Sales Intern - Business Development

Sales Intern - Business Development

The Sales Intern - Business Development role is a paid, full-time summer internship designed to develop future sales professionals for Heilind Electronics. This is primarily an in-office hybrid position, designed to maximize hands-on training, coaching access, and collaboration with the branch sales team.

This role serves as an entry point into Heilind’s Early Career Sales Development Track and provides structured training, real-world customer engagement, and direct exposure to Heilind’s sales organization.

Interns will focus on early-stage business development activities including prospect outreach, account qualification, and structured handoff to branch sales teams. Interns will also leverage modern AI tools as sales assistants to support customer research and pre-call planning.

Program Structure

Phase I: Onboarding & Foundational Training (Weeks 1-3)

• Formal onboarding and orientation to Heilind Electronics
• Introduction to Heilind culture, values, and customer-first philosophy
• Company value proposition and ‘Why Heilind’ messaging
• Cross-functional exposure (sales, operations, supply chain, product management, marketing)
• Overview of core products, markets, and customers
• CRM, sales tools, and systems training
• Business development fundamentals
• Responsible use of AI for pre-call planning, customer research, and conversation preparation

Phase II: Business Development Execution (Weeks 4-9)

• Proactively engage prospective customers via phone, email, LinkedIn, and approved channels
• Deliver positive first impressions using Heilind’s ‘Greet & Treat’ approach
• Qualify prospects against Heilind’s Ideal Customer Profile
• Gather and document account insights including business type, market category, and purchasing and engineering contacts
• Accurately document activity in CRM
• Execute structured handoff of qualified accounts to branch sales teams
• Shadow inside and field sales representatives
• Participate in coaching, feedback, and performance reviews

Phase III: Final Presentations & Program Wrap-Up (Week 10)

• Prepare and deliver a formal presentation to Sales Leadership
• Summarize key learnings and business development results
• Share insights from customer and supplier interactions
• Provide recommendations for improving processes, messaging, tools, or training

What Great Looks Like After 10 Weeks

• Identify and hand off 20 high-potential customers or prospects to branch sales teams
• Deliver complete, well-documented account insights that enable effective follow-up
• Comfortably initiate customer conversations and confidently communicate ‘Why Heilind’
• Build trust and consistently make strong, positive first impressions
• Demonstrate readiness for continued development within Heilind’s Early Career Sales Development Track

Pathway to Full-Time Sales

This internship is designed as a talent pipeline into Heilind’s sales organization. Interns who demonstrate strong performance, professionalism, curiosity, cultural alignment, and strong final presentation skills will be considered strong candidates for future full-time sales roles following graduation.

Education/Experience

• Currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree (Business, Marketing, Sales, Communications, or related field preferred)
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Comfortable initiating conversations with new contacts
• Coachable, curious, and self-motivated
• Organized and detail-oriented
• Interest in sales, business development, and customer-facing roles
• Familiarity with CRM systems or AI tools is a plus

Preferred Qualifications

• Rising Junior or Senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree
• Coursework in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, or related fields
• Demonstrated interest in pursuing a professional B2B sales career
• Evidence of sales acumen through coursework, internships, competitions, or leadership activities

Physical Requirements

While performing the duties of this job the employee is often required to stand, sit, use computers, read, write, type, use copy machines, file paperwork, use telephones, and utilize written and oral communication to interact with clients, co-workers, and customers. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals to perform the essential functions of this job. Sedentary work. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers (paperwork, typing, using mouse/keyboard). The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.

Working Conditions

Position is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions (such as in typical office or administrative work.)

Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Protected Veterans/Disabled

Key skills/competency

• Sales
• Business Development
• Prospecting
• Account Qualification
• CRM
• AI Tools
• Communication
• Customer Engagement
• Market Research
• Presentation Skills