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Sales & Business Development Intern

Build your sales skills, learn to think like and entrepreneur, and grow with us.

Position: Sales & Business Development Internship Location: Durham / Research Triangle Park, NCSchedule: Flexible, primarily in-personOpportunity: Potential Full-Time Employment + Performance-Based Commissions

This is not a typical sales internship. Are you ambitious, outgoing, competitive, and interested in learning how to build a successful business?

We are looking for an ambitious, energetic person who wants more than an ordinary intern experience. This is an opportunity to gain real-world sales experience, work directly with business leadership, develop an entrepreneurial mindset, and play a meaningful role in growing an established technology company.You do not need previous sales experience. We care more about your initiative, creativity, confidence, resilience, and ability to connect with people. Successful interns who demonstrate the ability to generate new business will have the opportunity to transition into a full-time sales position with significant commission-based earning potential.Your role will be to create new business opportunities by getting Benchmark in front of local business owners and decision-makers. Some days that will mean calling or emailing prospects. Other days it may mean attending an event, visiting businesses around North Carolina, delivering something memorable, asking a customer for an introduction, or developing an entirely new way to get someone’s attention.You will work directly with the owner, receive significant coaching and resources, and have the opportunity to become as valuable to the organization as your performance and ambition allow.Benchmark is a fast-growing Durham-based IT Services company that provides outsourced IT support, cybersecurity, enterprise AI and technology consulting to small and midsized businesses. We have been a part of the community for decades and are on a mission to support our local community.

What you will do• Reach business owners and decision-makers through calls, emails, networking, referrals, and in-person outreach.• Spend time in the community visiting businesses, attending events, and developing local relationships.• Work with our owners, sales coaches, and marketing partners to test and improve our outreach.• Learn how to conduct discovery meetings and identify business and technology needs.• Qualify prospective clients and schedule discovery meetings.• Maintain accurate records of every prospect, interaction, follow-up, and outcome in our CRM.• Consistently complete required follow-up activities and meet weekly and quarterly targets.

What we are looking for• Strong interpersonal skills and the confidence to approach people you have never met.• A genuine desire to learn how businesses operate and grow.• A record of succeeding in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment such as hospitality, food service, retail, fundraising, or another service business.• High personal energy, optimism, and competitiveness.• Creativity and resourcefulness when the obvious approach is not working.• Knowing when to work smart to get the results• Excellent follow-through and personal accountability.• Motivated by receiving direct coaching, practicing new skills, and being measured against clear goals.• Be working on a college degree or equivalent combination of education, work experience, and demonstrated initiative.• A college student or recent graduate interested in sales, business, marketing, or entrepreneurship.

You will be especially successful here if• You have considered starting or running a business of your own one day.• You naturally take ownership instead of waiting to be told what to do.• You enjoy meeting business owners and learning how their companies work.• You have succeeded in a restaurant, hotel, retail, or other demanding customer-service environment• You want your compensation and responsibilities to grow based on what you accomplish

What you will learnThis internship is designed to teach you skills that will be valuable whether you pursue a career in sales, business leadership, or start your own company. You will work directly with the owner and learn how a growing small business generates leads, sells services, manages client relationships, measures performance, and makes decisions.You’ll get hands-on experience and receive access to:• Experienced sales coaches who work specifically within the technology-services industry.• A leading marketing agency that is directly involved in our growth strategy.• Sales training, technology, data, campaigns, and other professional resources.• Direct exposure to business owners throughout the community.• Practical coaching on sales, leadership, communication, business strategy, and entrepreneurship.You will build skills and relationships that could otherwise take years, and tens of thousands of dollars, to develop independently.

Where this role can leadWe expect the role to evolve based on the person's performance, interests, and the company's needs. Successfully demonstrating the ability to generate new business lead to the opportunity to transition into a full-time sales position with significant commission-based earning potential.

Why Benchmark Network Solutions?This is an opportunity to play an important role in a small, growing company where your work will be visible and respected. With over 30 years of experience, we help businesses across North Carolina improve productivity, protect their data, and leverage technology to grow. You will not be one of hundreds of sales representatives. Every opportunity you create matters, and the entire team will understand the role you played in creating it because sales are what our company grow.We're a small, entrepreneurial team with big ambitions. You'll experience firsthand how a growing business finds customers, builds relationships, wins deals, and scales.

Our responsibility is to give you the coaching, tools, feedback, and opportunities needed to succeed. Your responsibility is to bring the effort, creativity, discipline, and determination.