Sunshine and Spreadsheets - Student Placement Diary | Week 2

Last week was officially week two of three for Ellis, and Mark High allocated a sizeable Sales and Business Development exercise to our summer apprentice.  

We sat down with Mark to understand more about the project; "I wanted Ellis to gain first-hand experience of how to research and scope for new clients. In my previous Sales roles, I spent a considerable number of hours doing desk research, aligning potential clients with our company. This includes understanding cultural fit, meeting any sustainability goals and most importantly, would our product be a good fit for the company? It can be labour-intensive, but this groundwork is imperative to developing strong foundations for client growth.” 

At the end of a long week, we also caught up with Ellis for his weekly blog.  

Interviewer: I hear you’ve been involved in a lot of research this week? 

Ellis: It’s been fun. 

Interviewer: You’re so polite! 

Ellis: No, genuinely! It’s been really good to get hands-on experience. I didn’t realise how much went into the initial scoping and research, so it’s been good to learn all about that.  

And what’s great is that I’ve been given genuine accounts to research, so I know that the work I do will be of value to Mark, so yeah – it is good.  

Interviewer: Any elements of the research surprise you? 

Ellis: I think the level of detail that was required was interesting, but now that I understand why it’s important, it’s made me want to ensure I'm getting it right.  

Interviewer: Any elements been particularly challenging? 

Ellis: The sheer volume of work for each prospect! Even down to the sustainability and van delivery route calculations – you can’t say it's not thorough! But Mark’s been great at talking through everything and giving me a really clear guide to follow.  

Interviewer: Is it fair to say you’ve been learning quite a bit then? 

Ellis: More than a little bit, for sure! 

Ellis will be taking a week away from Ecoglass to enjoy some of his summer holidays, and we’ll be catching up with him again in a couple of weeks to wrap up his experiences.  

A huge thanks also goes to our entire Ecoglass team for welcoming Ellis into the company and supporting his curiosity and questions.  

We'll be back for the final instalment of this blog in a few week's time!