Not Your Average Internship

Hello, my name is Hannah Erfle, and I am a rising senior at the Klein School of Media and Communications. During most of my time at Temple, I was completely unsure about what I wanted to with my life; I couldn’t decide between pursuing a career in medicine or business. So after much time and consideration, and switching my major four times,  I finally declared my studies in Advertising with a focus on Account Management! I’m very grateful I pursued an Advertising degree through Temple because my options, for a career after college, are seemingly limitless.

This summer I am working in Philadelphia as a sales intern for Henry Schein Dental. Henry Schein is the #1 distributor of healthcare products and services in the world. I am very thankful that I was selected as one of the twenty-five students in the United States for Henry Schein’s internship program because I am learning and experiencing so much and having a great time!

Henry Schein’s summer internship program is designed to give me an idea of the role of a Field Sales Consultant (FSC). The internship is an opportunity to be exposed to the life of outside sales, and to learn a lot about myself and how I work day-to-day, validating my desire to work in an outside sales role after college. The goals for the internship program is for me to learn the following:

• How to cold call
• How to organize a call cycle
• How to identify a lead and move it through a sales process
• Learn about myself and how to deal with the triumphs and tribulations of a sales role
• Be comfortable with myself in a professional setting
• Network with people at my local branch, who I will potentially work with upon your graduation
• Hold yourself accountable for my successes (and even failures)

This summer I am co-traveling with rookies and veteran Field Sales Consultants (FSCs) to understand their position better and learn different sales strategies. I also take part in weekly staff meetings/ phone conferences and sit in on follow-up meetings with doctors and FSCs. Additionally, I am shadow dentists and oral surgeons to learn common dental terminology and gain different insights from a doctor’s perspective.

Additionally, I have been assigned a list of 2,000 accounts (dental offices) across the Greater Philadelphia Area to visit throughout the next few weeks. During each of my office visits, I will administer a survey to gather market data for Henry Schein’s new CRM system in addition to, uncovering new leads such as a second meeting or technology demonstration, with a doctor and an FSC or technology specialist.

I have met so many kind and awesome colleagues, all of whom have gone the extra mile to make me feel welcome and comfortable. Almost all members of the Philadelphia team have personally reached out to me and have offered to let me co-ride to their prospects and current clients, sit in on demonstrations/meetings and or take meet me for coffee to talk! I’m so thankful I am the only intern in our division because I’ve been treated like royalty. I am especially grateful for my all of colleague’s mentorship because there is an overwhelming amount of information I’ve had to learn in a short amount of time, and without their additional help and guidance, I would feel completely lost.

I am extremely lucky enough to have found an interesting position that fulfills both my passion in the medicine and business!

Day 2: Shadowing a Periodontist