AGEC Student Spends Summer Combining Animal Health Knowledge and Sales

Zeb Davis (Senior; Agribusiness Management; Reynolds, IN) spent this past summer as a Food Animal Sales Intern Representative for Elance Animal Health. Stationed in the Quad Cities, Zeb had many responsibilities aimed at driving Elanco’s business forward through the growth of product sales. The product that he was selling was not that of a typical sales internship in the agriculture industry, where we normally think of farm inputs. Zeb was selling newly launched vaccines to both veterinarians and producers. Having grown up raising livestock, Zeb was able to leverage his past experience to better connect with his customers and build a relationship with them. 

Going into the summer, Zeb had three main focuses: promotion, customer relationships, and product trials. Through these areas he was able to experience his favorite part of the internship, which he said was, “delivering value to customers and helping their business succeed.” He was also able to learn many skills through this internship experience. Some specific skills were building and maintaining customer relations, value added selling, how to think about business in a strategic manner, time management, and the components of product development. Overall, Zeb believes that this summer was an amazing experience for him to have before going into his senior year.