Not only does summer bring warm temperatures and reruns of Lost and your favorite reality TV programs, it also marks the time of year when you could hear that knock-knock-knockin’ at your door.
In a long-standing tradition, spanning over 140 years, college students from all over the country and internationally have traded their text books for another set of books. Nearly 3,000 will spend their summer break knocking on doors just like yours, gaining experiences in sales and life that simply can’t be taught in a lecture hall.
As participants in the Southwestern Company’s summer selling program, student dealers get to see a cross-section of the US (or Canada) as they travel to Tennessee for sales and leadership training and then to the area they will call home for the summer.
These are no ordinary college students, and what they are doing certainly does not qualify as an ordinary summer experience. They walk the beaten path. The path, that is, that leads to your doorstep. It is at your doorstep that their real education begins.
“As independent dealers running their own business, selling Southwestern Company’s educational products give the students a higher level of skills and knowledge that their future employers are looking for,” says Dan Moore, President of Southwestern Company and a former dealer in Southwestern products for six years. “We also have lots of opportunities in our own corporate family of companies which were all started with former southwestern company student dealers.”
When asked why a college student, who could otherwise be at the beach or “vegging” at home would give up their summer break to visit thousands of families, the answer is “why not?” says Matt Atchison, a District Sales Manager with Southwestern Company who has also been an independent dealer in Southwestern Company products for eight years.
“College students want to learn and amass as much usable experience and personal growth as they can to prepare for life after school. With this program, they can experience first-hand how to run their own business, communicate face to face and explore who they are and who they want to become,” says Atchison.
Look out for the men and women of the “bookfield,” ’cause here they come!
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