My Placement Year: Account Manager and New Business Developer
Hello,
I am undertaking a year placement from my degree in business and management and started 3 weeks ago.
It is for a small IT solutions provider that predominantly work in the education sector, providing IT support contracts, various network and infrastructure projects. I have been tasked with managing all current accounts to allow the sales director to be out more, at appointments and hypothetically, closing deals.
So my role first and foremost is to service existing customers with any extra hardware or software they should need, or licensing. General checks that our service is satisfying them and to build relationships with those and keep a track of those relationships. I do not carry out any IT support, our desk based technicians provide that so any queries like that I transfer to them, but I can be the first port of call (Answer the phone).
I get 10% of the net profit made from any hard/software sold to existing customers.
Secondly, I am in charge of developing new leads, prospects and appointments and I am on commission for this too, £20 per appointment, with quarterly bonuses of £300 if I hit 31 appointments in a quarter.
In my first 3 weeks I have been getting to grips with the quoting and ordering processes to ensure I can carry out those tasks quickly and efficiently. I'm getting to know our suppliers and products/services that we offer so I can talk about those and the perceived benefit to a customer.
I imagine my main source of leads will come from cold calling. I have done a little of this before, but not to arrange appointments. So am fairly new to it.
As a business student, I don't have anywhere near as much hands on experience as other candidates for the job, and they were advertising for a full-time employee (they took a gamble on me). By the end of this year I want that gamble to have paid off, to have gained them customers,contracts, and to have put in place a better internal infrastructure to help them manage information more effectively.
I plan to do marketing through emails aswell and to set up a referral scheme as schools are always in contact with eachother, so if we can provide some free support/consultancy in return for, in the long run, a contract with a new school, this could more than pay for itself.
I am undertaking a year placement from my degree in business and management and started 3 weeks ago.
It is for a small IT solutions provider that predominantly work in the education sector, providing IT support contracts, various network and infrastructure projects. I have been tasked with managing all current accounts to allow the sales director to be out more, at appointments and hypothetically, closing deals.
So my role first and foremost is to service existing customers with any extra hardware or software they should need, or licensing. General checks that our service is satisfying them and to build relationships with those and keep a track of those relationships. I do not carry out any IT support, our desk based technicians provide that so any queries like that I transfer to them, but I can be the first port of call (Answer the phone).
I get 10% of the net profit made from any hard/software sold to existing customers.
Secondly, I am in charge of developing new leads, prospects and appointments and I am on commission for this too, £20 per appointment, with quarterly bonuses of £300 if I hit 31 appointments in a quarter.
In my first 3 weeks I have been getting to grips with the quoting and ordering processes to ensure I can carry out those tasks quickly and efficiently. I'm getting to know our suppliers and products/services that we offer so I can talk about those and the perceived benefit to a customer.
I imagine my main source of leads will come from cold calling. I have done a little of this before, but not to arrange appointments. So am fairly new to it.
As a business student, I don't have anywhere near as much hands on experience as other candidates for the job, and they were advertising for a full-time employee (they took a gamble on me). By the end of this year I want that gamble to have paid off, to have gained them customers,contracts, and to have put in place a better internal infrastructure to help them manage information more effectively.
I plan to do marketing through emails aswell and to set up a referral scheme as schools are always in contact with eachother, so if we can provide some free support/consultancy in return for, in the long run, a contract with a new school, this could more than pay for itself.