Sales in the big leagues

Hi, my name is Matt Lynam. I am a senior in the advertising program on the management track.  For this past semester I have been interning at a large, privately owned, international paper distribution company called LindenMeyr.  At my internship I assisted the sales team throughout the sales process.

As I said, I assisted the sales team with finding new leads.  I would do this by seeking out local businesses and printing/ publishing companies to see if they were happy with their current paper providers.  If not I would arrange a meeting with a sales associate because I was not allowed to negotiate prices.  This was interesting to me because I got to see all the behind the scenes work that goes into finding a new lead.  I also got to see how hard it is to obtain a new customer.  I found that you can’t be afraid of rejection because its going to happen to everyone in the sales game.  As long as you’re prepared and try your hardest you will do fine. Other than finding new leads, I would assist current customers.  I would do this by actually making and sending the customer’s order.  There are usually a lot of emails back and forth between the customer and I before the order is sent. This could include anything from making a booklet to sending envelopes to the customer.

Working at LindenMeyr has shown me a lot about the sales process at a big business level.  I’ve also learned that there are many problems facing the paper industry, especially with our society becoming more and more digital.  I think LindenMeyr should somehow break into the digital world.  They could possibly set up a management systems division that helps to manage a company’s records instead of sending them paper to put into filing cabinets.