Intern as Public Relations Personnel Journal, Essay Example

My responsibility as a Public Relations Personnel involved attending to the need of contacting and meeting with prospect clients for Sun Capital, a financial assistance company. The time I have spent with the company under the said position taught me so much about dealing with people and communicating fully about the possibilities of increasing clients’ trust towards the company and its capability to help them through providing them with ample information about the program we are offering. To note, I shall present in this journal some of the most important aspects of business ethics and skills that I have learned from my internship.

About Sun Capital

First to consider is the reputation and recognizable name of the company I have had the chance to work for. Sun Capital is a financial assistance company that started in October 2010. It is basically a Wall Street firm that specifically focuses on commodity features. One of the primary objectives of the company is basically focused on increasing the financial stability of their investors. Through the utilization of proper education, the company hopes to create a connection that would provide the clients a sense of understanding about the most efficient ways by which they could invest their money and at most earn from it as much as possible.

The provision of proper education starts with the distinctive assessment of the goals of the investors. Knowing what they want and what they expect from their investments provide Sun Capital agents a vision on what particular program of the company would likely fit their needs. The consistency of the process by which the organization tries to create a defensive protection on the investments of their clients establishes their role in protecting whatever capital their clients have. As the assessment of their clients’ goals become vivid to the agents, the Sun Capital representatives provide workable provisions that could help their clients see the different possibilities of both securing their funds and extending the chances of even earning from such capital investments.

To be able to further strengthen the process by which they assist their clients, Sun Capital works closely with Penson World Wide, a notable investment company that provides almost the same services as Sun capital but has larger yielded funds to support the investment programs of the company. This allows Sun Capital to offer an established source of trust that no other Futures Commodities Merchant actually achieved before. Since the company is promoted as a client-centred organization, the administrators made sure that their clients would be served 24/7 hence providing them the information that they need at their most convenient time. To further strengthen this promise of client-centred service, the company establishes an online portal that is able to be accessed by prospected clients anytime of the day. Through the website, the clients could get the latest information and the in depth understanding on how the company’s programs work for the best benefits that they could enjoy as members of the organization’s clientele. This CRM or Customer Relations Management System does increase the competence of company as they deal with the clients’ demands and expectations and also define their reputation in the face of tight competition in the industry of investments.

To make sure that their clients are secured along with their investments, Sun Capital provides a distinctive program that does not only support the capital earnings of their clients during the hay days of earning, but also during the instances of financial crisis in the international trading market. To support such instances, the company has also established remarkable projects that stand as their founding ground during unlikely situations. The said projects include the Hedge Fund Project and the Money Show 2012 Las Vegas Project.

The Learning Curve

As it has been mentioned earlier, I have been given the chance to help the clients understand the position of Sun Capital when assisting them benefit from the real worth of the capital money they are to use as investments saved and secured in the company. Since there are other investment companies in the country, some of good reputation and some of those that are not of good, I had to make sure that my clients understand on which ground Sun Capital actually stands at. Establishing a reputation that the organization would best benefit from would also increase the respect and trust that the client has for the system of financial assistance that it offers. My first days of handling such a responsibility in the organization were not that easy. I could say that I had my ups and downs, times of achievements and times of relative failures. I even remember how often I would disappoint myself just because of not being able to reach my own goal of closing a deal with a prospective client. Nevertheless, gaining good advice and support from my supervisors allowed me the chance to stay positive and mark my learning points and use them as a stepping stone towards my next approach to talking to another hopeful client.

I have realized that in the process of creating a responsive reaction from my listeners, I should first be able to establish a good ground for communication. I specifically define my condition to be somewhat in the position of either making or breaking the name of the company and the hope of the client to make a decision on whether or not to invest in the organization’s program of financial assistance. Relatively, this perception made my position crucial especially in the case of establishing a more refined process of indicative development on my part as an individual and as a professional all at the same time. Prompting myself to become more effective in the tasks that I am expected to complete, I tried to impose different ways of communicating to the clients depending on what particular kinds of attitudes they have.

Respectively, the assessment period that the company provides as a protocol for those who are assigned to attend to the clients’ needs provide a distinctive information regarding this matter. Knowing what the clients want and expect from me and the company as a whole, I am able to create a plan that would be able to respond to such conditions. Seeing their reactions on each program I present them with, I am able to assume what best fits their conditions and their desires as investors of the organization. After knowing the results of the assessment period, I then begin to lead the clients towards understanding the education that they need to incur especially in relation to the choices and options they have in connection with the investment procedures they could likely embrace. Giving them both the pros and cons of each program, I tend to make sure that the clients see the worth of each investment portfolio in relation to their finances and their personal situation.

Dealing with Ethical Issues

The issue on how public relations personnel like me tend to create a reputation for our organization’s established name in front of the clients is a matter that has a crucial role in our responsibilities to the company and the clients as well. Shall we present all the good stuffs only and not the bad or at least the downside of the situation? Would that be a sense of lying to the clients? Every marketing agent usually divulges in the hope of gaining the attention of the clients through imposing on the benefit of the products or services and less on the possible disadvantages that they have. Using the power of persuasion and at times even exaggeration, marketing agents get the attention of most clients through promises that are even over the capabilities of the companies that they are promoting.

For Sun Capital, the business culture is different. To make sure that the ethical responsibilities of the organization stays intact, the company remains rooted on information and education directed to the understanding of the clients. It is most important for Sun Capital to empower and at some point influence the decisions of their clients through the utilization of accurate information presented to them at the point of orientation. Consequently, the company hopes that through this, the organization would remain far from being labelled as one of the other investment companies that promise so much but do not deliver as expected. Establishing this ethical condition on the part of promoting the programs of the company is expected to create a convincing condition towards the client as they realize that Sun Capital is focused on the good results for their clients.

Company’s Use of Technology

Utilizing modern technology to the company’s best advantage has provided Sun Capital with the chance to create a responsive connection to its clients all over the globe. Not only did was Sun Capital able to open a portal of information over the internet, but it was also able to create a distinctive reputation that it has a client-centred culture of service. Having a website that caters to the information needs of the clients and a portal of direct communication with prospective investors gives Sun Capital an edge to create and close deals with clients online or offline. Relatively, extending the manners by which they reach out to the public makes it easier for the target clientele to realize the company’s existence and worth in the industry of investments.

Facing the many points of competitive aspects in the modern industry of international and local investment companies, I could say that Sun Capital has established a strong foundation that made it easier for the organization to make a name in the industry. Relatively, it is with this consideration that the organization remains strongly connected to the different options of continuously serving the needs of the public they hope to serve. Through the use of continues research and reestablishment of new programs that support their mission and objective, Sun Capital remains strongly rooted in their path of defining the real value of investment not only for the benefit of their organization’s capital growth but also that of their client’s valuable capital funds directed towards worthy programs of investments.

Overall Reaction and Reflection

Overall, my internship in Sun Capital has provided me a chance to realize the real worth of promotion and how strongly related it is to establishing a good name that stands as the foundation of a good reputation for a company especially related to investments development. Relatively, I have learned too that effective communication directs a person to gaining the attention and respect of clients who are willing to invest in the future for the sake of securing their lives and that of the ones they love.

References

Seib, Patrick and Fitzpatrick, Kathy. (1995) Public Relations Ethics. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace and Company.

Friedman, Marsha. (2009) Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business. North Carolina: Warren Publishing, Inc.

Center, Allen H. and Jackson, Patrick, “Public Relations Practices,” 5th ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, N.J., 1995, pp. 14–15.