Written by Rebeca Piccardo

The cool thing about working in sales is that there’s a lot of opportunity across industries — as long as you’re willing to learn. Take Nick Tryforos, for example.  

He was working for a paint manufacturer before he took a leap into the telecom industry with Cox, focusing on selling high-tech products for Cox Business.

“This is my first telecom job period,” he said. “I had zero experience across the board on everything when I got here and have progressively learned everything.”

Three years in, Nick’s career is thriving as a client solutions executive, where he gets to bring in new business and work with an existing client base.  

Nick said that getting up to speed on Cox’s products and services is an ongoing journey, but it’s all possible thanks to the support and resources available to him.

“You don’t need to be a 100% expert on everything,” he said. “This has been the best job as far as setting you up for success; every other sales job I’ve had has been more of a ‘do it yourself.’”

Here, Nick talks more about his career journey and his experience getting into cloud sales at Cox.

Perseverance and a willingness to learn

Nick had always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and work in sales. But he faced a tough job market when he graduated college.  

He signed up for a management training program that turned into a 10-year career at Hertz. He was a branch manager by the time he left to work in sales at the paint manufacturer a friend referred him to.

Nick’s experience in paint manufacturing, where there’s a steep learning curve, served him well during his training at Cox.

“Learning very difficult products helped me with being able to learn a lot about telecom and all the different aspects of cloud services,” he said.

From cable customer to Cox employee

Nick was familiar with Cox, but he hadn’t considered job opportunities at the company until a conversation with his cable guy piqued his interest.

“I was chatting with one of the one of the techs who came out to my house, and he was telling me all that Cox does,” Nick said.

Nick applied for a position and submitted his profile to Cox. Out of the blue one day, he got a call from a recruiter.

And the timing couldn’t have been better. He’d just found out that his paint company would be dealing with an extreme shortage of materials because of the pandemic.

“I kid you not, I was sitting in the car, stewing about what was going on with my job,” he said. “And I got a phone call from a recruiter at Cox, and it was the perfect timing.”  

A supportive environment

Unlike other sales jobs where you’re on your own after training, Nick has the backing of a sales engineer and cloud consultant to go into deep dives with clients alongside him.

“I’m not the most technical person,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot, but when it comes down to me versus the IT guy in a one-on-one conversation, my engineer has a better chance of knowing than me.”

He also appreciates the variety of resources at his disposal, from email campaign templates that make it easy to keep in touch with clients to research tools that help him go above and beyond. He’s also been able to establish connections with other technical experts he can reach out to for support.

“Some techs know the ins and outs of specific products more than anyone,” he said. “When I meet somebody, I find out what they do and how we might be able to work together down the road.”

The sky is the limit in cloud sales

Even though it’s been three years since Nick started working at Cox, he’s constantly discovering new products and services he can offer clients to prospects, including managed cloud services and Cox private networks.

“Cox has so many different things we can sell,” he said. “It seems like every day I’m reading about something new that we have.”

With the launch of new products, Nick has made it a habit to revisit his client list.

“With our evolving products, there’s always something we can send out to our clients to say, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know this about Cox,’” he said. “It gives you gives you a reason to follow up.”

Interested in a new sales career? Explore our job openings and join the Cox Talent Community today!

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