Benefits of Working in Sales!
August 28, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad is a unique organisation that specialises placing graduate into fast growing international organisation. The graduates that are successful in ProGrads selection process will generally be placed within a business to business sales department.
Many graduates leave university without knowing the benefits of working within a sales departments. Some of the benefits include:
- Fast progression which means there is the opportunity to move quickly into management.
- Early recognition from your direct line managers which means you will ne noticed and promoted accordingly.
- Rewards such as money, bonuses and commissions.
- Fast paced environments which means you will never get bored!
- Dynamically and constantly challenging so you will be able to grow and develop strong skill sets.
If you think you would be interested in getting into a business to business sales role, please call proGrad now on 02 8235 8300 or visit ProGrads website for more information www.prograd.com.au
Coaching your team to success
August 26, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
Here is a great article about “Coaching Your Team to Success”, as found on “Business Management ABC’s”
Overview
Many companies suffer from inconsistent and below average sales figures, causing frustration and limiting growth. Recent industry studies have discovered that coaching techniques can help to turn average sales figures around, but many companies do not have the time to implement coaching.
This article will discuss the Development Coaching technique and is applicable for anyone managing or working in a sales team.
What is Development Coaching?
Development Coaching is all about providing your sales team with help, support and guidance to grow their skills and abilities, to enable them to increase their sales figures. Most companies have a Sales Management function which checks figures and sets targets, but usually does not have the time to coach the individual team members. Development Coaching is a long term undertaking to offer regular sessions with sales staff, guiding them through all aspects of the sales function and solving problems together to build confidence and skills.
The Problem - Maintaining the momentum of hitting targets
Many companies experience the problems of sales staff not consistently hitting their targets. Their skill sets seem high and they show glimpses of genius on occasions, but they do not deliver consistent figures. As time progresses their averages get worse and they fall into the comfort zone. Their ambition suffers and their confidence diminishes. �
Development Coaching - A Solution to grow sales figures
The sales process is largely a pro-active role, relying on organizational skills, imagination and sound strategy. It is therefore one of the hardest roles to deliver consistently high performance.
For more information, have a look at the following link:
http://www.businessmanagementabcs.com/
ProGrad Module 4: Graduate Feedback
August 26, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad recently had 21 graduates join us back in the training centre for Module 4 after almost completing their first year of employment. ProGrad’s module 4 focuses on Key Account Management, and is designed to help educate graduates on strategic approaches to managing important accounts.
By the end of the 2 day ProGrad course, candidates will be able to:
· outline the role and accountabilities of the key account manager
· develop a strategic approach to managing your most important accounts
· identify the key activities and added value that successful account managers must bring to a customer
“I enjoy Kingsleys approach to the course – it keeps it lively, interesting and engaging. Thanks very much for everything ProGrad, I will recommended you for years to come!” Adam, ProGrad Graduate
“The content of this course was very relevant to all class members which made for good group discussions. I found this module very useful as I am involved with major accounts and it was very useful to get some valid advice on different situations we face at work.” Gemma, ProGrad Graduate.
“I found this course very informative and enjoyed the real life case studies and hearing about other grads experiences.” Heather, ProGrad Graduate.
ProGrad would love to hear about your training experiences. Please call us with your feedback on 02 8235 8300 or visit the ProGrad website at www.prograd.cm.au
Your value to a company….what is it?
August 25, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
So many people are losing their roles within companies at the moment, and we’re often hearing “I was the top performer, and they let me go.”
But here is the question mark…would a company really let their top sales person leave the company? If the sales person was responsible for generating the majority of revenue within a business, why would they have been made redundant?
Think about your worth to an organisation. What can you do to ensure you’re not the one being let go. Perhaps you can take on a bit more responsibility within your company, do more than is required to do the job. Ensure that they simply can’t do without you. Its all about going the extra mile, for your role, your company and your empoyer.
Start adding value to ensure your security within an organisation.
ProGrad helps graduates to find roles within the corporate arena, if you would like to hear more about how we do this, please contact the ProGrad graduate management team on 02 8235 8300.
Current ProGrad Opportunities Available
August 25, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad is Australia’s largest graduate assessment, placement and training organisation. We work with fast growing international companies across a variety of sectors such as FMCG, Media, Telecommunications and Information Technology. Successful ProGrad graduates are placed into graduate programs working in diverse roles within the business to business sales and marketing departments. These varied roles enable graduates to gain a view of the entire organisation and industry they work in.
ProGrad currently has a number of great graduate opportunities, with positions as Territory Manager, Sales Representatives, Account Managers, Sales Executives, Marketing Coordinators and Administration style roles.
To become a successful ProGrad candidate, you will need to apply online now. If you initial application is successful, you will receive a telephone call from our graduate management team to conduct a short telephone interview. If successful you will then be invited to attend an assessment day. Once successful at the assessment day, ProGrad will be able to assist you in finding suitable job opportunities.
Once placed in an organisation graduates are provided with a full year training program from ProGrad. This training provides them with the appropriate skills sets to ensure their success in their first year.
If you are a recent graduate seeking an entry level sales or marketing position please calls ProGrad on 02 8235 8300 or submit your application via the ProGrad website www.prograd.com.au
How to answer the question, “what are you looking for?”
August 24, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad conduct somewhere in the region of 400 - 600 telephone interviews each week. This number can fluctuate, but the figures listed are certainly an average.
One of the key questions that we ask, is “what are you looking for?”
Its a broad question and diffcult to answer…for anyone in a telephone interview situation. What is the right way of ansering this? Well, our recommendation is to always refer to elements of a position which would make it an enjoyable role for you. Think about the environment, and what that needs to look like. For example: “I’m looking for an environment which is fast paced, progressive and rewarding. I’d like to be challenged, have variety and I’d like to get my hands stuck in.”
One of the major challenges when answering the question, “what are you looking for?” is that your answer could end up being too specific and the telephone interviewer might not proceed to the next step. If they don’t feel they have the specific role to meet your specific needs, the conversation will end pretty swiftly.
If you would like to speak to someone at ProGrad about our roles, please contact the team on 02 8235 8300.
Staying Safe with Social Media
August 24, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
http://www.crn.com.au/News/153507,opinion-protect-your-cyber-self.aspx
The CRN website has published a good article about the inportance of “staying safe” when utilising online social media. This is an important discussion, not simply relevant to “younger” generations, but also business professionals.
The article gives a great example of how corporate information of a sensitive nature can be so easily leaked through vehicles like Twitter or Facebook.
It also highlights the damage that can be done in “banning” access to these sites, and the limit it would put on marketing visibility. These are all fair points, and perhaps its going to take us a bit of time to adjust…but we’ll get there, eventually.
ProGrad are quite new users to this type of technology and are new to experiencing the positive/ negative side effects that run in parallel to these online tools. No doubt, something is just around the corner…good, bad or indifferent.
We’ll keep you posted…watch this space!
ProGrad is a graduate assessment, placement and training company and we specialise in placing recent Graduates into proactive sales careers across a variety of indsutries. To be considered for any roles through ProGrad, please contact us now on 02 8235 8300.
Visit us on Flickr!
August 24, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
We’re pretty new to Flickr, but feel free to check us out http://www.flickr.com/photos/prograd/
We’re hoping to upload more pictures of the team, along with more short videos to demonstrate elements of the ProGrad assessment day. This will provide an education to graduates who are thinking about applying to ProGrad, simply so they know exactly what the process entails.
If you can recommend other areas for us to publish these clips, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact one of the ProGrad team on 02 8235 8300 and let us know your thoughts! We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
The ProGrad Team!
ProGrad are on Twitter….
August 24, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad are finally on Twitter…and can be seen at www.twitter.com/progradgraduate
Please log onto Twitter and follow our organisation. We will try to keep you up to date with our movements and any projects that we’re currently working on.
Feedback from our canddiates, explained that we did need to drive a strong online presence across the graduate community which we are keen to do. If you would like to make any more recommendations to ProGrad, please let us know. We’d like to hear from you!
Kind regards, ProGrad
If you would like to speak to one of the ProGrad team, please call us at our Sydney office on 02 8235 8300.
Great ProGrad success story
August 24, 2009 by ProGrad · Leave a Comment
ProGrad have placed nearly 2,000 graduates across Australia in the last 4 years, making us the largest Graduate Recruitment company in the country.
We specialise in placing graduates specifically within the Business-to-business sales teams across a variety of industries, including IT, FMCG, Pharmaceutical and Media.
2 years ago, ProGrad placed Liam at Microsoft, where he has become a large success within the business. He recently sent this email to Prograd to explain what has been happening:
“The second week of July saw the Microsoft Company Kick-Off to which I was pleasantly surprised to receive an award known as the Circle Of Excellence Gold Club award. There were 15 people in total who won the award, and I am happy to say that I was 1 of 3 people in my team to win the award. The recipients to receive the award are hand-picked by the Managing Director and got the opportunity to join her on stage, in front of the entire organisation for photos and a quick celebration.
What do I get with the Circle Of Excellence Gold Club Award I hear you ask:
1) Circle Of Excellence trophy to display on my desk
2) 5% additional bonus derived from my base pay, and
3) Circle Of Excellence emblem on my business card
One of the things that I do get is great recognition and visibility across the organisation and especially with the Senior Leadership Team.”
Liam went on to explain some more highlights of his career which is wonderful to read about. He is a great example of a ProGrad graduate who has become a large success within this global IT company. He had limited experience prior to joining ProGrad, yet he had enormous potential.
He is a wonderful example of a ProGrad success story and we look forward to supporting him as he progresses through the business.