned from this interview is, before someone call any business for an appointment there’s

a need of doing a company background to make sure if they need what you have to offer, Ted

says, “It’s all about integrity; knowing what is good and what is bad. Be trustworthy and

people will buy you!”

5. How would you approach this position differently than the sales professional?

When it comes to approach a new customers I would have used to the standard

introduction approach, I like to talk about myself. Normally, I tell a short funny story about

myself follow with a questions; have you done something crazy like that? It’s all about being

likeable and killing your own nerves at the introduction! Knowing how to be funny is a good

perk, but you need to be creative. It really doesn’t matter what’s your experience in sales,

professional’s tent to get nerves when it comes to approach new customers. When it comes to

approach current customers I would have used the compliment approach, but before I

compliment them I have to do some research about him or her and then congratulated them

for their achievement or success. I believe you can’t never go wrong with this approach.