Betty Leal, Sales Manager
Chestnut Hill Farms of Venezuela
Mérida, Venezuela

Well, the responsibility that I have is in the sales department or in marketing as some people say. And more than anything else it is to examine the fruit that comes in from the farm, to take the clients' orders, to weigh the fruit that goes to market, to do the invoicing and send that to the accounting department for its respective canceling. That is more or less it. Other responsibilities would be related to the exportation of the fruit, the coding that these should carry to the United States and its invoicing.

Well, the truth is that a typical day is to wait for the fruit to arrive from the farm, to weigh it and to distribute it, to have to listen to each client about how they want the fruit, if there are any complaints, so in all a typical work day would be to dedicate myself exclusively to the sales, invoicing, receiving orders and canceling, that is, to see that this is canceled. The truth is that this is a routine, more than anything else.

The part of work that I like most is when it is time to weigh the fruit, that is to see how the fruit arrives, to try to distribute it the best I can, and receiving orders, that is, you could also include increasing a little sales, that is, when you get new clients, to explain to them a little about how the company is managed, etc. And the most difficult part of my work is when the clients come with a complaint, right? To have to explain why the fruit is this way and not that way, why the fruit was produced x or z way. But the toughest part is to have to first hear all that they are going to tell me, which in a way they are right, and to then find an appropriate response for each one. Because each client is different from the other.

Well, the truth is that the skills and training are found most in the coding, that is, how could I explain it? We keep a record of all sales, a record of exports and all that, we need the computers. And the training, more than anything else centers on learning how to work the computers, how to apply it to us in our daily work, in the systems or in the programs that we need on the computer. But training in itself, in sales no, there really isn't any, but maybe learning a little about the fruit, what the strawberry is like, what are its characteristics, to be able to communicate this to the clients and to keep a computer record of these sales both for the company itself as well as our central office and everything else. And my experience with foreigners has been very good, that is, I have learned to be more organized, more detailed, and more patient.