Life as a King Intern

After a little over a year of interning with King, I can definitely say I feel like I have learned a lot.  Those first few weeks of training with the greatest teacher, “all-knowing-master-information-manager” Melinda, being overwhelmed by all of the things you can do in PinPoint and on the King Wiki, and being completely paranoid that a person would somehow kill me through the phone on my first cold call seem so far away. 

I realized after the first few calls that cold calling wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I think part of this is because of our company’s reputation.  Most of the time people I talk to on the phone comment that they’ve seen our signs, done business with one of our agents in the past, or ask how Charlie is doing.  Not only have I received this type of great response over the phone, but also many times at school meetings or just in random conversation.  It’s obvious that King has a great reputation and everyone I talk to reinforces that this is a great company to work for and a great place to learn the business the right way.

However, I will say that the cold calling can get a little old.  Even though it’s not as awful as I originally thought it would be and people are usually very nice, many people are just not willing or able to make moves in this economy.  After a string of “no’s” or “sorry, not interested”, I have to say I always look forward to getting off the phone and doing my drive book or having Michelle save me by getting me to help her with something here and there.

As I have become more familiar with the areas on the southwest side of town, I have been able to be more involved in the follow up process.  I’ve started helping Randall get material ready for initial meetings and run reports from PinPoint.  Recently, my focus has been trying to stay current on what’s going on in our market so I can be more knowledgeable on the phone.

Overall, the internship program has been a great experience for me so far.  I feel the experience is very valuable and the agents (and Michelle!) in the Southwest office are great.  I couldn’t imagine having better people to learn from.  I originally only planned to do one year of internship, but now I do plan on staying longer.  I hope that what I have learned will start translating into better returns for the company very soon!