Advertising management senior Lanesha Davis has had two sales internships during her college career and already has a full-time job lined up after graduation. She credits a lot of her success to the opportunities she was given through being a part of the sales minor leadership program in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
“The sales minor leadership program is not only a way to develop yourself professionally in sales, but also to develop real-world experience,” Davis said. “I learned how to network and the program offers the chance to compete in an actual sales competition.”
Davis is the event coordinator for the Global Sales Leadership Society, therefore she was responsible for organizing the competition, as well as competing herself. The event itself hosts about 80 students and about 20 different companies.
One of Davis’ sales internships was this past summer at Delphi Automotive where she worked on their sales team. Davis’ role was to work on the Ford team to acquire new business leads.
Davis worked on a team with other interns to come up with new onboarding ideas for new hires in the sales industry. While working on this project, she analyzed data to maximize profitability and was also able to attend some classes on selling techniques and gaining strategic people skills.
“My favorite task was definitely the onboarding project,” Davis said. “I was able to be one of the leaders for that project and it was cool having the goal of increasing new hire retention rates.”
Another internship that Davis completed was with the Enterprise Rent-A-Car located at the Detroit airport.
“Enterprise was very hands on and I was actually responsible for doing the same tasks that a full-time employee would do, which was a great experience,” Davis said. “ Enterprise was very fast pace, as we did transactions daily. It was a great opportunity to experience different paces throughout my two internships.”
Davis currently works in the human resources department at MSU and has just accepted a full-time position as a business management associate at General Mills.
How did she decide to work in sales?
“I would say I am a people person and I love a challenge,” Davis said. “Being able to interact with different people and achieve new goals daily is something that got me interested in sales.”
Davis enjoys the people she works with in the industry, as well as the chance to network with people that have the same interest in sales that she has.
Advice?
“Get involved in leadership roles and experiences outside of the classroom,” Davis said. “Those are the skills that will set you apart from others.”
By Meg Dedyne
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