What’s it like to be sales apprentice?

“Hi my name is Kendall Quigg, I’m a graduate commercial engineer at Emerson Automation Solutions and I am also currently undertaking a Level 4 Sales Executive Apprenticeship.

Undertaking the apprenticeship has really helped me to build my confidence speaking to customers on the phone. This is something I was previously apprehensive about, but now that I have completed modules in communications and customer behaviours I feel so much more confident and now really enjoy speaking to customers. 

Learning new skills

I love being an apprentice because it is a really fun way to learn new skills and develop yourself. I particularly enjoy the face to face training days where all the apprentices come together and we get to work in teams. The biggest challenge so far about the apprenticeship was at the start of the programme where I had to learn how to balance my job workload with the apprenticeship workload. however, we do receive a lot of support from our Learning and Development Coach, Tom Hunter. This was something  I was able to work through and I feel that I have enhanced my management skills because of it.

Remote learning – a revelation

Remote learning a real revelation, I was surprised about how interactive it is. Mercuri makes really good use of video calls, both on our one to one calls with our Learning and Development Coach and also with the whole group of apprentices that you work with.  Even though we are not physically together most of the time we are all really close and we do get to work together quite a lot.

Personal insight and confidence

The biggest lesson I have learnt so far is probably the things I have learnt about myself. The apprenticeship has really highlighted:

• What skills I have and where they can be best used in my job.
• My personality type and how I communicate with both my colleagues and my customers.

So, because I have been able to learn a lot about myself I do think this has made me a much more confident person. In terms of advice I would give to any apprentices, I would just say put yourself forward for as much as possible and really push yourself out of your comfort zone. When you do push yourself out of your comfort zone, you learn so much more.

The apprenticeship is a really safe space. It is ok if you don’t succeed the first time, it’s alright to make mistakes and you learn so much from it.

Advice for other apprentices

Really push yourself out of your comfort zone and get involved with everything. I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone and created a video for Mercuri. Like a lot of people I don’t really like to see and hear myself on a video, so it’s something I always try to avoid but now I have done one I feel so much confident about it and its something I would put myself forward for in the future.