A concrete foundation for a new career

Christina Blair is a graduate of NSCC’s Professional Sales course at Truro Campus. She’s currently working for Casey Concrete as a Sales Representative, focusing on their masonry and hardscaping products.

The 18-week Professional Sales certificate helps students gain an understanding of sales and marketing, while also boosting their communication and selling skills. Christina says the opportunities to practise real world skills and scenarios were a huge confidence boost, and as a mother, she appreciated the program flexibility and blend of online and in-person classes.

Q&A With Christina Blair

Q. What do you do?
A: I’m working with Casey Concrete in sales. I did my work placement with them in April and got hired on seasonally after that.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your work?
A: I like helping people and meeting them. I like getting to see their designs and ideas and figuring out how we can make it work for them.

Q. What made you decide to take the Professional Sales Program?
A: I liked that it was a short course. I was thinking of doing real estate and I thought I would take the Professional Sales course to help me with that. But after taking [the Professional Sales course], I realized real estate wasn’t exactly right for me.

Q: What was one of the most interesting things you learned?
A: I learned so much! I learned about different types of people and how they evaluate the buying process in different ways, whether it’s facts or statistics or emotions. For example, with someone who’s really logical, I’d show how easy our products are to set up yourself – “You don’t need to hire a landscaper, you can do it yourself.” I take them down to the yard to show them how durable the product is. I show examples of how other clients have used them.

Q. How are you using what you’ve learned in the program in your day-to-day work?
A: I can see a sale from beginning to end now. I talk with people to determine their needs and their budget and how they want to go about things. I make follow up calls to make sure everything is still okay, that delivery went okay and that there aren’t issues.
I learned how to communicate well with different types of customer perspectives of how they see products and value. The program really taught me to understand how everyone is different and what’s important to me might not be important to another person.

Q. What’s something you wouldn’t have been able to do without taking the program?
A: The whole sales process and all the steps. Approaching it, figuring out the customer’s needs and wants, and how to close the sale. We practised it so much in the program, so I felt really good about it. It helped build my confidence.

Q: Who do you think would benefit from the program?
A: Anyone who wants to do sales – whether it’s real estate or car sales or whatever. I think anybody who is outgoing and willing to get out there and meet people would benefit.

Q. Would you recommend Professional Sales to others?
A: Definitely. I thought it was a really good course. Melanie, [the instructor], made it a lot of fun.
I really appreciated the flexibility of it. As I mom, I could still work since classes were in the evenings, but they were done by 8pm! The mix of online and in-person classes meant I could do what I needed to do during the day and then come home and do my classes. It was easy to fit it into my lifestyle.
You have nothing to lose from trying it!

Learn more

For more information on NSCC's Professional Sales course, contact:
Karen Gillespie, Academic Chair
902-896-3542 or