My internship at AAV GmbH is entering its third day and I have already gained numerous insights into the life of a sales representative. Today my colleague Jürgen and I started early, as our appointment took place in southern Germany. Our visit took us to a correctional facility with attached training and production workshops. I was surprised how much preparation and organization is involved in such a trip.
We had already loaded some of the necessary utensils into the company vehicle yesterday, the rest we added this morning. During the trip to southern Germany, we worked with work colleagues on the phone and took customer calls. I supported Jürgen by noting down all relevant information and orders.
After a short break, we arrived in time for our appointment. I was impressed by how accurately Jürgen had calculated the route and even taken the traffic jams into account. After registering by phone, we had to hand in our identity cards as well as all technical devices, keys and wallets before we were allowed to pass through the door of the correctional facility.
Our contact person greeted us warmly at the security check and led us through numerous doors, which closed behind us. Finally, we arrived at his office. There, Jürgen introduced him to new products from the company, such as the double Dippi and Eclipse, which the customer had not yet purchased. The goal was to change that. Jürgen was able to successfully convince the customer during the presentation, so that he is now happily waiting for our written offer. In addition, Jürgen discussed all personal protective equipment from head to toe with the contact person, and it was decided that Jürgen could add more products to the range.
After the detailed discussion about the protective equipment, the contact person invited us to visit the training and production workshops of the occupants. It was exciting to watch the prisoners at work, and I also had respect for them. It is certainly not every day that workshops in a correctional facility are visited, and we were critically eyed by the inmates.
After the tour, we were able to pick up our personal belongings at the reception and look at the items in the adjacent shop, some of which we had seen during production. It was impressive to see that even prison inmates who had previously committed crimes can produce innovative products and express themselves in the process.
Jürgen then called the contact person for the next appointment to inform him of a possible delay. Unfortunately, the contact person could not keep the appointment and suggested an alternative date, which Jürgen refused. He will schedule this date on his next trip to southern Germany.
Jürgen used the travel time to check e-mails and missed calls on his mobile phone and process them according to priority. Afterwards we drove to our accommodation, where Jürgen continued to take calls and I noted down relevant data and information. Jürgen attached great importance to taking regular breaks during the journey.
When we finally arrived at our accommodation, the working day ended. The visit to the correctional facility was the first and probably the most exciting visit during my internship. I am looking forward to the upcoming dates. All in all, it was a challenging day with many new impressions. In these three days, I was already able to gain a lot of knowledge and am grateful for the chance to complete this internship.