James Ireland
Expected Graduation December 2020
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. I graduated from St. Francis de Sales High School right down the street from the University of Toledo. I will be completing my Professional Sales and International Businesses degree at the end of fall 2020. I have participated in multiple clubs and tried to stay as involved on campus as possible while working full time. I have been an active member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) since my freshman year where I have held chairs. I participated in Cancer Pucks as their fundraiser chair. In addition, I participated in our cheerleading team. During my freshman year, I accepted an internship with Dish Networks direct marketing arm, currently known as Caliber.
How did you decide to choose Sales as your major?
I chose Professional Sales because I love interacting with people, building long term working relationships, and providing solutions to solve problems. Sales skills are invaluable, I was once told, “No matter what you do in life, you need to know how to sell a service, a product, or yourself.” The fact is, being able to communicate and understand how to specifically solve a prospect’s problem will allow you to carry those communication skills throughout every aspect of your life. By understanding how to sell people the way they want to be sold, you will separate yourself among every single one of your peers.
What are your career plans after graduation and future career goals?
Post-graduation I plan on staying with the same company that has taken care of me throughout my collegiate career, Caliber. They have provided me with a path to obtain my own personal goals, while working with some of my best friends. I see nothing but growth in the telecommunications and direct to consumer marketing field, especially with the growth of the 5G network. This year I will be the senior sales manager of over twenty-seven sales professionals in our summer sales office located in northern Minneapolis. I plan on building off this year’s success to eventually become a regional or divisional manager where I would have the capacity to mentor fifty to a hundred sales reps in multiple offices within our company. I plan on doing this until I can start my own business.
What kind of successes have you had this semester and over the course of your Undergraduate career?
My biggest success in my undergraduate experiences was being the top rookie intern in Dish One/Caliber’s nationwide intern program in 2018, and then mentoring the top rookie intern who broke the summer sales record by over a hundred sales in 2019 (https://www.bhsu.edu/About-BHSU/News-Events/bhsu-grad-named-intern-of-the-year-earns-43k-in-three-months-1). This is a very prestigious award in our organization as we are aligned with over sixteen sales schools including Purdue, Michigan State, Rutgers, University of Arizona, West Virginia, and on average employ over three hundred interns a year. My three years with Caliber completely changed my outlook on what I can truly achieve while still in college. While at times it was one of the harder experiences I’ve had, the lessons I have learned, network I have built, and sale skills I’ve taken away every summer have prepared me for the job market. In a hyper competitive world, you must find your own personal niche so that you can stand out uniquely among your peers. I believe I have done exactly that with the help of Caliber.
Can you elaborate on what mentoring was like? What were some challenges and what did you learn?
My second year I was lucky enough to be put into a position of influence as a Co-Manager of our Omaha, NE office and I learned mentoring a team of peers can be extremely tough. This office was one of our top five offices in the nation out of the total 50+ offices Caliber maintains. This office was comprised of over seventeen reps of which a majority had been college age students just like myself. I took away some very important lessons on leadership, yet three of them stood out to me the most. The first law of leadership I learned was "leading from the front.” It is impossible to preach how to reach sales success without showing others that you are personally following the expectations you set. The next law of leadership I learned was earning the respect through servant leadership and making sure that everyone knew the only reason I was out there was to benefit them. The third principle was tailoring your motivation to the individual’s goals for your reps, or just like prospects, selling them how they want to be sold. I was lucky to contribute to the mentorship of an extremely highly motivated and talented salesman, Collin Powers. He credits his pursuit on his goals to my passion to vicariously live through his success and the support to raise his paradigm of what can be accomplished in a summer. As the manager, whether area management, transportation, or motivation, I put him in the best position to be successful. He was able to sell 286 accounts, beating the previous record of 146. Given the responsibility of becoming a manager has taught me that in order to develop myself I must develop a strong passion towards the betterment of my team because like the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
What advice would you give to other students starting off in a Professional Sales Program?
The one piece of advice I have for all students starting off in a Professional Sales Program is to do what most think uncomfortable so you can have the success that most think unobtainable. Take the time to go to the job fairs, the info nights, and the extracurriculars. Sales is all about making connections; take time outside of class to build your network equity. Take the chance on the endless opportunities the University of Toledo can provide. There is so much out there, you will regret not getting involved. Find your own personal niche and become the best version of yourself.
How will your experiences in classes, sales competitions, student organizations, etc. help you reach your career goals?
The opportunities that the Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales at the University of Toledo has provided me will propel me past peers at other colleges. I like to think of sales as an extremely competitive sport: in order to perform at your peak performance, you must train with a winning team. I believe that with the in-classroom teaching, sales lab experience, and extracurriculars at the University of Toledo, there is no better team to join. The fact is, I feel lucky to have been a part of such a well-structured and prestigious degree program.
