Week 4

On Friday I got the opportunity to shadow an account executive in the sales department. It was such a fascinating experience and it was really great to get an inside look at the department. I was very surprised that each account executive works with so many different clients. I also did not expect them to work with such a broad range of clients. The account exec I was paired with managed accounts for huge department stores, restaurants, home improvement stores, and non-profit organizations, including USD. I got to ask him a bunch of questions about the qualities needed to be successful at his job, and he responded that building a relationship between the UT and the client is by far the most important thing. If the client doesn't trust the account executive, there is no reason they would continue business with the UT. Getting to shadow an account exec was really great because it gave me a completely different impression of sales than I had initially come into the UT with. Sales is more about forming a relationship and friendship, than pushing a product on a client.