IDEAL Industries is a manufacturer and supplier of electrical products/components for residential and commercial use. They carry products from simple wire nuts to fiber optic and Ethernet certifiers. Daily work included answering pricing and stock inquiries, along with order entry and answering product questions and troubleshooting product issues or answering technical support calls. Great retention of product knowledge, from what we offer to how products work or operate,not only helped me become a first line of help for my coworkers, but it also allowed me to assist customers better and reduce phone calls transferred to our field technicians. Within my first year I also revamped the existing repair process for their Powerblade Cable Cutters from 13 processes down to 5. I also worked with product management to get 3 additional SKU numbers added to the catalog in reference to this. I also sought to improve the efficiency of our department by suggesting the use of dual monitors and electronic document (fax) reader. The former was implemented.

Kitchen Works Inc. was a service provider for The Home Depot for over 15 years servicing 28 of their Chicagoland locations. This was for the installation end of their customer’s kitchens and bathrooms. It required good organizational skills, the ability to multitask, keep good communication, be able to listen to customers and address their concerns and good problem solving ability. In a normal day you can touch on 15-25 different installations, many unique and with their own set of challenges. In our busy season you would be maxed out at 40-45 projects. Note: Jobs ranged from 1 day to 1 month+ depending on the scope of labor. Being able to build great rapport between customers and yourself is highly necessary along with being the liaison between the customer, the designer, different tradesmen and city inspectors. We had learned our contract was ending only a few months before the resulting closing. The Home Depot was moving to a different direction for their remodeling program. Kitchen Works asked if I would stay and close out and finish installations before they closed its doors June 2012.

Commerce Corp is one of the largest suppliers of lawn and garden products. This was an outside sales position. My territory covered 48 Kmart and Sears Hardware retail stores throughout northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. Budgets needed to be hit, relationships had to be built. In addition to the normal roles of the outside sales position, I was responsible for educating the store level staff in the skills needed to run a profitable department. This education included the basics of product knowledge, cross merchandising, display & presentation, etc. I had already exceeded my sales goals for the year by July. Due to economic conditions at the time, Commerce downsized nationwide at the end of the 2008 season and eventually closed their doors.