My name is Ken Burdon. This is dot.com Communications & Entertainment. I've been with dot.com Communications now for just about 8 months. My job title is the Corporate Sales Manager. I look after, obviously, the corporate end sales.



Dot.com has a number of retail outlets, and as of May we've branched into the corporate end of things looking after all of the Sasktel services that would pertain to the corporate end.

What we do here is we are a Sasktel mobility dealer. So, we obviously handle the cellular end of Sasktel mobility. We're also a fully authorized Sasktel dealer, which means that we have in our portfolio all of the goods and services that Sasktel would have to offer you.

[Decision To Enter This Particular Occupation:]

I've been in Sales for most of my adult life. I got into Sales primarily because I enjoy working with people. I've always been able to strike up conversations with people and talk at a level that people can understand. Also, I was born and raised in Regina and I've made a lot of contacts in the number of years that I've lived here, so I know so many people. Sales seems to come easy to me. That's a big part of why I decided to get into Sales. I do have a certificate in Administration from the University of Regina. That has helped me somewhat in understanding organizations, understanding businesses and how they run.

[Personal Characteristics & Attitudes:]

Sales is a kind of a different game though. In Sales you need to obviously know the business background, but Sales is a personable thing; Sales is a person-to-person thing. If people don't like you or trust you or understand you, their not gonna buy from you, no matter how much you know about business. So it's a bit of a different thing. You can have a lot of education, but that doesn't necessarily gonna make you good in the Sales field.

You need to:

have a positive attitude,
be aggressive in what you're doing,
have empathy for the customers and their needs and a big thing is honesty, integrity, sincerity.

People like dealing with people that they like and they can trust.

[Teamwork Skills:]

Teamwork skills are very, very important. I can't say enough about that. If you're not willing to, and that holds true with any business, if you're not willing to work in a team atmosphere with individuals that are striving for the same goals as you're striving for, the business is the one that suffers for that.

[Change & Adaptability:]

Being able to adapt to change, again, is extremely important. Businesses these days with you know, fiscal restrains, downsizing, the rapid advancement of technology (all of these things) have a real bearing on the success of your business. It's very, very important to be able to, not only change with what's happening, but in fact, constantly change to make change yourself within the organization.

[Leadership Skills:]

Being the Corporate Sales Manager here, certainly I have a lot of individuals that look to me for certain guidance and things. But like I say, everybody within the organization should be leading by example. That's the way I like to look at things.

[Ongoing Training:]

There is a certain amount of ongoing training with regards to Sales. I mean, it's certainly an ongoing thing to hone your Sales skills, if you will. Make sure that you're:

always expanding your client base,
involved in the community,
reading manuals or attending seminars to make your life easier.
As far as the product knowledge end of things, there again, like I say, this industry is changing so quickly. Not only computers, but like I say, the Internet and even the cellular end of things. It's a constant training to keep on top of the changes that are happening.

[Typical Work Day:]

A typical day for me is, I'm in the office usually around 7:30 or 7:45, make coffee for the staff. My day consists of primarily:

contacting our corporate clients, prospecting if you will;
setting appointments;
and keeping those appointments.
So my day consists primarily of looking after corporate clients, either our existing corporate clients or, like I said, prospecting for new corporate clients. That may include a number of things. That could include activating some cellular phones for someone or could be getting together a quote on a hundred laptops for a company. We haven't done a hundred laptops yet, but that'd be a nice one to do. Or talking to them about their Internet needs or communication needs, how we can make their businesses run a little better.

[Most Challenging Aspect:]

Everyday is really a new challenge. I don't know if there's one aspect of it that is more challenging than another. And that's really the beauty of this job…there's continuous challenges. And I think that when you're in any Sales job there are continuous challenges to meet those – to meet those goals that you set for yourself. And really that's kind of what being successful is all about; setting those goals for yourself and challenging yourself to achieve those goals that you do.

[Most Satisfying Aspect:]

Without a doubt the most satisfying part is closing the sale and writing up the invoice and delivering the invoice. There's nothing quite like the thrill of the sale and that's another reason why, part of the reason why, I got into this business. As well, because there's a certain satisfaction everyday. I guess, you know, making the big sale is just like a hockey player winning the Stanley Cup, or I mean that's the ultimate goal – making that big sale and each and every little win along the way is very nice.

[Advice For Someone Entering This Field Of Work:]

Sales can be a very, very enticing job in that you (a lot of times your own) can make very, very good money, especially as a Commission Salesman. You're pretty much…you're not limited by anything really as to the amount of money you can make, and your time can be your own. But it can be very, very demanding. It's very time consuming. You really need to like what you're doing or you'll really get tired of it. Because like I say, it's really demanding emotionally.

On one hand it's really nice to make a big sale. On the other hand, it's demoralizing when you don't make that big sale. And if you're not thick-skinned enough to get through those days when you don't have sales (when the competitor walks away with all the money), then you're really gonna be in trouble. Because there's a lot of people that get into the sales game who take those kinds of things personally and become a nervous wreck over it all. So, I think the biggest thing would be to find out as much about that particular industry that you're looking at. Like I say, just make sure that you have what it takes inside to be able to do a good job, because it certainly isn't for everyone.