Featured Alumni

Hi I’m Janz Gonzalez, an associate degree student from Hubbard College.  Choosing this school as my career education has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. In addition to getting one of the most complete and success-oriented educations in the country, the college also offers some other advantages to degree students.

Every month or two, a variety of workshops in sales and marketing and other topics are presented, in which all the degree students can participate. I have already participated in four of them! These great workshops are attended by people from different companies from all over the country and we get to know them in order to expand our communication lines. I really like that opportunity because I get more contact with the people and the real business environment.

Janz Gonzalez

This past week I finished the last course on the Associate Degree program, the Sales Course. The day I finished it I started an apprenticeship, which was aimed at putting my knowledge to the test. The practical side (as opposed to theory study) is what really helps graduates here find a job. We all know managers look for experience in new recruits…right?

In the two days I took to sell, I sold a lady a month of service with me as well as did some cold selling on the street like the old days and sold five units in two hours! I also finally tackled my email files and compiled all of the names, numbers and email addresses of everyone who’d contacted me for services since 2007.  Now I know that when I contact these people I’ll get a much higher closing rate. I now actually have career education to back up my experience whereas before all I had to work with was trial and error.

When I went cold selling I took a good friend of mine along and gave him a quick rundown on some simple sales no-no’s as well as some tips.  Throughout the selling he made price concessions, which were unnecessary. I promptly corrected him after the sale and got across to him that if the person is receptive, you don’t need to make any price reductions. Only reduce when absolutely necessary, not as a courtesy. We both broke old habits and know we’ll do well in the future as a sales team.

Though I have done an entire course and apprenticeship on sales, I’m still learning on the subject and plan to attend the sales workshop here at the college June 26th and 27th.

Cassidy Turbin
turbinstudios@yahoo.com

This blog starts the beginning of a series of blogs I’ll be doing which will offer any blog follower a better insight into different Hubbard College of Administration (HCA) students and their career education paths. In my first blog post I gave a little bit of information about myself– now you can learn about some others and see the veritable melting pot we have here.

Today I sat down in Interview Room #300 with Franco Chaves, a 21-year-old student attending the Hubbard College and talked a bit about his life goals and experience at the HCA so far.

Me: First off, where are you originally from?
Franco: Lima, Peru.

Me: And how did you hear about the Hubbard College?
Franco: I heard about the Hubbard College through a high school tutor who used the study technology that is used here at the college. One day she brought me here on a tour and then bang, I was interested. When I finished school and started considering college, my first choice was here.

Me: What program are you on currently?
Franco: Well, I first started on an Administrative Management Program. When I finished it I decided to do the degree program. So now I’m on the degree program getting my Associates.

Me: Did you attend the Sales Workshop here April 4th and what did you think about it?
Franco: Yes, I’ve gone to four of them now! I like that there’s practice of the techniques of how to sell! I also like that I could talk to the seminar speaker and he helped me with the application of the techniques.

Me: What in particular has made your Hubbard College career education stand out from the rest of the career colleges and business schools out there?
Franco: Because of the apprenticeships here- I can practice what I learn and I meet different business people at the same time.

Me: Have You Planned out how you’re going to find a job after finishing your program?
Franco: I will be working with the job placement service here at HCA. I’m not worried. Also I’ve made many friends here from different places: Los Angeles, Lebanon, Japan, Russia, Columbia, Cuba, and many other countries. I’m sure I will keep in touch with them throughout my career. You never know…

Me: Is there something that stands out in your experience here so far that you would like to mention?
Franco: Yeah, being sent to different apprenticeships gave me a real good understanding of how companies work and how the structure works. This helps because it gives me ideas of how I can use the structures and plans they use in my own company.

Me: What are your immediate plans after you get your Associate Degree here?
Franco: My plans are to become an American Citizen, work, save up more money and eventually go back to Peru and open a business consultant company.

I just completed the Hubbard College sales workshop and I have to say “awesome.” You would be surprised on how many different places you can use this stuff. I mean, the other day I was out with my friends and I had my idea of what I wanted to do that night, and simply sold everyone on what I wanted to do. It was that easy. I must say the sales training they have on the Associate degree is great.

I’ve been selling for a while, but there were always a few types of people who seemed to get me. Talk about some on the spot career training. Now I have no issues, and I thought that I could sell before this, I mean I did make a living at it. I personally have seen a lot of different sales training seminars and courses out there, but this sales training seemed to break down all the points that you need to know and show you what to do.
I’m still practicing, and I am by no means an expert yet, but at the very least I know what to do and I certainly don’t get tongue tied any more.

Have you ever been to a car dealership or anything else where there’s a salesman, they talk and talk and talk and really try to lay it on you why you should buy this or that. It’s like a really bad blind date that you just can’t wait to get away from. The sales dude practically runs you out of the sale. This sales training definitely fixes that.

If you have a good story of some salesman going horribly wrong, I’d like to hear it so leave it in the comments!

Redmond, Student at Hubbard College

Learn How to Get People to Basically Sell YOUR Product to Themselves

Don’t you just hate it when a sales person walks up to you and you can tell he doesn’t care one bit about your needs? Or if he is being really fake and nice, then you end up buying the worst possible product for the craziest amount of money.

Annoying right?

Here are some things people HATE about most salesmen:

•    They talk too much, and in a confusing way

•    Not to the point, excluding the negative side of the products

•    Arrogant & self-absorbed, they don’t care about you

•    They try to hurry you and forcing you to buy it NOW, NOW, NOW!

I personally dislike their insincerity the most, “Well hello handsome young man! I bet I can interest you in an excellent vacuum cleaner today! You look like you could use a good sucker…”

Last Friday we had a Sales Workshop, given by Nick Terrenzi, a senior executive here at the college. And it was GOOOOOOOOD.

So many think that a sales person was born, he had that gift, that charisma. I always thought that’s why I was kind of good at it, because I was born that way.

But after the workshop I realized there is a technology behind selling, one that I was only using a little bit already, but unknowingly. They are really easy to follow, and it will get sales up so greatly if you truly apply all the aspects.

It’s important to care for your customer, make sure he gets what he NEEDS. Salesmanship is not about getting money, it’s getting what’s right for the consumer.

A lot of people have lost that way of thinking, they’re just thinking about how much they can get from you and then kick you out and never call again, like a bad date.

If you are an entrepreneur, a salesman, someone who is looking to start doing this kind of business or just a student trying to find a job – send me an e-mail and I’ll let you know when the next sales workshop is.

For students on the associate degree the workshops at school are free, by the way. It’s a must in career education.

P.S. There was even a guy from my country (Holland) all the way out here just to do the workshop and the sales training course, that’s how good it is!

Jerome Garot
quejay@gmail.com