If you ask what the most intimidating job in the business world is I'm sure you would get different answers from each and every person. My answer? Sales and Advertising Representative.
This week I began working for The Maryville Daily Forum and The Post out of Maryville, MO. I face many challenges in this job but I also have learned many new and good things.
I am only 20 years old, so many times in this industry I am overlooked. I often have to act older than my age, which I am fine with, and I have to be a big girl. This is my first time in the 'big-girl' world. The success outweighs the challenges and makes it worth it. There is no calling mom when people are mean, which they often are in this job. You have to take the things that people say with a grain of salt and not repeat them. Gain trust from people who have never known you before and most of all be brave enough to go into places that you have never been before and talk to people that you have never talked to before.
I have always had the personality that is capable of talking to people so this job is my cup of tea. My family always says that I could dial the wrong number and still talk to them for an hour on the phone. When I believe in something I will tell every person I see that they should try this or they should look into the product. Advertising is much like this. You have to learn to believe in your product and sell it to the people around you.
Through this job I have learned in one week that you have to keep an all time positive attitude and not let anything get to you. Sometimes you encounter a personality that clashes with yours, but you have to learn to get along with them. In this job you definitely learn how to appreciate personalities. I have already learned to love the 'easy' accounts that just do the same thing every single week and are easy going. They say yes when they need something and they say no politely when they do not need anything. Many people are like this. It's a simple yes or no from them because advertising is that easy, either you want it, or you don't. However, not all people feel this way about advertisers.
I am covering the southwest Iowa area, where I have grown up all my life. Which means that I know almost all of my accounts from previous encounters and because they have watched me grow into the young adult that I am. While this sounded like something to brag about and the best way to gain accounts, it has actually proven to make life a little bit harder. I have been 'on the job' for 7 whole days now. In these 7 days I have walked into businesses that I have been to before and I am welcomed with open arms. I then pull out my business cards and tell them what I am doing and I get the remark of, "Oh no, not an advertising girl."
Another thing that I heard quite a few times in the past few days was, "You have a brave job." I do feel brave when I do this job but I feel that all I have to do is walk in with a smile on my face and walk about the same way.
I will admit that I am not an easily satisfied person and I often have to take great leaps of faith not knowing if I am going to be happy with what I am doing. I took a great leap of faith by accepting a full time job position while still going to college as a full time student and I love this job and all that I have learned and done so far. I am not the type of person to sit at a desk all day long but I don't mind doing it for a few hours a day. Then I am out and about and in the hustle and bustle of the town and those surrounding.
A new skill that I have learned this last week was how to use an application on the Apple computer called 'In-Design'. In this program we create all of our ads. While none of our ads are fancy and take a lot of work, they do take time to assemble. I have an account that wants to run their ad for a month, but wants to change the template every single week. With the help of Lana (our ad assembler) I created the first ad to be proofed by the company.
(our ads are too large to place into this blog, but I can send you the work in an email if interested.)
I think that classes have helped me tremendously because I know what people need to look for in their target markets and how having a marketing budget and using it to it's fullest potential can really help businesses. Negotiations class this semester has helped me gain some confidence in going into situations like these with my head high and ground set so that I don't get pushed around.
This week was definitely a learning week for me. I am going to have to use my people skills and develop relationships with my accounts and help them put their trust in me. Advertising is an expense that most people cut when worst comes to worst and I need to show them what I could do with that money if they would find a place to stretch the dollar. My job is all about getting people what is best for them and that is what I really believe. Does my job depend on their money? Yep. But I want them to get the best for their business so that they can tell me thank you, not blame me and be mad at me for just asking for their money.
