Christian Merasco explores career options at SalesPage Technologies.

Hometown

Portage, MI

Education

Michigan State University (MSU)
Marketing Major; Retail Management Minor
Expected Graduation: May 2020

Position

Sales Operations Intern at SalesPage Technologies

Testing the Waters

When I started college, I knew I wanted to study business, but I didn’t want a career that would confine me to a desk. Since then, I’ve narrowed it down. Now my dilemma is deciding between a career in sales and a career in marketing. Marketing allows me to go out, meet people, talk, and be creative—but so does sales. Luckily, this internship lets me try a bit of both.

Getting Down to Business

SalesPage is a client data platform that works with asset management companies as a distribution partner. We provide software solutions and services that help these businesses use data more proactively. My responsibility is to assist SalesPage’s sales and marketing campaigns. One of our goals was to promote an educational webinar for financial professionals in the asset management industry. I helped Ana [Evans], our director of marketing, run the campaign from start to finish. First, I did in-depth market research. Leading up to the event, we sent out no less than a thousand emails and were on the phone constantly making calls and leaving voicemails. I also learned how to generate a Google Analytics report for the sales and marketing team to track website activity.

Lessons Learned

This internship is teaching me that details matter. SalesPage converted to a new CRM (Customer-Relationship Management) system recently, and I was responsible for data cleanup. We had thousands of contacts to migrate to the new system. I had to verify each one, see if the information was accurate, and update everything in the new system. The project showed me how important it is to pay attention to the small, tedious details that don’t seem that significant. Because in the long run, those details are critical. To run a marketing campaign like we did, with all the emailing and calling, we needed to know we were reaching out to the right people, in the right way.

What’s Next?

Although I work primarily in the marketing department, I am grateful to be able to observe the sales process at SalesPage as well. Early on, I told my mentor that sales was an interest of mine, and she put me in touch with the company’s director of sales. I haven’t had the chance to make many direct sales myself yet, but I sat in on several calls with him and did some one-on-one training. Sales takes a deep understanding of the products and services, not to mention the ability to speak comfortably with high-level people, but that’s what I like about it. I still haven’t quite decided in which direction to take my career, but I’m excited about the possibilities.