Camosun Marketing Communication Management student Mehtab Saluja has been working in sales for over five years. In 2016, he was approached by a recruiting organization with the task of strengthening the relationship between students and the sales industry. With that, the Great Camosun Sales Club student club was formed.
“They need to get more involvement from post-secondary students,” says Saluja. “They are looking for young and fresh talent.”
The club’s purpose is to introduce the option of sales as a career path and to show the value of sales as a skill set. Saluja says that careers in sales carry a negative stigma, and some people might not be interested in joining the group because they haven’t considered working in the field. However, Saluja says that there’s more to sales than people may think.
“Everything is sales—how you dress for work, how you behave—and you can learn all this through sales interactions,” he says.
Saluja says that he has fun working in sales; he sees every conversation with a client as a personal challenge to not lose the customer’s attention.
“When you have those skill sets developed, you can keep people into the conversation,” he says. “You know when to stop talking and what are the right amount of words to say, which is really valuable in networking in general.”
Camosun Marketing student Alisha Dsouza is a member of the Great Camosun Sales Club; she says that her relationship with sales wasn’t always positive.
“I, honestly, hated sales,” she says. “But after one year working as a sales associate, I learned that it’s all about communication and having empathy with somebody else.”
For Dsouza, sales skills are one of the most transferrable skill sets.
“For whichever job that you apply,” she says, “you must sell yourself to the employer.”
The main focus of the club this year is the Great Canadian Sales Competition. The competition is an event that challenges students from Canada to record a 90-second video pitch. It’s a three-round competition, with the final round happening in Toronto. The competition is an opportunity for networking and developing the sales skills emphasized by the club.
“The club offers personalized help for everyone who is interested in participating in the competition,” says Saluja. “We are available as a resource to help to develop and to create your idea.”
Putting yourself in situations that require the use of new skills isn’t always comfortable. Saluja explains that being part of a club like the Great Camosun Sales Club helps with that self-development.
“You can only develop yourself by getting into these experiences,” he says, “failing a few times, learning from your mistakes, and seeking guidance, when you need it, from the right places.”