Starting with Scapegoat

I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better introduction to Jamescape than starting with Scapegoat, our annual joint company conference. Before I’d even begun my day-to-day work, I was already meeting everyone through workshops, team activities and the Lightning Rounds. It made those first-day nerves disappear pretty quickly.

I really enjoyed the Lightning Rounds because they let everyone show a bit of their personality through three-minute talks presented to the whole company. My presentation was called “We Are the Yoncés”, and I spoke about how Beyoncé’s confidence has always inspired me and why I think confidence often comes from doing the things you’re genuinely passionate about. It was something a bit different, but everyone was really engaged, and listening to everyone else’s presentations made me feel like I got to know the team before we had even started working together.

Working in sales

Once Scapegoat was over, it was time to get started with my internship. This was my first experience working in sales, so there was a lot to learn, but I was lucky to work closely with Zack throughout the internship. He was always happy to answer questions, explain why we were doing things a certain way and give me the confidence to try things for myself.

My goal was mainly sales outreach for Jamescape's Disability Confident consulting services, where they work with organisations to become more inclusive to their disabled staff through the UK government's Disability Confident accreditation scheme. Before I started, the team hadn't done much outreach, so I stepped into a blank canvas and I got to help develop the sales strategy with the team.

During the internship I got involved in a range of different tasks. I researched organisations, built lead lists, managed parts of the Disability Confident database, and reached out to company owners, directors and other senior decision-makers. I also learnt how to qualify leads, deal with objections and understand what makes a conversation valuable rather than just trying to make a sale.

Personal growth beyond work

One of the things I appreciated most about my internship was that I wasn’t just given a list of tasks to complete. I was encouraged to think about how things could be improved and share my own ideas. A project I really enjoyed was creating a lead scoring system in Notion. The idea was to rank leads based on buying signals so the team could quickly identify which organisations were likely to be the strongest opportunities. It was rewarding to build something that combined my university knowledge with a real business problem, and seeing it work gave me a real confidence boost.

Every week I felt like I was improving, whether that was becoming more confident speaking to people, organising information more effectively or understanding how sales strategy works behind the scenes.

Over the course of my placement, I reached out to more than 75 organisations, helped book prospective clients onto sales calls and successfully sold to one new paying client. While I’m proud of those achievements, what I’ll take away the most is how much I’ve grown in confidence.

It wasn’t all work either. Getting to know everyone in the office made the experience even better, and celebrating James’ birthday with the team was another highlight that made me feel included from the very beginning.

Closing off

I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Jamescape and Harker (our partner company) for making my first sales internship such a positive experience. A special thank you to Zack Walker for all of his guidance and support throughout my placement, and to James Barber for giving me the opportunity. I’d also like to thank the University of Liverpool Careers and Employability team for supporting this internship through their funded Liverpool Interns scheme. This experience has taught me so much, not just about sales and business development, but also about confidence, communication and believing in my own ideas. I’m really grateful for everything I learnt over the summer, and I hope I’ll have the chance to work with the team again in the future.