How an Employee Went From Holistic Management to Sales

Kenneth Palmer is a sales engineer on the rise at Digitize. He was originally applying for the role of an administrative position. However, during the hiring process, the team discovered that his skills were better suited for sales engineering.

Kenneth is known around the office for two things:

1. His iconic scarf
2. His iconic laugh that can be heard from the next room over. He constantly greets everyone with a smile and elevates the room's mood.

This made me curious. What makes someone consistently happy every day at work despite having a demanding job where you are a direct point of contact with business organizations?

A Little History About Kenneth

Working at Digitize is interesting because you get to see the different backgrounds that everybody comes from. Workplace diversity is a good place to gauge your company's environment. Part of workplace diversity is considering what career path everyone took to get to where they are.

Kenneth started telling me how he came across our job posting after landing in New Jersey...

I just moved back to NJ from California. Moving back, I was in agriculture and holistic practice. Before that, I was working as a clerical assistant. Moving from an entire area of expertise and culture to this job was a little bit of a toss-up at first. I didn't know if I would succeed after such a major career shift.

Moving from an agricultural career into a sales one is probably something that you think only happens in "fish out of water" comedy movies. The reason why this is such a rare thing nowadays is that entry-level jobs are no longer truly entry-level.

How Kenneth Found Digitize

You can tell how a workplace operates and what environment it has right when you find it. How you find a job and how you're treated during the hiring process shows what it's like to work under your potential bosses.

Kenneth started telling me about how Digitize's hiring process made up his mind about which job to take.

There were actually about three other jobs that I was prospecting at the time. One of them was home remodeling sales, basically another entry-level sales position, but it was very cutthroat. The next one was for a manager on duty at a holistic practice pharmaceutical supermarket. I was doing herbalist training there.

At the time, I'd applied to thousands of jobs on Indeed. I got a message back from Mr. Berry (CEO of Digitize) setting up a ZOOM meeting, there were like 14 people in there. Truthfully, it was what he said and the way he said it. He elaborated on the job position and its responsibilities. He made it more than just a job, more like an environment to grow.

An entry-level job should always be a place where you can cultivate your skills at a reliable pace. Kenneth figured this out before he got the job and was able to successfully pick the right job for him as a result.

Kenneth's First Few Days On The Job

At Digitize, however, we have the appropriate expectations from someone who is entry-level. We provide the appropriate mentorship and environment for them to no longer be called entry-level.

Kenneth started explaining to me how his fears about shifting career paths were eased at Digitize...

The environment here and the management's availability made it easier to reach out and ask questions whenever I needed to. The feedback was "coaching" rather than the diminutive "just get this done" mentality that I experienced at several other jobs. It was more of a "let me help you get to where you need to be" approach.

I wanted to know if there was anything that surprised Kenneth during his first few days of work, something he wasn't prepared for.

It was initially kind of tedious. It’s not just something you show up and do. You have to invest time in learning the terminology. You get to learn what kind of technology you’re working with and it expands your knowledge so much more. That’s very important to me because I love learning new things. I believe it expands who I am as a person.

Even though we advocate for entry-level positions to be opportunities, it's still your responsibility to seize the opportunity.

The people who will succeed in entry-level jobs at Digitize (NJ) are the ones who genuinely want to grow their careers. There are two sides to an employee: the one who interviews and the one who shows up when they're hired.

A lot of people will show up on the first day of work and be surprised that their job requires effort. During the interview a week before, however, they were probably selling themselves to be modern-day "Renaissance people" who could do it all.

To succeed at Digitize, let your effort and dedication speak for you.

Things Kenneth Learned On The Job

I wanted to learn what surprising things Kenneth has done on the job ever since he was hired. I was looking for things that contradict expectations. From my experience, no job is ever how you initially imagine it.

I was surprised by how personal the connections I was making on the phone were. It's a business-to-business sales position, so you'd think it's dry and cold. The truth, however, is that I connected with our clients over the phone. You may be selling from business to business, but who runs these businesses? it's people.

Kenneth then highlighted the luncheons, sales meetings, and yearly performance bonuses.

I think what also made me feel comfortable was constantly being included in the sales meetings and luncheons. You get to listen and learn what you don't understand, or as Mr. Berry sometimes says... "what you don't know that you don't know". That's where a lot of learning happens. I take my notebook everywhere with me and write down anything I didn't quite grasp or understand, and I ask for clarifications at the end.

I also like the end-of-year bonus. Even though the hourly rate is what you'd expect an entry-level position to be, the end-of-year bonus is a very nice incentive to make sure everyone consistently shows up and does their work. Also, that pay structure I feel makes everyone pull their weight so they don't drag their department down.

Where Kenneth Sees Himself In 5 years

Every job interview has a common question in it. "Where do you see yourself in (x) years?". This is to gauge several aspects of your outlook and personality. At Digitize, we emphasize the importance of personality types and even put new employees through multiple personality assessments.

I wanted to know what Kenneth's ambitions were...

Well funny enough I want to be like Andrew (Marketing Manager at Digitize). I feel like he's someone who has knowledge of so many departments and ties them all together. I aspire to have that much knowledge while applying it coherently together. He's always available for me to ask questions and get guidance from him, so that's great.

At Digitize, we want you to succeed. However, you have to want success first.

We offer you a pay rate that will weed out salary hunters and job-hoppers who are looking to gain a salary increase without putting work in. If you are someone who would love the idea of earning performance bonuses and getting recognized for your effort, this is the right work environment for you.

A Sales Engineer's Job Responsibility

As a sales engineer at Digitize, you will be in charge of driving forward this company's success.

This job requires someone who is not afraid of picking up the phone and pursuing their goal of showing people how valuable our product is to them.

You will be required to make about 60 calls a day to clients in the database. You will remind clients about our company, explain new products, and ask about upcoming projects that we can assist with.

To help sell our products, you will need to become accustomed to what the products are. You should be able to specify which devices should be quoted after you finish a full interaction with our clients. You may occasionally visit those clients in person.

The basic skills required for this entry-level position are:

• Having adequate grammar, spelling, and writing skills for emailing clients.
• Being able to speak on the phone

Being able and willing to learn every day from your peers and even our clients.

Previous sales experience is NOT required. Being a good sales engineer is about clarity on what we offer and what the client wants. It is not about having sales tricks up your sleeve.

If you're motivated and this job sounds right for you, apply today.

You can also call us any time at 973-663-1011 to discuss Digitize jobs in New Jersey.