All 1 entries tagged Southwestern

Living the Life of a Salesman

What is the most unpopular job imaginable? Tax inspector? Traffic warden? Door-to-door salesman? Of these, perhaps only the stereotype of the pushy salesman provokes more annoyance in the average homeowner than does a religious canvasser with body odour. So why does anyone choose to work in this kind of job? This article explores a summer job which is becoming increasingly popular among students at Warwick.

Every summer between ten and twenty Warwick undergraduates travel to the United States in order to sell educational books. These students have been recruited by the Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee. In Nashville they will attend an exhilarating week of training at ‘Sales School’ before departing for their individual sales locations which may be anywhere in the United States. On finding accommodation in their sales locality, they will begin the mammoth task of persuading the local populace to order from their selection of educational books.

The Southwestern programme begins with Sales School. Here students are asked to ‘suspend disbelief’ and are then treated to an impressive array of motivational speakers and inspiring sales advice. Mathematics undergraduate Rachael Smith, who sold books in Illinois, said that “Sales School is fantastic preparation for the challenges of the summer… it is a great way to start the programme which provides plenty of opportunities to put into practice everything learned in that first week”.

Despite the apparent value of Sales School, most of what students learn will be taught ‘in the field’. They will learn to work independently, to cope with rejection, to strive to meet goals and even a little about manipulating human psychology to their own advantage. In the meantime they stand to be compensated well for the trials and tribulations of being a salesman. While the average first year made around £320 a week in 2003, the top first year seller earned himself a gross profit of £1606 a week. Unlike most student jobs, sellers are not paid a fixed hourly rate and are instead considered to be running their own sales business. The most obvious consequence of this is that the profit they take home is directly related to their own hard work and resourcefulness. Successful students are additionally offered a holiday, paid for by the company, as a reward for their efforts. Previous ‘sizzler’ prizes have taken students to South America, Asia and to West Africa. Some students are further invited to return the following year having recruited their own team from which they earn a small sum for each book sold. In this way, one returning student in 2003 took home over £28,259 from his summer job.

The life of a salesman is not, however, all about working abroad, gaining transferable skills and amassing a substantial fortune in the process. In reality the work is often hard, lonely and thankless. Students who are ultimately successful on the Southwestern programme tend to be those who worked eighty hours for every week of the summer. Although students are paired together for accommodation purposes, they are essentially alone while on the job. This loneliness may be compounded by a feeling of rejection as so many people that they speak to will be trying to close the door on them. As one former seller put it, “there comes a point in the summer when you begin to wonder whether your own mother still loves you”. Furthermore, working for yourself in a strange country perhaps unsurprisingly raises all manner of obstacles which may prove difficult to overcome. Although Southwestern provides its sellers with solid practical advice, students are expected to organise not only their own sales but also their permits, book deliveries and accommodation. One Southwestern alumnus, Will Lau, warns that “students should think very carefully about exactly what the programme entails… it is certainly not a holiday”. Another former seller, Olivier Delpon de Vaux, said that “it’s the kind of job in which you have no other choice but to become resourceful… you find yourself having to achieve the impossible, but somehow you do”. Nevertheless, these obstacles go some way towards explaining why the Southwestern programme experiences a relatively high drop out rate compared to other student jobs. Quitting the programme, however, may prove costly as students will already have invested in paying for visas, flights and subsistence.

The Southwestern programme is not a typical student job and it is not suitable for everyone. Students working in sales stand to lose or gain much in terms of money, confidence and self-esteem. Successful sellers need to have vast reserves of motivation, determination and ambition to get the most out of a summer with the Southwestern Company. So why does anyone choose to work in this kind of job? For one, students who can claim that they successfully ran their own sales business in a foreign country for a summer will be left with a lot to talk about at job interviews. For example, Sean Russell, Director of the Careers Service, continues to be impressed at the “inventiveness and adaptability of students who embark on work experience of all kinds”. Employers are likely to take a similar view of candidates whose applications stand out in this way. The benefits of a successful summer, however, are likely to extend far beyond straightforward CV filling. According to Warwick undergraduate James Arthey, students who meet the challenges of the Southwestern programme leave with “a profound sense of self-belief that may spill out into academic work, extracurricular activities and into future career aspirations”. Quite simply, the Southwestern programme is character building. As James put it, “if you can succeed in a job like that… then you can do anything”.

: 02 Mar 2007 20:44 |  Tags: Sales School Southwestern |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem