As companies pivot and evolve to meet new customer demands in an ever-changing world, Babson Associate ProfessorVini Onyemahhas found opportunities for his students to learn outside the classroom.
他教授行动销售，这是一个具有丰富体验式学习组成部分的本科选修课。在本学期的最后一部分中，他的学生没有教授普通销售，而是学习公司如何在COVID危机的背景下吸引客户。
“We are so lucky to have so many friends of Babson and Babson alums,” said Onyemah. “The opportunity to get out in the field and shadow world class sales professionals is priceless.”
After switching his classes online, Onyemah used his sales skills to track down decision makers at leading companies to continue the practice of site visits, albeit virtually.
“We only had two live visits—Dell Technologies and ZoomInfo—before the lockdown,” said Onyemah. “So, I had to think on my feet about what was going to happen to this experiential piece of the class. Thankfully, we were able to have a small-group virtual site visit to LifeYield, where we learned from Babson friend and EVP/CMO Jack Sharry and his team. This helped inform the process moving forward.”
Visiting TechTarget
After more than a dozen virtual interviews with CEOs and sales leaders, Onyemah saw a theme emerging and concluded learning opportunities abound for sales students.
Next, Onyemah had to figure out how to handle the site visits that were already scheduled. Newton-based digital marketing company TechTarget agreed to move their site visit online.
Onyemah说：“我们与Techtarget和Babson Alum的首席执行官Michael Cotoia ’93不间断地有1beplay平台下载00分钟。”“克里斯蒂娜·斯通（Christina Stone ’11）是他们的最高销售人员，也与我们同住。”
对话强调了TechTarget不仅如何帮助客户，而且在不断变化的商业格局中涉及交叉销售，甚至可以探索。
意外的见解
From these conversations about sales during crisis, emerged hope for a path forward.
“许多CEOs and sales leaders that I spoke with told me that他们在招聘—they want to speak with my students, they want to interview them, and they want to hire them,” said Onyemah. “These interviews turned out to be a great pep talk for my students. Do not give up, do not be disappointed, these companies want you in spite of the crisis.”
The takeaway? “You don’t give up. You don’t take no for an answer. If someone says no, you have to seek the reasons behind the no, show understanding, and provide alternatives. And, once you navigate through that, you get to a yes,” said Onyemah.
Onyemah’s students learned firsthand some of the many ways that companies and individuals cannavigate a crisis.
“One thing we learned is that you must be ready to achieve your goal in any uncertainty. In this case, our goal is to continue with our studies, and the new online system is helping to continue achieving our goal and fight this unexpected uncertainty,” said Ignacio Balcells ’20.
Onyemah的学生现在散布在世界各地，适应新的机会，并将这些教训置于牢记的心。
“Being able to listen to numerous Babson alumni as well as visiting their companies has given us the opportunity to learn firsthand about what skill sets are needed to advance in our careers,” said Chiara Simonius ’21.
“We were able to do all this because we did not lament or fold our arms and wait for COVID-19 to pass,” said Onyemah. “We swung into action and we made it happen.”
