As Commissioner of Commercial Relations of the STAR Management Week you will be the salesperson of the project. With your fellow commercial, you will supply the project with all financial input and resources needed to fund the project. While doing so, you will bring the needs and wants of both the students and companies together. The function of commercial is for those who know how to sell the project and its activities , requiring a pro-active mindset, strong communication skills, out-of-the-box thinking, and knowing how to close the deal.

Will YOU be the next to:

-         Creating and executing an acquisition strategy
-          Value and sell the project from a commercial perspective
-          Meet the recruiters of multinationals at the negotiation table
-          Convince these companies to participate
-          Bring students and companies together for future employment
-          Sign three digit contracts

Fabian Dekker, Commissioner of commercial relations STAR Management Week 2011

Being the commercial of the STAR Management Week was an enriching experience, due to the great variety of challenging and aspects I was responsible for. The main target was to raise sufficient money to finance the project, by selling products (services) to organizations. 

What were my responsibilities in the time frame April – November?

Together with my partner-commercial Bart-Jan and the rest of the committee, we first decided on the portfolio of products that we wanted to offer: multiple advertisement opportunities and various concepts to have students meet companies. Then, we created a huge list with companies of which we felt would be our target group. 

The next step, which was the most time-consuming of the entire process, was contacting all these companies to inform (convince) them about our format. Having a good story ready to make recruiters interested, often resulted in the opportunity to have face-to-face appointments, which enabled you to see some very cool offices of well known companies. 

In the end, over 50 companies committed to cooperate with us, and signed a contract (This means that in 4 months time, we drank 50 bottles of champs). Whereas we were very keen on meeting our obligations, we experiences that organizations did not really care. Fortunately, in the end we got everything in time and the event was a great success.

Besides the commercial process, I also felt that everyone of the committee is responsible for the team and everyone should be motivated to help each other. For example, I was being asked to give my feedback on an invitation to mrs. Jinek. And vice versa, we got great help from all team members when the deadlines of the acquisition period came closer (still thank you a lot for that guys!).

Why was it worth it to give up 8 months of your life to go to this process?

90% of this answer concerns my personal development on organizational, social and commercial aspects. Undergoing the process is enriches your life so extensively, that I would advice everyone to consider organizing the STAR Management Week.