Furman University Sales Academy

An internship with a goal and purpose

 The Furman University Sales Academy is a unique collaboration between Furman University Intern Programs and Paladin Athletic Ticketing to provide the opportunity for Furman students to proactively increase the attendance at Paladin athletic events, and to generate new business for the Athletic Department. The Sales Academy provides students with the training and best practices that are used by Major College, NFL and NBA teams, which helps graduating Furman students to make a much smoother and more successful transition to working in pro or college sports. The Sales Academy goal is to increase the number of professional and college sports organizations that are seeking to hire new personnel, to look to the Furman University Sales Academy for qualified candidates, because our graduates will have experience that's equivalent to the positions they seek to fill.

Intern Positions to be offered:

Video production for www.furmanpaladins.com

Interns will have the opportunity to film, edit, produce and host the daily Paladin Update for athletics. Interns will follow a predetermined schedule of events to produce a daily video magazine of between 3-4 minutes in length of highlights of Furman Athletic. Videos will feature coach and player interviews and highlights of recent games. Interviews with coaches and player will take place at scheduled times so as not to conflict with practice and class times.  No experience required.

 Inside Season Ticket Sales for Furman Paladin Football, Baseball, Men’s and Women’s Basketball.

Interns will be taught the proper and professional aspects of salesmanship and will have the opportunity to solicit season ticket holders from the Upstate business community during a predetermined schedule of time during the working day. Interns will also call on church, youth, social and business groups to solicit group ticket sales for basketball. Intern will spend the first 15 hours of their internship learning the proper phone edicate and techniques to assist them in reaching a decision maker. Intern will be emailing or directing customers to our web ticket page and online reservation system to execute transactions. Sales will be solicited from current and prior Furman contacts and from the Upstate community. The ability to use the telephone to sell and ask for orders is the number one skill set that college and pro ticket organizations are looking to hire. No experience required.

 Webpage and Photo Gallery Maintenance and Photoshop design for www.furmanpaladins.com 

Interns will be given a predetermined schedule of requirements to keep the website fresh and timely.  Schedule will be based on each week’s athletic events and deadlines will be set accordingly. Interns will be allowed and encouraged to use their creativity to produce web pages and web design to enhance the marketing efforts of Furman Athletics. Experience with Adobe Photoshop is desired.

 Social Media Data Mining-

Interns will be given the task of data mining the almost 7000 people that are on the Furman Facebook Network and an additional 250,000 people on various Upstate sports and recreation Facebook pages in the Greenville area to find future season ticket holders.

 Every 2 weeks we will bring all the interns together for a time of Q and A with a business person from the community that is working in one of the professions of commercial media, college or professional athletic sales and web design.

Speakers scheduled for this year:

Ben Milson-Director of Ticket Sales-Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL) Conference call

Beau Patterson-Premium Services Assistant-Carolina Panthers (NFL)

John Humphries-General Sales Manager-WYFF Channel 4

John Wilson, Director of Ticket Sales, Greenville Road Warriors

Geoff Hart, News Anchor-WYFF Channel 4

Jon Hudson-Graphic Artist-Furman Alum

Ryan Fisher-Social Media-Furman University Marketing

AnnMarie Person-Presto Sports-Web Designer-Conference call

Kelly Schutz-Furman ’10- Assistant to the Public Relations Director-Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL)

Marie Waxel-Video Producer-WHNS TV Fox Carolina

Brad Sexton, Director of Ticket Sales-Greenville Drive

In each area, interns will be required to produce a product and a written report of their activities during the prior week. Interns will be expected to work for 10 hours per week during fall term. Interns will receive one hour class credit upon satisfactory completion of the internship requirements (If pursuing class credit.).
For information about internships, please contact Dwight Covington, Marketing Representative-Furman Athletics/Timmons Arena at 864-607-5148 or dwight.covington@furman.edu