Wednesday, June 19th
Today I was in the sales and presales department at SAS. Today I followed a different schedule by only shadowing one individual. This was a cool experience because I was able to see what the full day entails for a sales representative and how they sell SAS software.
One of my favorite parts of the days was being able to look at all the companies and relationships that he was in charge of. The main way they market SAS software to companies is by promoting demand forecasting. My host had 15 companies he keeps track of in total, the largest being Budweiser. He explained to me how important it is to go out and personally make and maintain connections with the company you are trying to sell to. One of the most interesting parts of the job is being able to travel around the country in order to close deals. These excursions cause the people in the sales department to have very busy and interesting schedules. For an upcoming meeting with a client, he is going to a baseball game in Louisiana. I found it really interesting that this job involves so much travel and not just the basic cold calling and prospecting which I expected.
