INTRODUCTION: Internship is a mandatory part of MBA curriculum.

We have to work in a company for a period of minimum 2 months and get knowledge about how the organization functions. I was selected as an intern for businesses standard limited. Business standard is a leading financial daily with approximately 1,30,000 copy circulation all over India. The company has 12 regional offices and I was free to choose the circle which I wanted to work. I chose Chennai as my centre for work as there will be better exposure. The training was held from 2nd may to 2nd july for two months. TRAINING PERIOD:

Whatever the work is first we need to know about the product and company. So I started the internship with 2 days training program in Chennai. I was under Mr. sreenivasan (marketing manager) and supervised by Mr.Girishekar(Senior Marketing head). During the first training session I had general talks and my opinion about financial dailies. Then Mr. Giri explained about the company its working and the part which we were to do. The main objective of intern is to get annual subscription orders for business standard daily and other objective was to get customer feedback from different class of people so that we can submit findings about the current situation of the company. For the survey they gave a set of topics to choose and I chose Customer preference for a financial daily. During second day Mr. Giri taught us how to tackle potential customers, what to talk, what not to talk, how to behave to customers and how to approach. Then I was asked to make mock call to the persons inside the office. The training was a good learning process for me.

NATURE OF WORK: As mentioned earlier, the primary objective of the internship program is to get annual subscription orders for the business standard limited. So the work was personal selling. I had to meet potential customers, know their needs and their current financial daily preference. From their answers I had to give good reasons supporting why they can choose business standard as their financial daily. Each talk would take around 5 to 10 mins of time. The secondary work for me is to take survey regarding customer preference for financial daily. So when I explain about the annual subscription itself I had to ask different questions about their preference for financial dailies, why they prefer and many such questions( Questionnaire attached at end) The circle which I had to see was all over the Chennai so I was free to work any time and any place inside Chennai. The reporting system was also comfortable.
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FIELD WORK:

Marketing starts with field work only, same way here also field work was the major idea. The day after training I was asked to go to Mount road in Chennai and get subscriptions. Being the first day I sweated a lot finding potential customers, but the result was not fruitful. Net day I met Mr. Giri and said what happened, he encouraged me and said it is common in first few days of marketing. He also gave few other tips on selecting customers. I then started to target customers. I looked into financial services, stock brockerages, banks, investment offices and other currency corporate offices for subscription. As there was flexibility in timings I was able to collect details and work with good plan. I used to search in web for all the offices and select a particular area and cover it fully. Othe The very next day after the training, I was on the field with Mr.Raju, the person-in-charge of circulation in Coimbatore region. He gave me a few tips about the consumer behavior of people in Coimbatore and the areas in Coimbatore which were potentially sound for the sale of the product. He also gave me the contact numbers of all the agents of Business Standard in the Coimbatore region. Coimbatore, being an important industrial hub, had a bright prospect of becoming a major market for Business Standard. At the same time, there was a major roadblock to its success in Coimbatore. Business Line, a leading business daily from the Hindu group already had a brutal majority in this region. It had a circulation of nearly 6000 copies everyday in this region. Besides Economic Times from the Times group also had a considerable market share in the south. Considering all these factors, I realized that I had a tough task at hand. With the help of Mr.Raju I started working in R.S Puram where numerous Stock broking offices were located. Gradually, I gained experience and started working individually. Weekly meetings were held with Mr.Raju to discuss about the proceedings and difficulties which I faced in the field. The month of May was a fruitful one as there were many takers for the subscription. I finished the month of May with 15 subscriptions which made me eligible for a substantial amount as stipend. The next month of June was not as easy as I expected. It started off well with a subscription on the very first day in a business hotel. But later, positive responses became rare occurrences and they too soon died out. Follow ups were not yielding results. Many of the banks reported that the manager, who is the deciding authority, has been transferred and new manager is yet to come in. This trend made bank visits mostly fruitless. Apart from that, there were seven people who were assigned within the territories of Coimbatore for internship and so all the territories were covered in the month of May. The most important factor was the active canvassing of sales executives from Business Line in the month of June which played havoc in Business Standards hopes of registering rapid growth. Several delivery issues were reported which brought down my spirits. I
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tried hard by making changes in the work pattern. Eventually I ended up with getting 4 subscriptions. CONCLUSION: Though the job was the most basic form of marketing personal selling and a demanding one, the experience was satisfying. Apart from knowledge, the work helped me to cultivate certain qualities which are essential for a successful career. The stint helped me in equipping myself to handle the responsibilities assigned to me in the future. Though it did not render any monetary benefits, I hope the experience would come in handy during placements sessions.

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