This week, Joe, Chico, Jose and I took "El Curso de Ventas" (Sales Course). The course is for people who want to become vendors for one of our brands. It covers Bimbo's vision, values, and ideals, and how the vendors can satisfy our customers and consumers needs. There is a handbook that covers the "theory" and, in the back of the room, there is a mach Tienda where we did application. I thought the course was well organized and well taught. Our instructor, Ceasar, really knows his stuff. He kept us engaged with a lot of group exercises and "role playing". Some of it was pretty fun. I think some of our vendors at BBU could benefit from a similar course (good luck trying to get an IO to take the course though....)
The course is taught completely in Spanish. Even though I can't understand everything, I can follow along and grasp the main ideas. However, it is tough to contribute without being able to clearly communicate. I feel like I have so much to offer and I just can't get it across. Some of the group exercises left me a little frustrated. One thing I did learn though: humor is a universal language. I must have cried 3 times because I was laughing so hard. Everyone else was laughing as well. Also, without speaking good Spanish, I can still make people laugh. During some of the "role playing" I had people going. I guess what's funny is funny.....
As most of you know, there was an earthquake on Tuesday in Mexico. The center was in Acapulco, which is about 3 hours from Mexico City. The quake registered a 7.4 magnitude, the strongest since 1986, the year I was born (I know, I know, I am that ground breaking. Mexico can feel the presence of greatness. haha)!! It is the craziest feeling ever. We were sitting in class and all of a sudden I felt a slight sway. I thought someone was shaking the table. Then someone noticed other objects in the room shaking. We had to evacuate the building immediately. When we went out side, all the trucks were moving back and forth, the doors to the depot were shaking, and you could still feel this strange swaying even though you were standing still. It was actually kind of a cool feeling. Luckily we were all safe. Thanks for every ones concern!!
Thursday was our test, which counts as 60% of your grade. Even though I studied, I was still kind of nervous. I know the test didn't count against me in any way but I always want to do my best and I really wanted to pass. It was two pages, front and back, 18 questions. I am pretty sure I killed it (we never got our actually grades). There were some things that I was unsure of but the majority of the test I know I did well on. If it was in English I would have got 100% for sure.
One of the gentlemen taking the course, who already had a strike against him because he showed up late one day, brought a "cheat sheet". Cesar caught him and he was immediately kicked out. He said something along the lines of "I don't play those games". He was the only one who didn't pass the course. I know it's cliche, but when you cheat, you're only cheating your self. This guy blew his opportunity to work for Bimbo and will not get another one. Goes to show, cheaters will not make it very far in life.
After we took the test on Thursday, our class took a tour of the Marinela plant. The plant has 12 lines, 84 mixers, makes over 20 different products, and has 650 different packages. At this plant we make Gansitos, which is a VERY popular product here in Mexico. It's like a Twinky with vanilla and strawberry on top, covered in chocolate. It is SUPER sweet (I am not the biggest fan). This plant produces 72,000 Gansitos an hour, 24/7!!!! I am not even going to do the math on that one. And that is only one plant too!! (I would have taken pictures but we weren't allowed. I guess I wasn't suppose to take pictures in the Bimbo plant either..... oooopppps)
On Friday was the lesson on the Hand Held. This may have been the most frustrating day I have had so far in Mexico. Learning the Hand Held in English would be hard enough, but trying to learn it in Spanish was like learning two different languages at the same time. They might as well have been teaching me how to do sign language in German. The whole day, everyone had a HH and we did a "mach route". We went through each store and he had us do examples of different scenarios, then print out our tickets. I lost the instructor very early on and just could not catch up. Actually I ended up being two stores ahead of the rest of the class, however that happened?? Without putting the whole class on hold and taking away from the people who actually need the course, I did my best to forge ahead.
Even though class on Friday was tough for me, it ended on a great note. We all passed and got our diplomas!! It definitely turned my day around. Cesar had Joe, Jose, Chico and I help pass out the Diplomas. Everyone was in good spirits. After we all received our diplomas, there was a lot of "congratulations" and hugs. We took a group photo and everyone wanted to take pictures with the "Americans". I feel like us being in the class made an impression on them that they won't forget. Likewise, I met a lot of great people in the class. Everyone here is so gracious and friendly. Some of us exchanged information and I am definitely going to try to keep in touch with them. It was quite a rewarding experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment