What Was Your College Kid Doing During the COVID-19 Vacation?

While most colleges and universities were sending students home during the coronavirus outbreak, Alex Dickinson’s education expanded when his dad asked him to work the sales desk at his company’s global food brokerage business.

Alex just finished his freshman year at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and when he wasn’t doing online classwork, he was pounding away on the phone making upwards to one hundred calls a day.

His father’s business is Osage Food Products based in Washington, Missouri, and three years is the approximate time required to become a seasoned sales rep at that growing organization. Not only that, but reps also need to source their own products too.

The Interview - Alex Talks Sales, Working in the Family Business, and the Definition of Success

I jumped at the chance to interview Alex when I learned that he had closed on a profitable deal a few weeks ago. Incredible. No, impossible I thought. College kids cannot do that. I was still mowing fairways in Kirksville during my first two years at Truman State.

Q: When you were sent home from attending MIZZOU, did you even have any ideas about what you would be doing? Were you even thinking about a job?

Alex: When we were sent home, I really had no clue what I would be doing. I really wasn’t even thinking about a job until one day I think I was complaining about losing my job in Columbia and my dad said I could do sales if I wanted and I said yes.

Q: I'm assuming the job is not sweeping the hallways or being a gopher, right? You were immersed in a position where only a few succeed. Tell us about the fear factor of calling hundreds of businesses weekly.

Alex: I was very nervous at first. I jumped into a job that I really had no clue what to do. It took me over a week before I felt somewhat comfortable with my phone skills, and even then, I needed a lot of improvement.

Calling people takes a lot of repetition before you get it down. I think the hardest part for me was leaving voicemails. I would say around 80 to 90 percent of the calls I made, I left voicemails.

Before working at Osage, I had probably left less than 20 voicemails in my life, with most of them being, “Hey, give me a call back when you get a sec.” 

I found it tough to try and convey my message in a short and simple message. I also had to learn how to write professional emails which are something I never had to do before. I would spend several minutes writing and re-writing emails, and even then, I often had my coworkers help me if I was unsure of what to say. It was also very nerve-racking when someone would ask me a question over the phone, and I would have no clue how to answer.

Q: Let’s back up a bit, what kind of training did you receive?

Alex: I started my first day by cold calling and was given a template with various scripts and the questions that I needed to ask.

Most of my training came from talking with other sales reps and listening in on their calls. Many times, if I said something wrong or if it just didn’t sound right, Tim Larrison who was in the office next to me was very helpful in letting me know what I should do differently.

For the most part, my training came from my dad telling me what I needed to do to make a sale. Sales are something I do not think you can train someone easily to do. You must want to do it. Really, the most valuable lesson I was taught was to pick up the phone and call someone.

Q: Did you mainly source products or sell?

Alex: I tried both. In the beginning, I was only cold calling for overstock products (which is a form of sourcing in our world) just to work on my phone skills. Once my dad felt confident enough in my phone skills, which were not good in the beginning, I started calling to sell product.

Q: Tell me about one of your favorite deals.

Alex: I would have to say that my favorite deal was when I finally managed to sell a full truckload of our instant nonfat dry milk (NFDM) to a company in New York using the product for emergency food aid boxes.

I called a company which expressed slight interest. This was at the very beginning of quarantine and before things got bad in New York, and the company was not sure if they wanted liquid milk or dry milk.

I then ran into the problem of them wanting product immediately--this was back in April--and we could not deliver the product for two weeks, so they went with another company’s product. This was a slight let down for me because they were wanting to buy product, but we couldn’t get it to them when they wanted it, and as a result, I thought I had lost a chance to earn this company’s business.

However, I continued corresponding and following up with this company for several weeks, and finally, on May 21st they sent me a PO for a truckload of our NFDM. I had help from many people, especially from West Bergkoetter, one of our purchasing agents for this deal.

If this company had a question for me, I would usually call West and he was always extremely helpful. Sheela Schwentker is our Executive Business and Accounting Manager, and she also helped out tremendously, especially when there was some confusion on payment.

Obviously, my dad helped a lot. There were many times, and not just for this sale, where he would help me write up emails, gave me tips on whom to call, and just pop into my office to check-in and give advice.

Q: Last summer, you worked at your dad’s agglomeration plant in Wisconsin which is where you are now. Do you prefer working with your hands or sourcing and selling product?

Alex: I would say at this time in my life, I prefer what I am currently doing at our production facility. I learn a new thing every day and I love doing hands-on work and learning about the production aspect of the company.

I did enjoy doing sales and it is something I can now see myself doing in the future. However, until I am out of college, and if I can work in any dairy production facility, I will choose that over sales every time. I think learning about the production of the products that I hope to sell in the future will be very beneficial for me.

Image: Alex welding at his summer position at OFP Ingredients based in Wisconsin.

Q: You have the kind of dad who is easy to joke with who keeps the office fun and lively. All kidding aside, what is it like to work for a parent?

Alex: It is great at times, not so great at others. I could always go to him for help at any time of the day and he would happily answer any questions I had.

I think the hardest part about working for a parent, especially at the production facility, is proving that I deserve the job. I try to hold myself to a higher standard and work as hard as I can because I feel as though people will always think I only got the job because I’m the owner’s kid.

Image: Alex on the left and his father, Bill Dickinson on the right.

Q: You may not realize this now, but you have been given a lottery ticket – you have learned the art and science of selling at a young age. Why should other college students learn this skill regardless of the career path they are pursuing?

Alex: I think people should learn sales because it really does help with communication skills. Being able to pick up the phone and having a conversation with whoever is on the other line is extremely valuable and you only get better at it the more you do it.

I also believe that getting comfortable talking to strangers on the phone will carry over to in-person conversations. I found my communication skills greatly increased from the time I started, and I was only there for a little over two months. Selling is all about communication and conveying messages and in any business that is extremely important.

Q: I love your dad’s three core values. Two of those include having fun and never making excuses. When you graduate, what are the core values you hope to find in that first position and why?

Alex: Honestly, I think never making excuses is the value I will search for in that first position. Granted, that value has been something my dad has hounded me on throughout my entire life and until I got into this sales position, I never truly understood how important it was.

In sales especially, you can’t make excuses for not selling product, and I am guilty of doing this myself. However, I soon learned that all it takes is picking up the phone and calling someone and to keep on doing that until you call the right person.

If you always blame something else for your lack of success, you will never succeed. Never making excuses is about accountability for what you’ve done, and something I’ve learned is that if you don’t hold your self-accountable for your mistakes you will never learn from them.

A Father Weighs In

What does dad (Bill Dickinson) have to say about having a son working in the business?

“I don’t care what his path in life is, I just need to make sure he has the confidence to do anything, and we’re getting there," said Bill with a smile.

This writer thinks Alex is ‘there’ and has a bright future ahead of him.

About the Author

Mark Gandy through G3CFO and Free Agent CFO™ works with highly-successful CEOs and CFOs by helping them to gain better and faster results. In his spare time, he's the publisher of CFO Bookshelf.