Southwestern Company College Summer Internship Direct Sales Blog

Southwestern‘s 26th annual Great Recruiters Seminar just came to a close over the weekend at downtown Nashville’s Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center. The three day event featured a long list of speakers teaching parts on business principles, ethics, philanthropy, leadership, and growing personal production.

Thursday evening’s kickoff meeting began with Corporate Recruiters Caleb Rich and Amy Lavallie recognizing individuals who performed well in sales and team building in 2011. Following recognition, dealers participated in a meet and greet session by taking photos with other dealers who they had not yet met. The photos were to include the new Southwestern Advantage sunglasses that all seminar attendants received at registration, followed by a Twitter session where students tweeted their photos and followed each other’s accounts.

The first session of the night was given by Associate Sales Leader Liz Tran and European manager Karel Koiv on the subject of “How To Build Your Business.” The two presented suggestions and ideas to students on what helped them grow their own personal businesses and teams when they were first beginning and how they stayed motivated through their challenges.

The session to follow was given by Sales Manager Grant Greder on the topic of “Money Tips: How To Be Rich (Slowly)” where students were shown money management and investment options, budgeting plans, and ways to maintain your finances properly back at campus.

The evening’s third session featured guests speaking about our ‘Share The Advantage’ program. Corporate Recruiter Jaselyn Taubel shared her feelings on the impact that our program makes, along with program participants April Snodgrass and John Key. April is an Academy Coach at Hunters Lane High School in Nashville, and John is the Executive Director of Community Servants, Inc — both recent partners of our donation program. The two gave tremendous parts and helped show our students how the products that they sell during the summer are now being donated to organizations at a 1:1 rate where they are being used to improve and impact the educational opportunities of youth in at-risk areas.

The night concluded with a keynote address from Sam Kirk. Sam was one of the youngest to ever work with Southwestern – starting when he was a junior in high school at age 16. Sam was with Southwestern for 17 years, culminating a stellar career as a Sales Manager between 1986-1992. He is President of Creating an Environment of Success, headquartered here in Nashville. His wife Cynthia is also a Southwestern alumna, and their son Eugene worked with Southwestern for two years. Sam gave a moving part on his current program Youth About Business that teaches middle school and high school students the principles of business success by giving them hands on experience working closely with executives on major projects in preparation for a solid foundation for college and/or entrepreneurship.

Late night sessions on team building and sales were also held in the hotel conference rooms by top sales people and recruiters such as Matt Ross, Katia Sand, Trinity Taylor, Chris Salata, and Christine Martin.

Friday morning began with Southwestern’s Executive Chairman of the Board Spencer Hays sharing his remarks and encouragement to the students.

Following Spencer was a 2012 online product update for dealers given by product managers Ethan Shen, Haley Price, David Kong, and Kate Raidt.

Marketing’s Tabitha Taylor then shared a promotion for the Great Recruiters Getaway Trip which is an incentive for building and managing a top producing team each year. Tabitha shared details about 2011′s trip in December that took winners to Roatan, Honduras.

The mid-day featured three breakout sessions that students could choose from. Lee McCroskey, Head of Sales Development, lead a short course on how to connect with people. Kimberly Ritzer, President of Hot Mama and Southwestern alumna, lead a part on how what students are learning during their time with Southwestern can and should be used to grow their future careers. The third workshop was lead by top salespeople Ranol Kasevali and Charlotte Almeida on how to increase production during the summer months.

The evening sessions featured Communications Director Trey Campbell, Tabitha Taylor, and Ryan Davis giving tips on the importance of being smart and professional with social media.

Sales Manager Lester Crafton spoke afterwards with a moving part on what it means to be a leader who is unconditionally committed to doing what they say they’re going to do and leading by example.

After Lester, student managers Jennifer Perez, Brandon Abernathy, and James Pena each addressed the crowd about how their student manager made an impact on them by consistently believing in and supporting them.

The evening continued with CEO Henry Bedford sharing our company’s new philanthropic directions with dealers, followed by European Sales Manager Chris Adams on how to build a great team and why to “share your advantage with them.”

Friday’s keynote address featured Rory Vaden. Rory is a five summer Southwestern alumnus and current record holder of building the largest team (22) as an in-school dealer. Rory presented a powerful part on self-discipline and gave numerous examples of how successful people form the habits of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t feel like doing, showing that there are no shortcuts to success.

Saturday morning, like Friday, began with another optional spiritual time-out hosted by Nebraska Manager Joel Kosch and Christine Martin. Afterwards, Haley Price, along with special guest Jose Perez (Division Vice-President of Tom James), presented a part to students on the importance of being a young professional in our industry and line of work.

Saturday’s breakout sessions featured Sales Manager John Thomas on how to bounce back from a challenging summer, Sales Manager Nick Henderson on “The Power of Focus: How to Navigate Life & Stay Motivated”, and Sales Manager Virgie Sandford on how to build and keep a great team.

The seminar sessions ended with President Dan Moore giving an emotionally charging part entitled “Life 101″ where he advised students to carefully decide what their individual life philosophies would be and why doing so at a young age is so incredibly important.

The Freddies

The weekend concluded Saturday evening with the 13th Annual J. Fred Landers Awards Banquet at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon. This private, black tie event recognized and awarded the best of the best company-wide in sales and team building from 2011, and gave dealers and managers an opportunity to celebrate another great year of accomplishments including the personal and professional development of the student dealers.

Musical guest Isaac Hayden, featured on NBC’s ‘The Sing Off’, performed live for students to begin the night. Over the course of the two hour show, twelve awards were handed out to our company’s top individuals:

Top First Year Dealer in Sales – Jenny Ly

Top Experienced Dealer in Sales – Charlotte Almeida

Top Growth Award in Sales – Tonu Hiielaid

Top First Time Recruiter – Jenny Nuut

Top In School Team Leader (team size) – Sanita Aldina

Top Full Time Team Leader (team size) – Virgie Sandford

Top In School Team Builder (team production) – Remo Joeorg

Top Full Time Team Builder (team production) – Virgie Sandford

Top Business Builder – Timo Aleste

Excellence Award (Top Sales Manager) – Andres Martin

Student Excellence Award – Trinity Taylor

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