Summer Internship at Max Secure: Shubham Bonde

As the title suggests, this article accounts my experience of sales and marketing during my SIP at Max Secure, Pune. If you are a fresher, you would know the anxiety that comes along with it. And even if you are an experienced player, you would have experienced the same when you were once a fresher. However, it also comes with the excitement of exploring new domains, gaining remarkable experiences, and learning lifetime lessons. You don’t know for certain what would happen next. Either you’re going to seal the deal or get back home disappointed. This uncertainty that contributed to my curiosity and excitement remained throughout the SIP period, and always kept my head and hopes high. Fortunately, for me, the results were outstanding in the end.

Given a B2B profile and being an intern, one of the key responsibilities was to introduce an unfamiliar product in a well-established market. For me, it was about selling an antivirus to computer dealers in Pune. Some key takeaway points from my experience that I would like to share as words of advice that every sales and marketing person should incorporate in his/her personality are:

• Approach the market with confidence i.e. be an extroversion of yourself.
• Stay positive. Keep motivating yourself by remembering bad experiences as learnings and positive ones as memories.
• Keep charging yourself during the waiting time for clients i.e. be active.
• Try to work on positive criticism and get out of negative ones.
• Be connected with your company and its products irrespective of the product’s flaws and defects.
• Identify the customer’s needs and match them with your offerings.
• Focus on value addition.
• Regular follow-ups are vital for converting leads into sales. Emphasize more on personal meetings rather than calls or e-mails.
• Give respect to clients and in return, receive respect from them.

Set your target above organizational targets.

Do more than your job responsibilities; this makes you a valuable employee for your company.

It is sales that defines your performance. So, be a sales-oriented person.

From my project titled “Research Study of Channel Partners”, one thing that I realized is that the channel partners are cornerstones of sales and also your representatives in the market. So, it is crucial to nourish the relationship with channel partners by giving them a sense of trust and a belief of support in their peaks and valleys.

For every SIP aspirant, learning and experiences are not entirely dependent on the SIP company; it depends on you, your zeal to learn, and your extent of involvement. More the involvement and workaholic spirit, more the exposure and practical taste of marketing.

At last, business success is all about relationship success, so approach your clients not with the prime purpose of making a deal but for making a relationship.

For every marketing and sales person out there: “Don’t let a bad hour decide your day as bad. Also, don’t let a bad day decide your month as bad.”

About the Author:

My name is Shubham D. Bonde. I'm currently pursuing MBA in marketing and sales from IBS, Pune.