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[[♪upbeat music♪] [Associate Sales Representative (ASR)]]
[[Commercial Leadership Program (CLR) - Matt Lessman - GE Real Estate]]
[[C. Russell] You are listening to Jobs in Pods.]
[Welcome to Jobs in Pods, the only podcast where you can hear real employers]
[talk about their jobs and tell you what it's like to work there.]
[I'm your host, Chris Russell.]
[This jobcast will feature GE Real Estate's Associate Sales Representative (ASR),]
[part of the Commercial Leadership Program, or CLP.]
[It is a 2-year program designed to develop commercial originations talent]
[Qualified candidates can expect a great deal of job experience]
[within the real estate organization and invaluable exposure ]
[to the various GE Capital businesses.]
[It includes formal classroom training in GE's state-of-the-art facilities,]
[mentoring from senior leadership, and career planning during two years,]
[leading to a full-fledged commercial originations role.]
[Joining us today to discuss this role is GE Real Estate's CLP program member Matt Lessman.]
[Hi, Matt. Welcome to Jobs in Pods.]
[[Lessman] Thanks. How are you doing, Chris? >>[Russell] Excellent.]
[So tell us now, why did you choose GE?]
[[Lessman] Well, I 'd say it was half and half.]
[It was partly me choosing GE and partly GE choosing me.]
[It was a large function of where I went to college.]
[I went to the University of Connecticut, ]
[and there was a facility called the edgelab,]
[which basically is a joint venture between the University of Connecticut]
[and the General Electric Company.]
[And basically what it does is selects graduates and undergrad students]
[who are high performing from an academic standpoint]
[to work on projects for GE businesses.]
[and I wound up doing an internship with the edgelab in the beginning of my senior year,]
[and I wound up working for a project for Equipment Services.]
[It's a great experience because you get to work with GE professionals,]
[University of Connecticut professors and staff, ]
[and graduate students and undergraduate students.]
[So that was my first exposure to GE as a culture and GE businesses.]
[From there, GE was actually doing some recruiting for their leadership programs]
[and had reached out to me and asked me if I was interested in interviewing]
[In college I knew I wanted to work for a great company]
[and wanted to have a great career but didn't know exactly where that would be,]
[and I thought this was a great opportunity, and that's how I landed in GE.]
[[Russell] Describe a typical day of a CLP.]
[What are some of the day-to-day activities and some of the projects that you work on there?]
[[Lessman] Just to back up for a second, I am part of the CLP,]
[which is the Commercial Leadership Program, ]
[but specifically in GE Real Estate they have what's called]
[an Associate Sales Representative, the ASR.]
[So within Real Estate, instead of doing four-- ]
[With a lot of the CLP programs you have four rotations you go to--]
[different businesses or different locations.]
[The Associate Sales Representative position you're within one GE Real Estate business]
[for the two years, and you're really geared to go into commercial sales ]
[at the end of the 2-year program,]
[where in Commercial Leadership Program with some of the other businesses,]
[it could be commercial sales you go into, it could be risk you go into,]
[and sometimes they'll rotate you around.]
[Within the Real Estate ASR/CLP program,]
[you're going to be in the same spot for the two years.]
[So nevertheless, that's just a quick background.]
[A typical day, a lot of what I do is I'll support a group of account executives]
[Account executives are basically the salespeople.]
[They're going out trying to find new business and trying to close deals.]
[So some of the stuff I'll do day to day is deal prospecting and lead generation,]
[which involves everything from cold calling to physical mailers ]
[to email marketing campaigns, following up with phone calls,]
[and on-site visits to customers as well,]
[so trying to find new deals, new leads, to work with the account executives on]
[or even some of the smaller deals, the account executives will give the ASR/CLP]
[some leeway to kind of work on the deal on their own.]
[I also help out with deal structuring and pricing.]
[Once you identify a potential real estate deal,]
[we'll use some of our financial models to come up with what a good structure]
[may be for that deal, what the pricing may look like, so I'll do some of that.]
[I will do some initial corporate credit analysis of a potential customer or client,]
[take a look at their financials, see what type of credit rating they have.]
[Are they of good credit to bring a deal in with?]
[I'll also do a lot of investment committee presentations.]
[So if there's a larger deal or a deal that is somewhat complex]
[and needs to go to our investment committee,]
[I'll be responsible for putting together a presentation ]
[which outlines the deal to the customer, the economics of the deal,]
[and then the account executive, along with myself, will present that to the committee.]
[And then always in a sales or a sales support function]
[is to do a lot of database management, ]
[make sure your database is up to date.]
[And so those are several things that I'll do throughout the ASR program]
[[Russell] Okay. What is the training like, Matt?]
[[Lessman] As a CLP we get some great training, GE training,]
[such as Selling at GE, Marketing at GE--these are the names of the courses--]
[Negotiation Skills, and that's great]
[because not only do you receive some top-notch training,]
[but you also get to go to these courses with other CLP/ASR members]
[I'm in specifically a GE Capital business--GE Real Estate--]
[but I could be in these classes with people from GE Consumer and Industrial,]
[GE Appliance, GE Energy, GE Aircraft, Engines, all across the board.]
[So you get to really network, and you get to learn about the company as a whole]
[at a lot of these training opportunities, and you get to go to some nice GE facilities]
[such as Crotonville, New York, which is a great GE facility.]
[You get some great GE training.]
[[Russell] Matt, what are two or three things that you really like about your job?]
[[Lessman] I love the industry I'm in.]
[I love the whole concept of commercial real estate,]
[and so I like the industry I'm in, I love the people that I work with.]
[I've got great managers who really see my position twofold:]
[one as to support them and help the company make money,]
[but also as a training role to create the pipeline for future account executives.]
[So I love the combination of the two, of being a support role]
[and helping these account executives produce]
[but also receiving training to become the future of the company.]
[[Russell] How would you say the CLP challenges you?]
[[Lessman] One of the things I like about the CLP program]
[is that you're kind of receiving training while at the same time expected to produce]
[which also can be viewed as what's challenging about the program as well]
[because you kind of have dual responsibilities.]
[Learn as much as you can but also this is not just a learning program for you.]
[You also have to provide value to the company and the business]
[and organization that you're with.]
[And then there's also as part of the CLP program different extracurricular groups]
[to help promote the program that you can get involved with.]
[So sometimes you may feel stretched a little thin,]
[but that's good experience to have as being part of a company]
[when you're expected to have a lot of responsibilities.]
[[Russell] Matt, as far as your career development at GE goes,]
[how do you think CLP is going to help in that regard?]
[[Lessman] I know that where I want to be is with an account executive]
[front end originations role, where I'm in front of external customers,]
[trying to help them come up with solutions to their financial problems]
[and their financial issues that they may be looking to solve.]
[This is the pipeline to becoming an account executive ]
[or a salesperson or originator--whatever you want to call it.]
[This ASR/CLP role is a perfect opportunity to learn what you need to learn,]
[observe other account executives, and start to do some of the activities]
[and work that is necessary to become a successful account executive]
[without the pressure of being out there out in the field.]
[Let's face it, if you're in a sales role, it's risk and reward.]
[If you do great, you make a lot of money, and everybody loves you.]
[But if you're not producing, you're not selling,]
[you're not bringing in money for the company,]
[the position could be short-lived.]
[So there's pressure that goes along with the job.]
[The CLP/ASR position is great because you get to dive into it]
[without that immediate pressure of, "Here, hit that number]
[or there's going to be ramifications."]
[I think it's a great opportunity to get your foot in the door,]
[start to become a sales professional, an account executive,]
[and so then when it's time to go out in the field you're well-prepared.]
[[Russell] Well, Matt, that will do it for this edition of Jobs in Pods.]
[I want to thank you very much for your time today. ]
[[Lessman] My pleasure. Thank you as well.]
[[Russell] For more information on careers with GE, visit gecareers.com]
[To hear more jobcasts like this, visit jobsinpods.com,]
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